The Little Women is a coming-of-age book written by Louisa Alocott. This book starts off before Christmas, with a family of Marches. Their father has gone to war, leaving them pretty poor. There are four sisters in this story, Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy. All of the sisters in the book have very unique personalities in the story, which leads to the decisions they make in the future. Meg, the oldest of the sisters, dreams to marry a wealthy man and a large family. Jo on the other hand is the tomboyish and most independent in the story. She loves to write and becomes a writer. Beth is shy, gentle, and has much caring for animals. Amy is the most spoiled of all the sisters. She likes fashion and art. Throughout this novel, the sisters face a lot of trouble, which includes poverty, illnesses, women rights, and death of Beth. Even though they have faced many problems, the sisters also have had some good luck in this novel, including their father coming back. Each of the women in this book try to find their own way of success and happiness depending on their situations and personalities.
Stereotypes is a common idea that humans have created, as they try to represent living or non-human objects. There are many stereotypes and expectations that humans have made in order to be a perfect woman. These characteristics include being elegant, polite, caring, and compassionate. In the book Little Women, Jo doesn’t support this thinking and acts as a tomboy. People thought that women should be the ones taking care of the children. Jo disagrees and thinks that they should be interdependent. She wanted someone that would respect her. Jo eventually becomes a writer, the job that she wanted. Amy, on the other hand, is completely different from Jo. Amy wanted someone who was wealthy so she could rely on him. The author, Louisa Alocott had no bias when she was writing this book. She thought every choice from the characters were just to choices they made for their life. Both of the characters in this book find their own protection and the ways that make them feel safer. There are many women in this world that think differently from each other, and stand out in their own ways.
Families in poverty have their own ways of staying rich. In the Little Womenthe March family was poor in money but rich in their spirit. They had great spirits in life. Many times, in life, they had hard trouble, resulting in them having a rich amount of spirit. This spirit is important in hardships, such as to one the March family was facing. Spirit can change everything no matter how much money someone has. Even though the March family was in such a condition, they still helped out the others that were poorer and had a more difficult time. This shows the March’s family wholesomeness and spirit. Also, even though the lives of the rich people were pleasant, the March family never was jealous of them. This also shows that they know that they are living a wholesome life they wanted. The March family was proud of their conditions because of their spirit. There are many things that the March family is grateful for, like having their whole family. Even in poverty, families could find good spirits and happiness.
Marriage is an important step of life and many choices are chosen by the character’s personalities. In the Little Women, the girls all chose the people they married in their life, depending on their personalities. Aunt March’s choice is if the person has a lot of money. People used to choose who to marry based on how much money the person has, without even thinking about the person’s personality. Mrs. March cared about the emotion of the person. The husband had to have a good emotion. This is very important. You do not want anyone in your family that makes the family have a bad emotion. Because of Jo’s independent personality, she wants some that would help her and understand her personality. Jo didn’t want to be the one that would always care for her child, and wanted to be a writer and pursue her dreams. She rejected Laurie because Laurie looked down at her as a writer, she didn’t care about the money. Amy accepted Laurie because just like Aunt March, she cared about money. Marriage is mainly chosen by people’s preferences.
Religion has an effect on anyone no matter if the person believes in a certain religion. The book The Pilgrim's Progress, is a famous Christian allegory written by John Buyan. This book has inspired many authors in the world, including the author of Little Women, Louisa Alocott. The start of the book mentions the Pilgrim's Progress a lot. In fact, the first chapter entirely is named after the Pilgrim's Progress. The sisters act as the character’s in the Pilgrim's Progress when they were younger, with the bags and climbing up the stairs. This shows how much Louisa Alocott got inspired by the book. Many writers can be affected by famous novels. Novels can inspire authors to make great books and create masterpieces. There are many books that were inspired by this religious book, like, The Pilgrim’s Regress. Books and religion can have great effects in life. Religions can help develop an outline and main ideas of stories. Writers always affect and influence each other.
The Little Women is a very realistic story that includes many things about life as a woman. This book discusses a lot about life, for example, stereotypes for women, poverty, marriage, and the effects of religion. There are a lot of stereotypes of a perfect woman, like, elegant, caring, and compassionate. These stereotypes come up in the Little Women a lot. Jo, stands out a lot because she doesn’t like the stereotypes. In fact she acts tomboyish. Poverty never stopped the March family; they were poor in money, but rich in spirit. This is fortunate to any family because it helps families go through hard times of life. The sisters chose their choices of who to marry in this book by their characteristics and personality. Jo, for example, wants someone that would help her out and understand her. This was very important to her because of her personality and how she would feel comfortable in the family. The effects of religion are unimaginable. The book Pilgrim's Progress affected many generations of authors such as Charles Dickens and Louisa Alocott. The Little Women is a masterpiece and has many things in it that are very relatable.
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