Journal Entry Quarter 3: 3

          The dreams of the women in Herland parallel the societal idea of the American Dream. While each individual has their own American Dream, unique to that person, there is also the concept of the American Dream as a general goal for all of the nation. Striving for success, achieving whatever level of happiness each person is satisfied with, perhaps even the concept of never being fully satisfies, all come together to form the communal American Dream, around which the individual develop their own. The women of Herland are similar in their communal goal. They want to create a society for their daughters that is as perfect as possible. They are in constant pursuit of knowledge. They study the three male scientists that the story follows with eagerness. Their American Dream consists of a land of happy, healthy women whose daily lives are not overburdened but not idle, whose daughters will know only a society founded upon the values of Motherhood.

          The women seem even to lay personal desires aside for the communal dream. here they differ from the vast majority of Americans. The concept of the general American Dream relies on the pursuit of the individual dreams. The society portrayed in Herland seems almost void of personal ambition, or at least the dreams of each woman are so centered around protecting the values of Motherhood and the lives of her daughters or her sisters daughters that there is no distinguishable difference between individual pursuits and societal goals. Therefore, even in a novel where the setting is filled with a people who all push towards the same, united goal, there is the concept of the American Dream, adapted to reflect the authors story.