Nothing Is Impossible To A Determined Woman Summary

“Nothing is Impossible to a Determined Woman”

Looking back into the 1800s the role of women was very simple, they took care of the children, the house and the husband. They cooked, cleaned, sewed and taught the girls how to be a good wife and mother one day. Once women were married that was their life, they could not own any property and if they did they would have to give it to their husband. However, if you were unmarried; you could own property, sue people or in fact even be sued. If you were not married a very popular occupation during this time was to be a Civil War nurse. The free African Americans served as cooks, laundry women and cleaned the hospitals. Women had a pretty strenuous life back then, they did everything except make the

In a lot of ways the books went against the culture of this time period, how Jo was a tomboy and didn’t want to be in the eye of society and act like they wanted her to. However, there were many ways that it did relate to the culture to the 19th century. One of the main themes was family, and with that was wanting the girls to marry off and start a family of their own. Marmee (Mrs. March) teaches them that they should have a loving husband and family because that is the greatest joy a woman could have. Marmee would have discussions with the girls about how they need to provide for their husbands and their duties to their husbands and children. This relates to the way that women were in the beginning of the 1800s. On the other side; Jo shows more of the rebellion against the culture she grew up in, she was a writer trying to gain her independence and support her family. She grew up in a family where everyone was well educated, opinionated, accomplished girls who were treated with great respect in their homes. The limitations set on them just because they were girls, were constantly and strongly expressed by Jo. She wanted to be able to do as the boys do; run, skate, ride and go on

Amy and you changed places in my heart, that’s all. I think it was meant to be so, and would have come about naturally, if I had waited, as you tried to make me; but I never could be patient, and so I got a heartache. I was a boy then, headstrong and violent; and it took a hard lesson to show me my mistake. For it was one, Jo, as you said, and I found it out, after making a fool of myself…”

- Laurie to Jo 406

The book in general relates to the time period in which it was written, it shows all the gender inequalities and how each character dealt with that. She shows the adversities that each person had to overcome during the time of the Civil War. One of her quotes that I think really sums up this book is, “I am not afraid of the storms, for I am learning how to sail my ships.” To me this means that in the book she was not afraid to be different, to like things that the boys did even though it was not acceptable. She did what she wanted because she was growing as a person. She was a determined woman and put her mind to the impossible and accomplished it. Alcott, used a lot of the influences of her family in this book, which I think is a really great thing. One of the main things in this book is the idea of family, she takes the influences of her family and emphasizes and plays them into the story. She is not only a strong woman with great influences, but also a strong