Jane Addams: Embodiment Of Humanism

Jane Addams was a famous reformer, social activist, feminist, pacifist andhumanist in American history. She devoted herself to the cause of reform and peace,and not only got great achievements, but also suffered heavy frustration. In her life,Jane Addams mainly established Hull-House and participated in and led the peacemovement. Through the study of her main practice, my intention in this paper is toexplore the humanism which embodied in the practice of Addams and was also herpursuit for a long time.Early in her life, Jane Addams learned about the problem of poor. When Addamsexperienced a puzzled period of 7 years, she chose the road—living with the poor inthe slum. The establishment of Hull-House provided various human concern, servicefor the convenience of the people and help for the disadvantaged groups, such asjuvenile and children, immigrants, women and labors and so on. Through these ways,Hull-House received the attention and recognition of society and people. After manyyears, Hull-House got great development and achievements. Addams also became theheroine of American, and she had good fame in the U.S.A.In order to let more people get profit and become happy, Jane Addams took partin city politics and national politics, and therefore pushed the cause of social reformfurthermore.After the outbreak of the First World War, Jane Addams turned to participate andlead the peace movement. From that time on, Addams did her best for the realizationof world peace. During this period, she suffered lots of difficulties and frustration, andeven lived alone. But Jane Addams finally received approval and appreciation ofsociety again.The practice of Jane Addams was a response of social history and reality,meanwhile they reflected humanist spirit and the pursuit of humanist ideal. There are some limitations for Jane Addams and the humanism itself. However, we could notdeny Addams and her spirit. Instead, we want to show a real Jane Addams to thereaders and present clearly the preciousness of this humanist spirit. Since nothing isperfect.