Themes of Little Women

(Before you begin reading this, please be aware that I wrote this for my junior English class. I had to follow a guideline, and I couldn't really say anything that might have offended my English teacher. She was cool and all, and I'm sure she would have understood whatever it was that I was saying, but I still didn't want to risk my grade in that class by saying anything... weird. What I'm trying to say is, if the essay is boring, sorry. I just didn't feel like going back and editing it to add a little spice. I'm leaving it as-is. Also, there are spoilers for the book, so.... Suffer, peasant.)

(Image can be found at https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/march-2020/emlittle-women/em-greta-gerwigs-love-letter-to-the-19th-century-novel Don't sue me.)

“I never wanted to go away, and the hard part now is the leaving you all. I’m not afraid, but it seems as if I should be homesick for you even in heaven.” (Alcott, 481) Similar to what we learn in this quote, there are lessons in Little Women that nobody will forget. The question millions of people are asking is: how did one simple book about the lives of four women end up becoming a great piece of American literature? The answer is the themes.

This novel is famous for approaching ideas that had yet to be traversed in such a daring and transparent style. Little Women focuses on the lives of women, rather than men, which is largely due to the author being female herself and basing the book off her own life. The author, Louisa May Alcott, was an unconventional writer for her way of expressing women as flawed and smart-mouthed rather than using the common stereotype of a woman being seen and not heard. The many themes of this novel can, for the most part, fall under these five categories: the importance of family, coming of age, self-improvement, the evolving roles of women, and poverty.

It is difficult to say which of these themes was deemed most important in the eyes of Alcott, but it is safe to assume that family played a huge role in this book, considering that the book features an entire family as its main characters. As a fellow reader voiced, “Family takes central importance in Little Women.” (Price, “Parenting” 2) The novel begins with the dynamic four sisters. These girls require a description in order to fully understand their family and break down the theme of family. Meg is the eldest daughter of the March family. She values womanhood, propriety, and leadership as the best qualities in herself. Jo is the tom-boyish writer and bookworm who loves to announce exactly what she is thinking in an angry manner. Beth is the shy musician who enjoys spending much of her time indoors away from crowds of people. Last is Amy, the youngest, who is portrayed as the quirky artist who tries very hard to grow up as fast as she can. They look up to their mother, whom they call “Marmee”, and wish for their father to return from fighting in the Civil War. These four girls are put through many trials, and throughout it all, their family sticks together and learns from their mistakes. Although there are other families used as contrasting figures to the main characters in the novel, the lessons learned about family were based around the four girls. As a literary analysis stated, “This will be... a novel about interactions within a family (about the daughter’s relations with one another and with their parents) …" (Evans, 2)

These four sisters are so contrasting in character that the author often created conflicts that were based around how different they were. For example, there was a huge conflict when Amy burned one of Jo’s manuscripts for a slightly petty reason. Jo becomes very upset (as anyone who had their years' worth of writing go up in flames should be) and refuses to forgive Amy until a dramatic event changes her mind. Amy follows Jo to a frozen lake in order to apologize, again. Jo hears her, and only turns around to warn of the thin ice. Jo is too late, as the ice breaks beneath Amy’s feet and she comes close to drowning. Jo becomes wracked with guilt and finally forgives her sister for what she did. This is a classic example of a sibling rivalry. However, Alcott uses such drastic events in order to make her point come across clearly: family should be forgiven. As yet another literary analysis stated, ”... a silver lining exists behind every difficulty because bad experiences usually help teach the girls about the important things in life.” (Price, “American Dream” 1)

Moving away from the theme of family, Louisa May Alcott explores the popular theme of coming of age. This is obvious as the book focuses on four adolescent girls and their journey to adulthood. Knowing this, there isn’t as much to say about coming of age, as this theme is practically a summary of the book, but there is an event that is worth mentioning that highlights this change that everyone faces at some point in their life. This would be Meg’s marriage to John Brooke. This event was the first time in the novel that one of the girls really grew up. This is because Meg matured enough to decide for herself who she wanted to marry and for what reasons. Once she is engaged it takes another three years before “Meg became old enough in her parents’ eyes to marry John Brooke.” (Heginbotham, “Little Women” 3) Meg didn’t have to decide for herself when she was ready to leave the nest; her entire family helped her in the process, which shows that everyone is a little different when it comes to growing up.

A personal favorite theme that is addressed throughout this book is self-improvement. This is a theme everyone should hold close in their own lives. Nobody is perfect, which is a message Alcott gives when she describes Meg as “rather vain” and Jo as someone that “reminded one of a colt.” (Alcott, 7) The author purposely introduced her characters as flawed so that, throughout the book, they could learn and work towards the goal of perfection, even if they never reached it. As another reader of Little Women says, “In contrast to those of other children’s books of the period, Alcott’s protagonists are not unblemished or flat characters but young women with recognizable personality flaws.” (Thompson, 1)

It is interesting to think that before Alcott’s writing, many children's books had boring, impossible characters. They were impossible because if someone is designed to be perfect, they can never improve and therefore don’t have much conflict at all, which is the driving force of a quality novel. Basically, self-improvement was a necessary ingredient that made this book extremely successful. An example of the four sisters trying to improve themselves can be seen in the scene when Marmee gives each of the girls a bible for Christmas in the hopes that they will read it more often. Each of the girls realizes that they haven’t been keeping up with their faith like they should be, so each makes a resolution to read from their copy of the bible more often. Another example can be seen when the girls don’t want to do work for a summer. Their mother allows this to happen, and the boredom and chores begin piling up. Within less than a week, every girl understands the importance of work and learns that being lazy is not always fun. It is obvious that the girls’ mother affects the plot exponentially. She is the driving force of the desire for improvement in her children, and she makes sure each of her daughters keeps themselves in check in order to grow up and become the best version of themselves they can be.

Another excellent theme is the evolving roles of women. A literary analysis of Little Women states, “Alcott’s genuine interest in the women’s movements of her century shows in Jo, who is a thoroughly modern woman.” (Heginbotham, “Alcott, Louisa May” 5) Simply, the author understood that times were changing, and she included this by voicing her own thoughts through Jo’s character. Mainly, Jo shows many unconventional traits for a female. She uses a boy’s nickname and always tries to keep her hair messy. She doesn’t care about what she wears, and she will often-times soil her clothing until it isn’t usable anymore. Jo is prideful in the fact that she enjoys “boy” activities, such as climbing trees, over “girl” activities where all she did was sit quietly and sew.

This is because Jo is, in fact, a feminist icon. She actively fights against the stereotypes that women were forced into from a young age in her time. Not surprisingly, the author based Jo off of her own spirit and will to rise above her calling as a woman. Jo made her living as a writer, just as Louisa May Alcott did. To prove a point, “Little Women challenged assumptions about women in nineteenth-century America. Marmee tells her daughters that they should not feel obligated to find husbands, but should seek fulfillment on their own.” (Elbert, 122)

The last topic that is to be discussed is poverty. As the first page of the book is read, the reader understands that the March family is too poor to even afford Christmas gifts. Hence, the opening line of “’Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents.’” (Alcott, 3) The main characters that complain the most about not having enough material wealth are Meg and Amy. Margaret (Meg) often talks of a time before her family had fallen into poverty, while Amy is the youngest and, as the author puts it, “...was a most important person, in her own opinion at least.” (Alcott, 7-8) These two characters showed the most desire to become wealthier, and they were the ones this theme was directly affecting the most. There was a lesson that both girls quickly learned. As a quote puts it, “Alcott teaches that everyone, even those who have little, has something to offer the world.” (Elbert, 123) Meg especially understands that a home is not the items you own, but the love, gratitude, and warmth you offer.

Summing up the diverse themes that were addressed in Little Women is simply impossible in one or even three-thousand sentences, but alas we have reached the conclusion, so I must try. Little Women is a classic children’s book that has been cherished for over a century and will continue to be studied and analyzed for many years to come. Its themes cover a wide range of very real, very human problems most people face today which is one of the many reasons it is so beloved around the world. Basically, this book is awe-inspiring, and the lessons it teaches are relevant, even one-hundred-fifty-one years after it was first published. Everyone should read this book, and if not for entertainment, read it for a unique look at the world and all the people that live in it.

Work Cited

Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. Sweetwater Press, 2013.

Elbert, Sarah. “Little Women.” Novels for Students: Volume 12., Gale Group, 2001, pp. 116–147.

Evans, Robert C. “Little Women.” Bloom's Literature, Infobase, 2011, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=101565&itemid=WE54&articleId=484007.

Heginbotham, Eleanor. “Alcott, Louisa May.” Bloom's Literature, Infobase, 2010, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=101565&itemid=WE54&articleId=474990.

Heginbotham, Eleanor. “Little Women.” Bloom's Literature, Infobase, 2010, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=101565&itemid=WE54&articleId=477650.

Price, Cheryl Blake. “Parenting in Little Women.” Bloom's Literature, Infobase, 2010, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=101565&itemid=WE54&articleId=38590.

Price, Cheryl Blake. “The American Dream in Little Women.” Bloom's Literature, Infobase, 2010, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index? aid=101565&itemid=WE54&articleId=38588.

Thompson, Stella. “Little Women.” Bloom's Literature, Infobase, 2013, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=101565&itemid=WE54&articleId=7814.

(YES, I included the Work Cited thingie because I'm not a complete a-hole who enjoys stealing other writers' works and calling them my own. Also, if I use images that are not free to the public, I include the website that I found it on. You're welcome.)