polite smile and tip of the hat. As time went on, some people began to worry as it appeared that the US was entering a war.
Though, they kept protesting Wilson during the war time. This attempt provoked public anger against suffragettes into
riot. People were around when officers came to arrest many suffragettes including Alice Paul.
4.3.6 Hunger Strike
Alice and other women characters are told being sentenced in charge of obstructing traffic during picketing the White House. They preferred going prison
to paying fine. This is the step Alice must spend to achieve suffrage rights. In prison she endured from pain and torture. However, it could not fail her struggle.
She still kept fighting inside the prison by refusing to eat like what so called by hunger strike,
Dr. White : You refuse to eat. Can you tell me why? Alice
: The hunger strike was a tradition in old Ireland and justice is done. You starve yourself on someones doorstep until
restitution is made...
Dr. White : It doesnt sound like a very effective method. Alice
: A stinking corpse on your doorstep? What will the neighbors say?
01:34:55,222 - 01:35:21,210 It gives impression that she was ready to die in her struggle. She had
nothing to eat and committed on hunger strike, a method of protest she learnt from Ireland, Britain. She used the threat of her own death until the goal for justice
achieved. In response to the hunger strike, prison doctors put Alice Paul in a psychopathic ward. They threatened to transfer her to an insane asylum. Still, she
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.”
