Comparison Of Alexis De Tocqueville And Frances Trollope

Throughout Democracy in America and Domestic Manners of the Americans, Alexis De Tocqueville and Frances Trollope analyze perspectives on the status of women, the pursuit of wealth, and American’s assertions of social equality. Both authors share viewpoints in the sense that American women are different than European yet contrast in the aspect of their independence. Tocqueville and Trollope share many opinions on what impact the pursuit of wealth has throughout the nation. As for social equality, Tocqueville focuses on the equity shared in gender, while Trollope examines the idea of advantage and opportunity found in a lower social-economic class. Women in America often rely on the guidance of the nation’s religion, which often raises the argument of autonomy versus confinement. Alexis de Tocqueville argues that despite Americans being religious people, they do not rely on religion to protect the virtues of a women, unless human strength is no longer …show more content…
Alexis De Tocqueville starts off his argument by emphasizing that the “love of comfort has become the dominant national feature” (Democracy in America, 131.) Tocqueville compares the low and high social-economic classes to provide an example of the value of money. The poor spend their lives dreaming about living comfortably and envying those who have the privilege of doing so. As for the rich, they constantly live in fear of losing their comfortability and are truly never satisfied with their economical achievements. Both live a never-ending cycle of striving for a pleasure that may be unattainable or in some cases non-sufficient. Alexis states that the love of material prosperity has people constantly changing their course, because of the fear to miss a shortcut to happiness (132). In other words, Americans portray themselves as tragic, simply for always wanting more regardless of how much is already