Herland

Throughout the essay the writer employs a variety of pronouns in a genuine attempt to persuade the audience and draw them in. As an example, he successfully includes

In a world usually depicted as a “man’s world,” a woman’s role is not considered as significant and thus can be repressed. It is why a feminist perspective or criticism comes into place, especially in literature. By definition, a feminist criticism consist of scrutinizing “the ways in which literature reinforces the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women.” (Tyson) In Gail Godwins’s A Sorrowful Woman, the leading female character is concentrated in her efforts in distancing from her structured lifestyle. A feminist would critic Godwins story by as the female character is in pursuit of peace and happiness and wants to escape from the role she has been implanted. The critic would concentrate on the experience woman

The author agrees with the idea of women as victims through the characterisation of women in the short story. The women are portrayed as helpless to the torment inflicted upon them by the boy in the story. This positions readers to feel sympathy for the women but also think of the world outside the text in which women are also seen as inferior to men. “Each season provided him new ways of frightening the little girls who sat in front of him or behind him”. This statement shows that the boy’s primary target were the girls who sat next to him. This supports the tradition idea of women as the victims and compels readers to see that the women in the text are treated more or less the same as the women in the outside world. Characterisation has been used by the author to reinforce the traditional idea of women as the helpless victims.

Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.

The male characters are shown as strong and assertive. Jeff, representing an average male, takes charge of his girlfriend on multiple accounts. Like most males, he does not seem to differ from the traditional role of acting dominant in the presence of the opposite sex. As seen, when he commands the attention and care of his nurse as soon as she walks through the door; or how he easily controls his girlfriend’s emotions during dinner. Each time causing his masculinity to be known.

In Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls,” there is a time line in a young girl’s life when she leaves childhood and its freedoms behind to become a woman. The story depicts hardships in which the protagonist and her younger brother, Laird, experience in order to find their own rite of passage. The main character, who is nameless, faces difficulties and implications on her way to womanhood because of gender stereotyping. Initially, she tries to prevent her initiation into womanhood by resisting her parent’s efforts to make her more “lady-like”. The story ends with the girl socially positioned and accepted as a girl, which she accepts with some unease.

The men who “invade” Herland are filled with typical boyish fantasies of wild maidens in waiting. Their ideals about this place are comical. They expect to find a collection of wild women that are waiting to be tamed by men. They imagine a world of pure, untainted women. They cannot imagine a civilized world without the presence of men. “ They would fight amongst themselves, Women always do. We mustn’t look for any sort of order and organization” (10). This statement was made by Terry, as we come to know him. He is the most “manly” of the three men. His ideals are the most Victorian and chauvinistic. Jeff’s ideas about the women they would come to find were different than Terry’s. He believed that women should be sheltered and protected without a care in the world. “Jeff idealized women in the most Southern style. He was full of chivalry and sentiment, and all that. And he was a good boy; he lived up to his ideals” (11). Van’s ideals about their venture were the most practical in nature. He looked over every detail and tried to make the most sensible explanations. I believe he was the voice of reason. We could also compare the three to Freud’s Id (Terry), Ego (Jeff), and Superego (Van). But that is another paper.

Gilman's female narrator, who either chose not to fight this tradition or was unable to do so, loses her sanity at the hands of an oppressive male-dominated American society. The narrator feels certain that the

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in her except, Politics and Warfare, compares warfare to politics, while using a passionate tone to integrate the oppression of women in here writing. Gilman uses Ethos and pathos to communicate in order to defend women's rights against a patriarchal society in both politics and war. Gilman uses ethos in order to, make a case about political inequality in a patricahal society. Gilman states, “the ultimatum with which they oppose the demand for political equality, “women cannot fight, therefore cannot vote””, and also says “We have but a partial civilization, heavily modified to sex- the male sex.”

The narrative voice is intriguing when choosing a literacy technique when applied to Alice Munro 's “Boys and Girls” and Jamaica Kincaid 's “Girl” because it highlights the significance of women 's role during the 1960 's. The story of Boys and Girls is in third person narration describing an eleven- year old girl. This story was published in 1968, a time when the second wave of feminism movement occurred. This story gives information about adult gender roles. The setting of the story is in Canada during the winter. The narrator is living in a fox- breeding farm which correlates to the North American culture in the 1960 's. In the 1960 's, women were stereotyped as happy wives and mothers. In contrast, the society believed that unmarried

In American literature, women have been portrayed differently depending on the sex and race of the author. Henry James who wrote “Daisy Miller: A Study” (1878) characterized Daisy as a tramp who breaks expatriate social customs. When a male writes about a woman, she is sometimes portrayed as a troublemaker and often up to no good. On the other hand, in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892), the narrator is trapped by domestic life. When a woman writes about women, they are usually victims of their society. James and Gilman each seem to display women differently because of their own sex, personal preferences, and experiences.

Literature changes as current events change and as the structure of society begins to shift. American feminist literature started to become prevalent during the Victorian era, or around the latter part of the 19th century. This is the time when the first wave of feminism in the United States hit. The Seneca Falls Convention - the first women’s rights convention - and the emergence of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony’s American Equal Rights Association in the middle of the 19th century are among some of the noteable events that sparked this movement in literature. Women across America were inspired by the changing of the times, and that is reflected in many American female authors’ writings.

Men’s roles towards society is considered to be mainly working and providing income for a family unit. Furthermore, that’s usually how most men view themselves to be in appointment. However, Herland is described to be a society based solely on women. Charlotte Perkins Gilman dictates this “utopia” to dispute customary ideas of gender performance. The author implies that performing a level of femininity will both “imply mental and physical weakness.” For example, Terry O. Nicholson, one of the main characters in the book, is described to be a “man’s man.” He persistently shows disbelief toward this society without men and wants these women to be subordinate compared to him. He also can’t believe how well the roads are built with no existence of men.

During the long history of science fiction, one of the most common themes is the utopia. Many feminists used utopia to convey their ideas. Two of these stories, Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and "When It Changed" by Joanna Russ portray feminist utopias in different ways. Herland shows a society lacking men, and makes this seem positive, while "When It Changed" shows an all-female society that mirrors a world with men. Through their respective stories, the authors are saying that women should be considered equal to men. Gilman points out that women should be accepted because they can survive on their own, while Russ suggests that women can be as

All characters in the novel are living in a man’s world; nevertheless, the author has tried to change this world by the help of her characters. She shows a myriad of opportunities and different paths of life that woman can take, and more importantly she does not show a perfect world, where women get everything they want, she shows a world where woman do make mistakes, but at the same time they are the ones that pay for these mistakes and correct them.