34 pages • 1 hour read
The Road to Character
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Chapter 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Summoned Self”
The life and achievements of Frances Perkins, who turned her back on her society upbringing to become a workers’ rights advocate and sociologist in the wake of witnessing the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, serve as the framework for Brooks’ discussion of momentous life events serving as a galvanizing force toward discovering one’s purpose. Perkins dedicated her life to the service of others less fortunate than herself, from her mentally ill husband and daughter to the working classes of the United States. She turned her back on wealth, comfort, and her self-indulgent nature to improve conditions for the poor and working classes throughout the nation. She felt a call to duty from outside herself, and she fulfilled it, often at great personal cost.
Chapter 2 Analysis
In this chapter, the persistent theme of humility manifests in Perkins’ case study as an all-consuming call to action. Rather than see another devastating fire caused by dangerous work conditions affect the lives of New York’s poor, specifically women and immigrants, she shed the genteel expectations of her social class to throw herself headlong into vocal, tireless, often abrasive activism that led to her eventually serving as the US Secretary of Labor under Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
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By David Brooks
