Gilman's+Herland

A Look at __Herland__ by C.P.G.  __Herland__, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a novel based on the adventure of three best friends: Vandyke Jennings, Terry Nicholson, and Jeff Margrave. These three men decide to explore an uncharted territory about which they have heard strange rumors. The strange rumors turned out to be true, once they discover an isolated area in the mountains where only women live. Once they explore this separated world, they have more of an experience than they counted on. Although the three men think it is odd to only have women in a society, it turns out that the society of Herland is less destructive and violate compared to our own society. In the beginning of the novel, __Herland__, Jennings, Nicholson, and Margrave decide to cultivate a plateau that was hidden from the outer world. It is hard for the men to believe the rumors of it being an all female society when they see roads that are carefully laid and the cultivation of the forests. Nicholson takes these impressive, technological skills as work that men would have done. Surprisingly, the three men come across three young women, who then leads them to a gathering of women. The women are self-confident, strong, and unafraid of the men. These traits captivated the men, which lead to their being drugged unconscious and captured. The men become impatient with being captured and try to escape from Herland. Nicholson decides to take the risk of escaping, until he runs into three young women who engage him in a conversation. The women of __Herland__ use their witty talents to recapture Nicholson. Once recaptured, the three men learn from the women the history behind Herland. The women tell them that Herland has been without men for 2,000 years because wars, natural disasters, and the small population of women have caused their society to be hidden on a mountainous plateau. The women of Herland are capable of solo reproduction and their children are all females. That is why there only women in Herland. After hearing the history behind Herland, the men became interested in the women’s society and culture. As the men learn about the woman’s culture, the women became interested in learning about the outside world. The men assume, at first, that their society would be better than the woman’s society in Herland, until they see the women shocked upon learning about the poverty, disease, exploitation, and violence of the modern world. The women are most shocked to learn that abortion is used regularly in the modern world, since they see it as a violence towards motherhood itself. The women’s overall reaction causes the men to be embarrassed about their own society. Nicholson still feels like men are superior to women and does not see any good characteristics of Herland's society; However, the women of Herland are concerned about the lack of men in their society. At the end of the book, the men develop different relationships with the three women who recapture them and some of the relationships are friendly but not loving.

This expedition that the three men undertook has brought them to a whole new sense of culture, language, and a realization of problems in their own society. They have a much better appreciation of women and what they can do without men. Through the women’s interaction with the men, they became to appreciate their own society by learning the disasters and injustices of the modern world. __Herland__ teaches the reader to not judge a society based upon the sex of its citizens, but instead how they treat each other.

By: Julian West