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 must 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
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