Herland
1. While Gilman attempts to show a utopian female society, how does her own limitations as a female writer in a masculine dominated world show up throughout the text and what does this imply?
The Female Man
2. In a comparison of Jeannine and Jael, in what ways can it be argued that they both are incredibly similar, even though they come off on complete opposite ends of the spectrum?
(I am having trouble wording this question, but what I mean to say is, even though Jeannine seems weak and Jael strong, how are they actually both very similar? Is Jael just as weak or unable to break away from men as Jeannine and in what ways?).
Please be completely honest with your advice! I won't be offended!
Hello, here are some suggestions:
ReplyDeleteAlthough I think Question 1 is significant and analytical, I don't think it is clear, and perhaps a little too specific. It would be hard to write with certainty that what Gilman writes alludes to her own limitations as a female writer in a masculine world because Herland concentrates on the difficulty of being a woman in general, and all of the stereotypes that men have, and still do believe. I think instead if you just take out writer, and turn your question into "how does the author's limitation as a woman in a male dominated world, reflect her writing in regards to the characters ideologies?", may be a little more specific.
I really like Question 2, I like how you state it better at the bottom, "In the Female Man, Jeannine's character appears weak, while Jael, on the other hand, has a strong character, how can these characters who seem different at the surface, actually are quite similar" I may have made that more complicated lol, but I think this question is analytical, clear, and significant. Maybe just be a little more specific in regards to "weak" and "strong", just add "strong character" or "strong personality".
While I understand what Lauren is saying, I like where you are going with question 1. You would be able to talk about some of the feminine stereotypes we discussed in class.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2 also has a lot of possibility and I like how you would be comparing two seemingly dissimilar characters.
Personally, I like Question 2 better, but they both have potential! I think with question number two, seeing as this is a shorter paper, you could compare two specific scenes in which these two characters are both similar and different. I think it may be hard to fill 3 or 4 pages with feminine stereotypes but that's just my opinion :) Hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteHey I like your questions
ReplyDelete#1 Its a very interesting question, but I think you may have a difficult time trying to answer this question in your paper
2. I think this is a great question to write your paper on...So i would go for number two :)
Hi Megan,
ReplyDeleteLike many of your peers, I'm intrigued by your second question, and I think it has great potential. I think you can further develop the question's yield (as you are starting to do already). *If* Jeannine and Jael are surprisingly similar in terms of their dependence on (the existence of? the idea of?) men, what does this similarity tell us about the text's vision of the nature of gender dystopias?