Hunger Strike Alice Struggle for Equal Suffrage

refused to eat. Afraid that she might die, they force fed her. Fortunately, with the help of woman officer, she could tell the other prisoners what was happened with her through a piece of paper before the news was successfully brought to mass media. Her imprison condition and the pain during force feeding process are described through her letter bellow, I was put in a strait jacket and taken to the psychopathic ward. I could not see my family or friends. Counsel was denied me. I saw no other prisoners and heard nothing of them. I could see no papers. Today I was force-fed for the third time. I refused to open my mouth. My left nostril, throat and muscles of my neck are very sore. I vomit continuously during the process. 01:48:39,779 - 01:49:08,567 Despite the pain and illness caused by force feeding, Alice refused to end the hunger strike or her fight for the vote. This is also the final struggle for her because this attempt finally resulted public outcry cursing the district officers for the treatment to prisoners and made Alice being hospitalized. Alice‟s story caused anger among American and created more support for the suffrage amendment. Under political pressure, government authorities at last released Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and other suffrage prisoners. Finally, on January 9, 1918, Wilson announced his support for suffrage followed by the House of Representatives. On June 4, 1919, the Senate passed the Amendment. A year later, on August 26, 1920, Tennessee became the 36 th state which ratified the amendment. Those aforementioned evidences explain the efforts that have been done by Alice Paul to get women suffrage becoming a passage in constitutional amendment providing: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the U nited States or by any State on account of sex.” CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGESTIONS In this last chapter, the writer presents the conclusions after conducted the study. It encompasses the main points which cover the whole idea from the previous chapters. Besides, she also provides some suggestions for the readers who want to conduct a research in literature.

5.1 Conclusions

During the film setting time, around early 20 th century, women experienced discriminations in the aspects of social, economy and politics. In social environment, patriarchal society believes that women are inferior compared to men. Women small brained assumption forced them to obey men‟s command for household and children at home. In economical life, for the same reason, only little jobs were opened to them. Lower class women were transferred to factory as laborers with little salary, and higher class women lived miserably dependent on husbands. In politics, suffrage was considered to be the root of the problems since without suffrage, women could not voice their will in government whose policy may influence not only in politics, but also economy and social as well. Although having same goal, there are two terms for suffrage activist; suffragist for moderate and suffragette for militant. Alice Paul owns both characteristics, but suffragette is represented her more. However, no matter what 61 tactics she commits, it will be good since the purpose is to improve women‟s prosperity reflected in society. Aware with the importance of suffrage, Alice Paul persistently struggled for it. There are many efforts that Alice Paul must step on to obtain suffrage. First is by joining NAWSA to hold responsibility in holding parade and lobbying Congress. Slow improvement under NAWSA made Alice established NWP to picket the White House and bring her being imprisoned where she did hunger strike. This regarded as her last attempt since it results public outcry for supporting women suffrage till it finally became a passage in American Constitutional Laws.

5.2 Suggestions

Iron Jawed Angels is well recommended movie to watch. It does not only entertain people, but also gives message about the woman struggle. This study is generally expected to be useful as a reference for readers, especially English Literature students. Those who are interested in feminism approach may conduct similar study toward the movie by looking for other angle to view the work objectively and find the different facts about this work to enhance knowledge and literary criticism. This study is certainly far from excellent. Hopefully in the future, there will be more critical analysis about feminism, woman struggle and the suffrage to enrich knowledge as resource to further research.