Herland Blog 4

     Towards the end of Charlotte Gilman Perkins’ novel Herland, the three men that have travelled to Herland are faced with exile from the society made of entirely women. Van, one of the three men, tries to explain to Ellador his realization that his views have changed since being in Herland. Before his experiences in Herland, Van unconsciously thought of women as a kind of man. He would have described women as attractive, but weaker and not representative of the group as a whole. Whenever Van thought of history and the progress of human achievement before Herland, he’d really been thinking of men and things men had done. He expresses his new understanding as, “When we say men, man, manly, manhood, and all the other masculine-derivatives, we have in the background of our minds a huge vague crowded picture of the world and all its activities. . . . And when we say women, we think female—the sex./But to these women . . . the word woman called up all that big background, so far as they had gone in social development; and the word man meant to them only male—the sex” (Gilman 116-117).

     Whenever Van is confronted by an aspect of Herlandian society that shocks his traditional sensibilities, his study of different cultures helps him to see the advantages of a new and different social arrangement. Van can now see that he’d excluded half of humanity from full membership in the society. The same situation applies in reverse for the women of Herland. In the absence of men, these women have come to think of men as a kind of woman, and to assume that the men of the outside world must be as devoted to reason, cooperation, and children as they are. This assumption, says Van, is partly why Terry’s attempted rape comes as such a shock to the women. Terry’s act was a particularly male kind of violence, directed at another person, not as a person, but as a woman. As they come to understand the outside world, the women of Herland must alter their definition of humanity, just as the men have had to. Gilman shows through Van's recognition that there are positive and negative aspects to the society Van was previously accustomed to and Herland was a way to show the imperfections and ways to change society, not just American, for the better. 

Herland Blog 3

     In Herland, by Charlotte Gilman Perkins, a society of just women that have achieved what no other society has, which is the total elimination of poverty in their community. Van sees that the women's careful planning has brought to them the support of their people by the Earth. The women shaped their lives and compromised so that everyone had enough to eat, and became vegans out of necessity. The Herlanders started projects that would affect the future of the society for hundreds of years. For example, one of the projects took nearly a millennia to be completed. “In the case of one tree, in which they took especial pride, it had originally no fruit at all--that is none humanly edible--yet was so beautiful that they wished to keep it, For nine hundred years they had experimented, and now showed us this particularly lovely graceful tree, with a profuse crop of nutritious seeds” (Gilman 67). This shows that the women of this community cared for nature around them and were able to see the fruit that the Earth could give them.
     Throughout Gilman's book, it is seen that Gilman disagreed with the basics of American society during this time period. The ideas of Herland's foundation were often opposite of the American systems and organization. Gilman has breaks down the stereotypes of American men with the change of the intolerant ideas of the visitors to the solely feminine paradise. Gilman reveals the flaws in the accepted life in America, and indicates that perhaps the world would indeed be a gentler, more successful and flourishing place if women held power over it instead of men. She shows this idea by creating the community that has been able to survive for many, many years without the influence of men in any aspect of their society.

Herland Blog 2

     Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in her book Herland, depicts a community that consists of only women that has succeeded for many years without the requirement of men. In this community of women, Gilman portrays a sense of rationalism among the women and their society. Because Herland is isolated from other communities and the members have an extreme codependence of each other, the people of Herland are willing to put the needs of the community as a whole ahead of one member. Herland’s organization differs from that of a place with government managing business, industry, and economic activity for the people because it is organized more like a family.Every member of this community shares the idea that hard work and sacrifice benefit not just one person but the entire group and reward is shared by all people in the community. Therefore Herland is a rationalized society that is able to work peacefully and also able to reach the most rational decisions about problems inside the community. 

     Perhaps the most striking example of Herland’s rational society is the way the women calmly embrace the population controls needed to keep the population on their isolated plateau. Although many of the women would prefer to have multiple children, they are limited to just one, and some are forbidden to reproduce at all so that bad qualities may be “bred out” of the population. This idea has influence from natural selection, which was and still is a popular scientific theory about the survival of the fittest in society. Van is struck by the simplicity of this solution and by the shared sacrifice required of all of the women to make it work. Van comes to see his own society as simply an collection of individuals, each in competition with the other, and dependent on the oppression of the female half of the population. Gilman argues that disease, crime, war, pollution, and poverty, all unknown in Herland, would be conquered if they were viewed as issues for the whole society to tackle and if society had the power to remake itself along the most rational lines. Gilman uses the rationalistic ideas in Herland as a way to show the men, particularly Van, the cooperation that is found with rational and logical rules.

Herland Blog 1

          Herland, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story of three men that travel and find a land named Herland that consists of only women. The three men are introduced as Van, Jeff, and Terry. Gilman, in her book, challenges the views of men, not only white Americans but other races too. These views are pessimistic to women in general and limit women during the time period to the domestic sphere as opposed to the approved sphere for men, which was the social sphere. Men of the time period most commonly viewed women as inferior to males, which affected every part of their treatment of women. They stereotypically believed that women were just objects that men control and possess. Gilman challenges these views by creating a society of only women that is able to function and prosper without men.
         In chapter 2, the three men first encounter the women of Herland and describe them as women that, "were not young. They were not old. They were not, in the girl sense, beautiful. They were not in the least ferocious. . . I had the funniest feeling of being hopelessly in the wrong that I had so often felt in early youth when my short legs' utmost effort failed to overcome the fact that I was late to school" (Gilman 16-17). In this passage the men, particularly Van, find that these women are considerably different than any others they have encountered before. therefore the men develop, along with previous opinions, separate views about the the women they meet. Van, through his actions and thoughts, is a man that does not particularly discriminate against women, but more rather just goes along with the designated guidelines for men and women of the time to follow. Jeff's perspective is different from Van's about women because he views them not as just possessions but feels romantic and poetic towards them. He believes he can win any woman he wants and have her be "his". But the most dramatic views of the women comes from Terry because of his aggressive and forceful behavior towards women. He sees women as game to be hunted and objects for sexual gratification. He does not think much of women when it comes to being apart of the social world. Gilman uses these three different views about the women of the period and in Herland to represent the different opinions men hold against women all around the world.

Emergency Closing Assignment

      In "The Snake" by Theodore Roethke, he tells of the time he sees and snake on a stone. This snake is described as young, having a thin mouth, and hanging limp on the stone. The snake then turns away and leaves Roethke with a realization that he wants to be like the snake. In this poem, Roethke turns the snake, which is a terrifying creature, into something beautiful and desirable. His connection with the snake and realizing his beauty creates a relationship between Roethke and Nature. 
      This poem could also be Roethke's realization of feelings that he labels as "the snake", which could be what he wants to become. He finds in the snake the "pure" and "sensuous form" he desires to be. Therefore Roethke declares he wishes that he, in his human nature, could be more like this young snake. When Roethke says, "And I may be, some time" the snake, he is expressing his attitude towards becoming what he longs to be. He is expressing his feelings towards the pure and appealing snake in Nature that he sees. 

Second Quarter Blog 4

       In the last part I read in Jack London's Call of the Wild, Buck meets John Thorton, who tries to stop Hal, Charles, and Mercedes when they want to cross the rivier when the ice is melting. After Thorton realizes he can't change their minds he doesn't interject. But when Buck decides he cannot go anymore and refuse to stand up to pull the sled, Buck is beaten by Hal. When Thorton sees the mistreatment of Buck he stands up for Buck and takes Buck from the ropes holding Buck to the sled and decides to keep him. The three continue on and halfway across the river all three fall into the broken ice along with the team of dogs never to be seen again. 

       Thorton helps Buck back to health, which strengths their affection for each other. Buck views thorton as his true master and wants to do anything for him. For example he saves John from a river when believed impossible and moved 1,000 pounds on a sled for 100 yards when Thorton asked him to. Whenever Buck and Thorton are traveling in the woods, Buck finds his "long lost brother" who is another wolf. He finds in the wolf his inner desire to leave civilization and be wild. But his love for Thorton leads him to return to their camp. One day when Buck leaves the camp he comes back and finds indians that killed Thorton. Buck, once he kills the indians for killing Thorton, is now free to follow his call of the wild. In this book, Romantstic ideas are represents by the fights Buck had with temptation: stay with Thornton, or kill things? Be civilized, or be wild? But whenever Thorton dies, Buck is then free to run with the wild dog packs.

Second Quarter Blog 3

Up to now in Jack London's Call of the Wild, Buck has been with three different owners. The first were the men Francois and Perrault, the second being a Scotsman who carries mail, and the third a trio of Hal, Charles, and Mercedes who are first time owners of sled dogs. Now that Buck is in command of his team, he begins to uncover more of his inherited instincts in the wild that he didn't realize before. This idea of Buck becoming more of a dog of leadership and one with nature expresses the connection to the period of Romanticism. The death of one of the teammates, Dave, contributes also to Romanticism in the emotions all the dogs feel with his passing and nature. Dave is shot because of the mistreatment the Scotsman enforces on the dogs, which is going farther and carrying more with less rest and time to recuperate. Dave's death also reminds the reader of the lesson Spitz taught Buck about the law of club and fang. With Buck and the rest of his team being so worn down from the exertion the Scotsman puts on their bodies, they dogs truly want to just rest. But the dog's inner pride about the work they are doing compels them to keep going. This portrayal of the dog's loyalty connects to Romanticism through the way London expresses the dogs emotions, which seem human like. 
The next owners the Buck and his team are sold to are three people who are inexperienced with sled dogs and traveling in the snow. The dogs being completely worn out does not help with these three being inexperienced. Because they do not know how to take care of the dogs, they overfeed them the first few weeks which leads to the dogs starving because there is no food left to eat. Also, the three overpack the sled, which causes the sled to be too heavy to pull. Because the dogs are so exhausted they cannot move the sled, so Hal tries to whip the dogs into pulling the sled but does not work. The overpacking of the sled causes the dogs to become even more tired with the load they carry each day until they eventually either die or stop doing what the three say. The representation of Hal, Charles, and Mercedes by London reflects the idea of the negative side of civilization through their characteristics of vanity, foolishness, stubbornness, and ignorance.