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Little Women Critical Analysis

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Matthew Hubachek ENGL-348-01. Instructor: Hochwender November 27, 2017 “Little Women:” A Pilgrimage of Faith: Annotated Bibliography Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. Roberts Brothers, 1868. Little Women tells the story of the lives March sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. As They, grow up in Plumfield, with their mother during the Civil War. Throughout the course of the novel the sister face meaning hardship, and throughout the novel they must learn to overcome. Some these hardships include; Jo selling her long, beautiful hair so that their mother can go see theor alliing father. While Marmee is gone, Beth contracts scarlet fever and eventually dies of it years later. In the middle of the novel, Meg marries, Jo moves to New York City, and Amy …show more content…

“The House-Band: The Education of Men in Little Women” by Anne Dalke debates Auerbach’s reading of the novel. Auerbach view of feminism in Little Women differs greatly when compared to how Dalke interprets feminism in the novel. Another arctle which paints feminism in positive light is “Reading Little Women: The Many Lives of a Text” by Barbara Sicherman. According to the article, these critical essays both discuss Little Women 's feminism but focus on different aspects of feminism. Likewise, Sicherman discusses how readers learn from characters, and Dalke discusses how the characters themselves learn from the sisters ' faults and experiences. The article also claims that in the first half of the story is about the sisters ' burdens and the struggle to overcome them; the second half shows how the sisters learning from their faults. Article argues that While Alcott does not write a story of strong women who do not have faults, she writes of women who are stronger because they overcome faults. Anne Dalke has been teaching at Bryn Mawr since 1982, and her interest lies in Feminist theories and narrative traditions; revisionary work in the canon of American literatures; the intersections between science and …show more content…

This article reviews the concept of pilgrimage in children’s literature, and how John Bunyan Pilgrims progress is used throughout these texts. “Women writers were intent on shaping contemporary discourse through narrative. Fictional narratives often depict the protagonist 's ethical journey as a pilgrimage.” (Pg.134) According to this argument, children literature functions as mirror from which American culture and ideas is reflected. Anne Lundin is Professor of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also a member of the American Library Association, Children 's Literature Association. Her writing include; Teaching Children 's Literature: A Resource Guide with a Directory of Courses, and Contemporary Religious Ideas. She also is a Contributor to periodicals, including Children 's Literature, Lion and the Unicorn,

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The novel "Little Women " portraits the difficult journey from childhood to adulthood from four teenaged sisters Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy called the March girls, and how they survive growing up in a difficult time highlighting the inferiority of women as compared to men with the ideas explored throughout the novel being women 's strive between familial duty and personal maturation, the menace of gender labeling, and the need of work. As the novel develops it is fascinating that Louisa May Alcott writes "Little Women," reflecting on her own life and many of the experience of growing up during the nineteenth century. Jo 's character is a replication of Alcott herself with her speaking directly through the protagonist. Social expectations played a important role for women with the idea in which you had to marry young and create a new family which Meg does; be submissive and devoted to one’s guardians and own family, that Beth is; focus on one’s art, pleasure, and people, as Amy does at first; and struggle to live both a dedicated family life and a significant accomplished life, as Jo does. Both Beth and Meg obey to society’s expectations of the role that women should play, Amy and Jo at first try to get away from these limitations and grow their uniqueness.

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