Luana Silva
Theodora Dimitrakopoulos
English 101
09/17/09
Spence’s writing
“Freedom is when you are easy in your harness” (Frost pg 1.) Spence use two horses Star and
Spiffy to how easy in our harness we should be. I think they help to make it very clear to understand what
exactly easy we have to be in our harness to actually fell free. They are loved sometimes but they do hard
work. They work hard already knowing they will get a great recompense to the work they are doing. I
agree with what Spence says. Most of the time we staff just to make other people happy or sometimes like
Stat and Spiffy we work hard to receive something for it, not always money, like in the horses’ case, to
receive affect.
Old Jack like the horses is a good example of freedom on a different point view. Instead of being
easy in our harness, with old Jack Spence shows how we should do what makes us feel good, in order to
have freedom. Old Jack would always do what he felt happy doing. He never harmed anyone yet he never
cared about being what others would like him to be. I somewhat agree with Spence about old Jack he is
sure free in his own way.
The horses’ example of freedom and old Jack’s are similar and different at the same time. They
are similar in the way that they are most of the time not viewed as good and simple as we would like it to
be. The horses are easy in their harness, accepting whatever they have in order to be accepted by others in
this case their owners. Old Jack was not easy in his harness, he would whatever he thought was the right
thing to do even if that meant ignore others’ believes and concept about him. Star and Spiffy and old Jack
were strong on their way of acquiring freedom. Old Jack was because he new where his started and
ended. Star and Spiffy used to show how there are many who act just like them also knew where their
freedom started and ended but they would subject themselves to hard working in order acquire freedom of
being loved later.
As the quote “Freedom is when you are easy in your harness” says we get be easy in our harness,
meaning we get follow the rules to be free. Freedom was never said to be without rules. Gerry Spence
used the horses Star and Spiffy as examples in his writing. Like the horses we have to follow rules, work
hard, because we already know that at the end we will see that is some kind of recompense for it. Work
for example: we work because we know we will get our paycheck every week. It does not mean we are
free because we have to work but it is part of our freedom. We limit our freedom to work so we can have
the freedom to get paid and spend our money. Rules are everywhere at school, church, in our family, and
these rules are what make our freedom perfect. “Pure freedom is pure terror” (Spence pg 682) we are not
free of everything in the world because if we were then we would not be free at all. However having some
rules is what really makes us free because we have control of our freedom. We choose to be free of all or
can choose to follow rule and be free when it is convenient.
Gerry Spence wrote Easy in the Harness: The Tyranny of Freedom to express his thinking about
freedom, and together with it to inform the reader of how freedom is far from be reached for those who
still do not know its real meaning. In my opinion his purpose was to open people’s minds to think about
how close we are to be free, but also that depends on us how much freedom we get. Spence was trying to
say that no matter how much we want freedom, we will never reach its perfect state, yet freedom is
perfect when we limit it in some ways. Like old Jack who was free in his own way and the horses similar
to many people nowadays, that were easy in their harness but they feel free.
Finally if I had read Gerry Spence’s Easy in the Harness I would add the example of the horses.
Star and Spiffy is daily people who subject their lives and believes on doing something that is not
pleasant is not wanted but yet leads to freedom. When I say it leads to freedom I do not mean it is pure
freedom it is freedom with limits that is acquired when we control it.