Comparing Louisa Alcott's Use Of Feminism, Grief, And

Louisa Alcott’s Use of Feminism, Grief, and Characterizations in Her Stories

Louisa Alcott uses a variety of themes in her stories, especially in two of them, Rose in Bloom and Under the Lilacs. She uses mostly feminism, grief, and realistic characterizations to portray the story to her audience. Firstly, the use of feminism is used mainly in Rose in Bloom. Rose’s struggle to overcome her cousins’ ridicule of her goals to be a philanthropist is achieved when one of her cousins, Mac, encourages her. According to one critic, “Rose constructs herself in response to outsiders who are not like her, these encounters help her to organize an identity that becomes relatively stable” (Cohoon par. 11). This shows that her goals to be more independent are influenced by people she does not associate with much. Throughout the story, though, she becomes less “unusual” and comes to conform more to the Campbell clan ideal.

One of the characters, Ben, goes through the death of his father in which he loved dearly. He is helped through this tragedy with the support of the neighbor Miss Celia. While recounting his father’s disappearance, Ben is given some encouraging words from Miss Moss, "Cheer up, little master; fathers may vanish and friends die, but I never will desert you."(Ch. IV). When he is given the news of his father’s actual death, the author expresses this by detailing his crying and line of, "You can't, you didn't know him! Oh, daddy! daddy! if I'd only seen you jest once more!" (Ch.10). This is unlike the first book, Rose in Bloom, because it rarely shows grief, only showing Rose’s sadness from her late