December 2017 LSAT Section 2 Question 25

The passage gives evidence that Gilman valued which one of the following as an instrument of social progress in her t...

mayapierce on October 23, 2019

What is the evidence for fiction writing as an effective tool?

Is the only evidence for "fiction writing" as an effective tool for combating social norms the fact that she is a novelist? If so, how would this not be inferior to the evidence that she provides in support of dominating personality trends and their effect on evolutionary gender roles?

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SamA on October 23, 2019

Hello @mayapierce,

Take a look at line 43: "In both her fiction and her social theory she urges women to further social evolution by collectively working toward the reorganization of here society." Gilman used her fiction to spark real-life social change. This is the support that we need to choose B. I didn't find evidence of combative personality traits in the passage.

on October 7, 2021

in the last paragraph it states that "Gilman believed that at one time such arrangements had been necessary for evolution because what she felt were male traits of assertiveness, *combat*, and display were essential or the development of a complex society". I see what you mean by fiction (although I guess it's a little confusing for me to assume that just because she wrote fiction she saw fiction writing as a tool for social progress) but I don't understand how E is wrong (or I guess that B is more right than E since they both seem a bit shaky)

on October 11, 2021

Just want to update that I think I understand this now in case it helps anyone! While Gilman does say that combat is necessary for PAST social progress, B is a better answer because we know she says fiction writing can lead to "further social evolution" which is more synonymous with social progress. So E might have been right if the question had asked what has previously attributed to society and/or didn't mention "progress" specifically. Hope that helps someone, @LSATMax let me know if this is not correct.

mbshapir on February 3 at 09:30PM

I made the same mistake and thought through pretty much the same logic afterword^

Emil-Kunkin on February 6 at 01:43PM

I think that's exactly right, the author seems to suggest G saw combative traits in an unfavorable light.