Philosophy professor and feminist theorist Marilyn Frye compares oppression to a birdcage in her essay entitled Oppression from her collection, Politics of Reality. “Consider a birdcage. If you look very closely at just one wire in the cage, you can't see the other wires. If your conception of what's in front of you is determined by this myopic focus, you might look at that thread, up and down its length, and not be able to understand why a bird wouldn't simply fly around the thread whenever it wanted. go somewhere…” (Frye). He goes on to say that macroscopic vision is needed to understand why the bird isn't going anywhere. This type of understanding is crucial to the study of oppression because it can be difficult to see the big picture when analyzing only one topic or aspect. Oppression has been a factor in our world as much as people. From political and social inequalities based on gender, to those based on race or sexuality, oppression has been a constant element throughout history. From the enslavement of Africans to the killing of 11 million people during the Holocaust, human beings who have wronged no one have had their rights or lives sacrificed for the “benefit” of others. Women were seen as objects possessed by men and homosexuals were compared to terrorists. Oppression comes in many different forms, but can be explained by the same few causes in each different case. The act of oppression can be defended by ignorance, insecurity, and a false sense of entitlement, although it is never justified. In William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Katherine is oppressed as she is forced to marry someone she has just met and silenced in the process. Petruchio, her new husband, tries to tame her and seems to succeed... halfway... she needs to live up to her father's expectations and earn his respect. Throughout history, men have felt they are better than women and entitled to something more. Due to the subjugation of women by men, the female gender has been silenced. Sons follow in their father's footsteps, and people who know it's wrong stay silent for fear of breaking tradition. With a macroscopic view, as Marilyn Frye suggests, it is easy to see how, like a chain reaction, the tradition of oppression survives. Shakespeare, William. The Taming of the Shrew. Ed. Barbara A. Moway and Paul Werstine. New York, Washington Square Press, 1992. Print.2. Marilyn Frye, The Politics of Reality. Trumansburg, NY: The Crossing Press, 1983.3. SparkNotes Editor. “SparkNotes: The Taming of the Shrew.” http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/shrew/ SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Network. 7 February. 2014.