“The Sandman” by ETA Hoffman could easily be read as a satire that rails against meek and docile women. However, when looking at the form of feminism in this story, one finds that the protagonist Nathaniel seems to struggle with an abstract mind, while the women around him are focused on the material world. The women he grew up with, namely his mother and girlfriend Clara, clearly display materialistic principles, leaving Nathaniel alone with his most philosophical thoughts until he is able to project a similar mindset onto the automaton, Olympia. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Essentialism states that men are more attracted to abstract thinking while women, whose unimaginative minds cannot comprehend the abstract, are attracted to materialism. For the purposes of this argument, “material thought” will be defined as Nathaniel's prosaic idea: unimaginative, factual, and devoid of deeper emotion. This definition emerges when Clara writes to her boyfriend and almost diagnoses him with an imbalance, and is promptly ignored and ignored. The letter is described as “sensible,” but it does not satisfy Nathaniel's preference for the mysterious. Meanwhile, the abstract can be described as Nathaniel's poetic idea: mystical and deeper thought. This concept emerges in Nathaniel's reaction to Clara's letter when he tries to "initiate her into the mysteries" by reading her books with much more imagination than she would have been accustomed to. Nathaniel is trying to involve her in something less logical, practical and more imaginative. In other words, he is trying to show Clara the abstract, but she resists him. Nathaniel's penchant for the abstract can be seen in his insistence on his mysticisms. When he tries to explain his idea of ​​"dark powers" to Clara, he begins reading "all sorts of mystical books" to her in an attempt to get her to understand. After being rejected, he writes a dark poem about their relationship and how Coppelius destroys it (Hoffman 10). Rather than seeing Coppelius as something in her mind to conquer, or taking some other practical approach (as an essentialist woman would), she allows her dark imagination to take over her childhood memories. In doing this, think abstractly, as essentialism commands men. The very first material-abstract struggle Nathaniel faced occurred with his mother. When Nathaniel, having been sent to bed early, asked her who Sandman was, her only response was that Sandman was not real (Hoffman 1). Dissatisfied, he turned to his sister's nurse for a much more gruesome story of gouged eyes. Nathaniel, in his abstract thinking, was unable to accept his mother's practical explanation of childhood history and sought the reasoning of a mind that operated more similarly to his own. The mother, meanwhile, has a much more materialistic mindset. Reject information that is not realistic and pragmatic. By neglecting to conform to her son's imagination, the mother fulfills the role of the essentialist woman. Clara is described as a clear-headed, practical and intelligent person. Yet Nathanael ultimately rejects her, claiming that she is “cold, unreceptive” and “prosaic” (Hoffman 9-10). What Clara calls intellect, Nathaniel sees as closed-minded and unacceptable. Clara always searches for the practical explanation, as seen in the letter and again when Nathaniel comes home to her with his stories. She refuses to be convinced of things she cannot feel or experience for herself, and therefore tells herself they don't exist. This pattern can be seen throughout the story, with.