Suggestions for essay topics to use when you're writing about Little Women. Search all of SparkNotes Search. Suggestions. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. A Streetcar Named Desire Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde The Catcher in the Rye The Handmaid's Tale Little Women" is a graphic externalization of a woman's dilemma between duty to family and her personal growth. This kind of dilemma is unusual and condemned in the 19th century, certainly a novelty when Alcott's readers first encountered it in her works, because the status of women at that time was just beginning to gain acceptance Apr 27, · “Little Women” by Louisa Alcott Literature Analysis Essay Introduction. The “little women” reveals the life of four sisters, their father, March and mother, who live in England. Feminist Perspective. The American novelist gives her story of the family which consists of
Term Paper: Little Women, Louisa May Alcott | 9 pages, Words:
docx · Level: College Senior · Topic: Literature. Download the perfectly formatted MS Word file! Women's Roles Social Class and Women's Roles in a White Heron Literature is a reflection of the society in which it is produced.
By examining the themes, attitudes and…. Pages: 5 words · Type: Term Paper · Style: APA · Bibliography Sources: 1. All Rights Reserved. SAMPLE EXCERPT. Alcott was a struggling spirit in struggling times. She waged a war with poverty as her nation burned in a Civil War. She had unqualified dedication to her family and desire to rid it of poverty. She did everything from teaching to sewing and working as hired domestic servant.
It was at 16 that she tried writing, all with the end-view of earning enough for her family to alleviate its poverty. Inher first poem was published under the pen name, little women essay, Flora Fairfield, and this brought her much honor and confidence along with the money. She became known for her pieces, showing the 19th century domestic life, which enticed and entertained young and old readers then and now.
Her literary works were accepted by both publishers and the reading public because of her credible characterization and a simple but entertaining style of writing. She worked briefly as a nurse to soldiers of the American Civil War induring which she contracted typhoid fever within just little women essay month of service.
She never completely recovered from the illness. She recorded her experience as a nurse in popular "Hospitl Sketches," published in Her first novel was entitled "Moods," published inand considered "immortal" by her critics. It sold very well and encouragingly, little women essay.
She then traveled in Europe with a rich invalid. Later, she was offered the editorship of Merry's Museum, an American journal for little women essay literature, which she accepted and became its chief contributor. Download full paper NOW! Term Paper on Little Women, Louisa May Alcott's Assignment Through her works, Alcott advocated feminism, political equality and the dignity of work, little women essay.
Critics and other readers readily recognized her feminist and psychosexual themes, little women essay, which jibed with the call of American social reformers of her time, such as Susan B.
Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Alcott's was one of the voices that responded to that call for political equality and suffrage for women, which she endorsed, although she did not join the women's rights movement itself. Although her successful works centered on individual women's right to recognition as a power and the woman's liberation from domestic servility, readers regarded them with mixed feelings, little women essay. A few thought they were moralistic and even weak plots and characterization, but most considered them provoking and definitely American classics.
In her private world where she struggled against poverty and the sterility of domestic chores, little women essay, Alcott advocated a duality: she wrestled against women's domestic role as subordinates and idealized that role at the same little women essay. Because Alcott never married, her works are seen by many as an expression of her fight against the tyranny of the marital state towards women. Yet she says something else in her extremely popular novel, when she writes: "a woman's happiest kingdom is her home, her highest honor the art of ruling it not as a queen, but a wise wife and mother.
Little Women" is a graphic externalization of a woman's dilemma between duty to family and her personal growth. This kind of dilemma is unusual and condemned in the 19th century, certainly a novelty when Alcott's readers first encountered it in her works, because the status of women at that time was just beginning to gain acceptance.
The novel questions the validity of gender stereotypes in either sex. Jo as much as Alcott herself refuses to marry, but wants to work, earn and sustain the family. It is little women essay taking the place of the family's breadwinner, the father, or taking over what he is unable to supply, which during her time, was confined to men.
Jo is also unable to fit the world of tradition little women essay going to a party with a burn mark and not possessing social grace, courtesy and attractiveness. Social grace, after all, little women essay, was the key attraction of desirable people then. And when Jo refuses marriage to Laurie, she refuses to be crowned with the highest regard for marriage and motherhood, states which Alcott herself praises in writing in her novels.
Alcott and her father did not really see eye-to-eye, although they shared a common devotion towards the family, little women essay. Alcott was outspoken, strong-willed and independents, and her father regarded these traits as un-desirable, mean and even evil.
He wanted her to be like her mother who was docile and subordinated to him, but Alcott took after him, instead. In her most little women essay novel, little women essay, Alcott, in fact, heavily emphasized the dignity and necessity for productive work and despised the worthlessness and wastefulness of dressing up, refinement, artifice and manipulation.
In Jo's eyes, work was, in fact, sacred, in that it expresses inner goodness and creativity through productivity. Although she repulsed her father's hardness and Puritan attitude, little women essay, Alcott actually endorsed both indirectly or little women essay. One other way in which Alcott fought her own battle for women was by being genuinely herself.
She contrasts Jo with decorated girls like Annie Morfat and Sally Gardiner. Transcendentalism teaches that people should attend more to their inner spiritual selves than to outward and worldly existence. In "Little Women," Alcott expresses this belief in Meg and Amy's struggles against vanity, which they gradually overcome. Amy, who is won't to luxury, little women essay rich Fred Vaughn's offer down, little women essay, because she does not love him. The same is true of Meg who marries a poor man out of love, little women essay.
Although different in personalities, the March daughters manage to be true to themselves despite painful sacrifices, little women essay. In the end, they return to their modest New England home, even if they all have the opportunities to have exchanged it for a mansion.
This seems to set Americans apart from Europeans, little women essay whom they descended, in that while Little women essay preferred comfortable, rich living, Americans did not mind living modestly, as long as they achieved and deserved what they labored for.
It is also to be noted that Alcott uses certain symbols to heighten her message in the novel. Umbrellas are one such symbol used by men to protect women from in-clemencies of the outside world.
Jo gets mad at Mr. Brooke's umbrella, which signifies taking Meg into himself and out of the family. Burning is another symbol used by Alcott, which appears to refer to little women essay passion of writing, anger and genius. Jo wears a party dress with a burn mark on the back, representing her resistance to conventional women's role in society. Then Amy burns Jo's manuscripts in wrath over Jo's refusal to take her to a play. And Jo also burns her sensationalist writings after Professor Bhaer criticizes her style.
The fire seems to finally gut her former personality that gives way to another at the end, little women essay. Alcott's portrayal of 19th-century domestic life is outdated, but she will always be remembered for her courageous and realistic expression of the maturing adolescent. Her "Little Women" significantly infused sensitive portrayals of this kind into the ordinary and formal types of juvenile literature offered in her time.
Bibliography Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. com Microsoft Encarta ® Online Encyclopedia accessed Microsoft Corporation Schafer, Nancy Imelda. Life and Works of Louisa May Alcott. Camden County Free Library. htm [END OF PREVIEW]. READ MORE. Two Ordering Options:?
Related Term Papers: Women's Concerns Term Paper … Women's Roles Social Class and Women's Roles in a White Heron Literature is a reflection of the society in which it is produced. How to Cite "Little Women, Louisa May Alcott" Term Paper in a Bibliography: APA Style Little Women, Louisa May Alcott. Chicago Style "Little Women, Louisa May Alcott. March 13, Accessed May 19, Listen to our radio ad!
Phone: Text super fast : Code: Save TEXT: Give us a try. You won't be disappointed! Best in the business since ! Click here and use discount code Save
Comparing Every Version of Little Women
, time: 24:43Little Women: Suggested Essay Topics | SparkNotes
Little Women Critique She must merely describe life as it actually was. Louisa May Alcott () wrote Little Women at the request of her publishers, even though she was not very enthused about writing a book for girls. This book is a primary The second book, Century of Analytical Essay Sample on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. In the novel Little Women, Louisa May Alcott tells the story of four sisters growing up with their father away at war, a mother (do they say much about the mother) and having to learn the responsibilities of domestic chores. Each sister is portrayed as having a different artistic talent and all but one have a talent acceptable for women at that time Apr 27, · “Little Women” by Louisa Alcott Literature Analysis Essay Introduction. The “little women” reveals the life of four sisters, their father, March and mother, who live in England. Feminist Perspective. The American novelist gives her story of the family which consists of
No comments:
Post a Comment