Herland v. Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald and Charlotte Perkins Gilman with their novels, The Great Gatsby and Herland respectively, bring utopian and dystopian societies to the table. The Great Gatsby, a story of the "American dream," shows us a society in which pleasure is the motivation for succeeding. On the other hand, Herland lets the reader see a society based upon succeeding through helping to better society as a whole. The two societies views on how children are reared, women are stereotyped, and society as a whole make for an interesting comparison. "I hope she'll be a fool- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool (Fitzgerald p. 21)." Daisy Buchanan, beautiful, yet shallow; describes the hopes for her infant daughter. Daisy comes from a background where intelligence in women is not valued. In a society depicted in The Great Gatsby, a young girl who is beautiful and has no opinion would make a better wife than a woman who has an opinion. She says, "We heard that you were engaged...we heard it from three people so it must be true (Fitzgerald p. 24)." Daisy shows her true naive way of thinking by generalizing that if three people say something is true then it mus
t be. On the other hand, the Herlanders reared their daughters in a different way. "It is a motherliness dominated society, which absolutely protected all childhood, and gave it the most perfect care and training (Gilman p. 73)." The mothers in Herland care deeply for their daughters in that they have no formal way of education, which in turn does not pressure the children to learn it opens up and broadens their horizon. "The children in this country are its one center and focus" (Gilman p. 60). The women's way of raising children was an unmatched feat. Being the only sex available, the women in Herland were obviously seen as the superior beings. "But there are men somewhere- didn't you see the babies (Gilman p. 15)?" Right off the bat Terry, Jeff, and Vandyck, visitors to the island of Herland, begin to stereotype the women by figuring there must be men because of the fact that women can not reproduce without male sperm. Little do they know the women have found ways around that stage in reproduction. By nature a dog is a more vicious animal than a cat. Thus the same rules apply toward men and women, and a man, rather than a woman, would be more tempted to injure a cat. "...Apparently they do kill cats...there must be men here. Hark (Gilman p.16)! In the dystopian society Jordan Baker, Daisy's friend, is portrayed by Fitzgerald as a masculine figure. One of the first things we find out about this
Some common words found in the essay are:
Daisy Buchanan, Daisy Tom's, Gatsby Herland, Baker Daisy's, Jeff Vandyck, Mother Goddess, Evening Post, Miss Baker, Herland Money, Flies Gilman's, fitzgerald p54, people true, masculine figure,
Approximate Word count = 959
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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