Little Women by Louisa May Alcott centers around the March family, which consists of Mrs.
March, and her daughters, Amy, Beth, Meg, and Jo. Their father was away, fighting in the Civil War. At the time, society’s traditional values were still around, and that meant young adults usually could not marry without the approval of their family, especially women. Furthermore, it was taboo for girls to “defy their role” and “be boyish”. Throughout the novel, they grow personally and learn that material wealth is not everything. In the first few chapters, they learn to donate to others, even though they were poor themselves. They were rewarded for their kindness by a wealthy man named Mr. Lawrence, who had a son named Laurie. Part two of the novel takes place during the time when the girls reached adulthood. Mr. March returns home from the war and Laurie is almost done with school, meaning he will soon have time to spend with the girls. Eventually, Amy meets up with him in France and the two fall in love with each other. The story ends with the whole family happy, except for Beth, who unfortunately passed away after Jo decided to give Beth a chance to win Laurie’s affections by turning him down.
Society was and still is more inclined to favor males over females as they believe that the former is superior. For centuries, women couldn’t even do something as simple as leave the house, or go work without receiving criticism. They were expected to stay at home, watch the children, and do chores. Throughout the novel we can see the presence of gender bias and how women were expected to have very little freedom. Even Mrs. March, whose beliefs were radical for the time, still thought that getting married was the most important thing in a woman’s life, and that she should only marry with approval from her family. That often just meant that the family would just pick a groom and nobody could argue with that. We can see that events in the novel were heavily influenced by laws and traditions from the Victorian Era, where women were not allowed to do the same things as men. It was taboo for them to leave home and work, and they couldn’t choose whom they married, which often got in the way of true love. Gender stereotypes and bias have been around so long that they can be present when we are not aware of it.
Poverty is often associated with selfishness, envy, and jealousy towards the wealthy and affluent. Many believe that poor people only want to hoard what little personal belongings and money they have and resent everybody else, but that is far from the truth. The March family was poor in terms of material belongings, but they had lots of love and the sisters even spent their money to get their mother a Christmas gift. However, when asked by Mrs. March to donate their breakfast to an even poorer family, they readily did so. Although the March family may not have much wealth, they were rich in love, and they believed that personal growth mattered more. The March family may not have much money, but they certainly were rich in terms of family connections. The sisters readily sacrificed their tiny savings just to make their mother happy for Christmas. Most families choose money over love, but the Marches were a rare exception. Although it may be counterintuitive to some people to think that poor people are kind and selfless, it is true most of the time.
Marriage should be based on true love, not based on wealth or possessions and parents shouldn’t have such a decisive say in who marries whom. In the past young adults didn’t have much of a choice when selecting who they married, basically their family decided who they could marry. We can see that the March family believed that young adults cannot or should not marry on their own, and they were selective in their choices for partners. For example, Aunt March said that if Meg married Mr. Brooke, who was poor, then “she wouldn’t see a penny of the inheritance”. Although the March family were good people, some of their extended family members were more money-oriented. They felt that the March sisters had a duty to “make a rich match”, as Aunt March put it. When The March sisters wanted to get married, their family members had a lot of influence, but they ultimately made their decisions for themselves. It didn’t come as a surprise that Aunt March was suspicious of Mr Brooke thinking that he only wanted to marry Meg because she had wealthy relations. Family has always played a big role in marriage and sometimes, that has obstructed true love.
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott tells about the March family, a family of four teenage girls, a mother(Mrs. March), and a father who is away from home fighting in the Civil War. Throughout the novel, the sisters learn that they should act selflessly towards others. As they grow up, they go through many different adventures and lessons. In the end of the novel, the whole family is happy and exchanges blessings. From reading this novel, we can learn several themes. First, males are no more superior than females and societal stereotypes are usually wrong. Second, anybody can be kind, generous, and selfless no matter if they are wealthy or poor, as shown by the March family when they gave their entire breakfast to a family of German immigrants that was worse off. Third and finally, marriage should be based on true love, not wealth or family relations, a;though some people, notably Aunt March, seem to disregard that. This novel is both entertaining and also teaches many morals to readers.
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