Louisa May Alcott Research Paper

Brock Warren

Dr. Holly Blackford

American Children’s Literature

27 April 2015

Research Proposal Jo March from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women remains one of the most enduringly popular characters in children’s literature among young girls. The wild irony, however, is that Jo is anything but the model of girlhood one typically sees in children’s books. One may easily read Jo as a queer figure—more male-identified than female, and with stronger ties to the women in the novel than the men. What does one make of the ending, though, when Jo has finally married a man and the family is gathered together, with Marmee telling her daughters she could not wish them a greater happiness than their current status? I will argue that here Alcott has written

She argues that children’s texts like Little Women point readers toward domestic values while gothic stories like Behind a Mask convey themes of rebellion. Fetterley views the Jo narrative in Little Women—particularly Jo’s marriage to Bhaer—as Alcott compromising her own values. However, Fetterley believes there is a furtive rebelliousness written between the lines in Little Women and visible only in glimpses. This will help bolster my own argument that Alcott implants clues to suggest Jo’s male identification and that her decision to marry is actually oppressive and does not necessarily mean a “happy

Trites believes that those in Jo’s world influence her profoundly and ultimately lead to her decision to conform to heteronormative expectations. Of particular interest to me is Trites’s account of Jo’s acts of “violence” against herself throughout the text. I will incorporate into my argument that attempts to exorcise or suppress one’s queerness, like the kind Trites describes, are indeed acts of violence. Alcott seems aware, as in her depiction of Marmee, that conforming to oppressive (and unrealistic) social expectations leave one living with unresolved anger and other negative