Essay on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - 816 Words

Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women is an engaging and remarkable â€Å"snapshot† of its time. Written in response to a publisher’s request for a â€Å"girls’ book,† Little Women is a timeless classic of domestic realism, trailing the lives of four sisters from adolescence through early adulthood. The life-like characters and their tales break some of the stereotypes and add to the strength of the plot that embeds the last few years of the Industrial Revolution and social customs and conflicts, such as the Civil War, of the 1800s. Often moralistic and emotional, the novel nonetheless genuinely portrays family life in the mid-nineteenth century United States. The four â€Å"little women† of the March family journey into womanhood, learning difficult lessons†¦show more content†¦Poverty and hardship are the most some of the most noteworthy themes in this novel, projected by symbolism. Flowers play a constant and substantial symbolic role in Little Women and remind us of the class differences between different families – the Laurences are wealthy enough to have their own greenhouse and grow exotic trees and flowers. While in Marches’ case the flowers insinuate poverty, when Amy uses them instead of jewellery to accessorize for a ball (pg. 680) and Meg uses â€Å"lilies of the valley† to embellish herself for her wedding (pg. 436). May Alcott is rarely too subtle in explaining what these flower mean in each situation in her narrators voice. For example, when Laurie is forced to pick smaller, â€Å"daintier† flowers that are lower down, to you, as a reader, this evidently means switching his affections from Jo to Amy – his narrated thoughts make it unambiguous. The novel strongly queries the validity of gender stereotypes, both male and female, through character traits. Jo, at times, does not want to be an orthodox woman. In her dreams and her actions, she shatters typical gender expectations. She is rough and even mildly uses course language. â€Å"I’ll try and be what he (father) loves to call me, â€Å"a little woman,† and not be rough and wild; but do my duty here instead of wanting to be somewhere else.† Says Jo after reading one of her father’s letters, regarding her tomboyish behaviour. Also, she wears a dress with a burn mark and dirty gloves to aShow MoreRelatedLittle Women By Louisa May Alcott1041 Words   |  5 PagesIn her novel Little Women, Louisa May Alcott delves into the social expectations placed on American women in the mid-nineteenth century. Alcott explores the different impacts of these expectations through the experiences of the four March sisters as they transition from childhood to adulthood. As she follows the life of the girls as they struggle to balance the new world of social elegancies with the morals ingrained in them by their mother, Alcott challenges these social expectations and highlightsRead MoreLittle Women, by Louisa May Alcott800 Words   |  4 PagesLittle Women, by Louisa May Alcott, was published in 1868 and follows the lives, loves, and troubles of the four March sisters growing up during the American Civil War.1 The novel is loosely based on childhood experiences Alcott shared with her own sisters, Anna, May, and Elizabeth, who provided the hearts of the novel’s main characters.2 The March sisters illustrate the difficulties of girls growing up in a world that holds certain expectations of the female sex; the story details the journeys theRead MoreLittle Women, By Louisa May Alcott866 Words   |  4 PagesLouisa May Alcott was born and raised in Massachusetts from a financially struggling family, which will soon change due to Louisa’s writing talents. Louisa was homeschooled the majority of her childhood, which sparked her writing career. Many of her life experiences influenced her writing but the main one, that got her started, was her father, Amos Bronson Alcott, a philosopher and teacher. As she grew older, she befriended abolitionists, she soon becomes a part of, which greatly influence her laterRead MoreLittle Women By Louisa May Alcott1680 Words   |  7 PagesLittle Women, a novel written in 1868 also known as the 19th century. Louisa May Alcott, the author of the Little women captu res values of social class and characteristics of the 19th century that are then reflected in the characters in her book. The characters in the book are written about the actual people in Louisa’s family. Little Women has themes such as coming of age, developing self-knowledge, overcoming personal faults, and female independence. The way Louisa wrote Little Women makes allRead More Little Women by Louisa May Alcott1468 Words   |  6 PagesLittle Women by Louisa May Alcott This book is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It in a town in New England in the 1800’s. It about a family and the girls growing up during the 1800’s and the things they have to face. The growing pains that all girls have to go through even now. This was a very sad book at the end when Beth dies. The four main characters are Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth the story centers around the four girls and the life they have during the time they are growing up. MarmeeRead MoreEssay on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott674 Words   |  3 PagesBorn in Germantown, Pennsylvania, Louisa May Alcott is best known for her novel Little Women. She was educated by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margret Fuller, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who were family friends, and also educated by her father. Her novel is always in the top ten of the most-read books next to the Bible. Little Women takes place during the 1860s in Concord, Massachusetts. The story begins with four young girls trying to understand the importance of not being selfish, and it follows the livesRead MoreLittle Women Or Meg By Louisa May Alcott966 Words   |  4 PagesLittle Women or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy by Louisa May Alcott is a coming-of-age story about four girls with all different personalities and different ways of going through the world. Al cott was persuaded by a talented editor from the Roberts Brothers firm to write a story for girls, and while Alcott was hesitant because she was not the largest fan of girls; she began the task. While this piece was originally geared to satisfy younger girls, the piece goes far beyond the point of just being anotherRead MoreThe Value Of Sisterhood In Little Women, By Louisa May Alcott1325 Words   |  6 Pagespriority. Even though the novel Little Women and the poem Goblin Market are different in regards to their primary storyline, genre and writers, they do discuss a similar theme, the value of sisterhood, in a way that helps in the understanding the achievements that sisterhood can orchestrate. Little Women is an 1869 novel written by Louisa May Alcott that majors around four sisters who are living with only their mother as the American Civil War was underway (Alcott 3). The March girls, who are theRead MoreThe Theme Of Family In Little Women By Louisa May Alcott1027 Words   |  5 PagesSarah Percy Wilson Theme- family is most important English 05 October 2017 Classic Novel Analysis In the novel Little Women by: Louisa May Alcott, a common theme is expressed throughout. To the family in this story, each other is the only thing that matters, therefore, displaying the message family is the most important thing you can have in your life. The four sisters, Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy, belong to a very poor family inRead More The Importance of the Family in Louisa May Alcott Little Women864 Words   |  4 Pages Many times people are asked to think about what is important to them. A person may say their home, car, children, material items and some may even say family. In the book Little Women (1868-1869) written by Louisa May Alcott illustrates several family values. The story of the March family starts out during the civil war in New England. The family is left to survive on their own because their father went to protect his country. During the years of life the March children, Margaret (Meg), Josephine