Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist best known as author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Nevertheless, her family suffered severe financial difficulties and Alcott worked to help support the family from an early age. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Early in her career, she sometimes used the pen name A. M. Barnard. With her pen name Louisa wrote novels for young adults in juvenile hall.
Published in 1868, Little Women is set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts and is loosely based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three sisters. The novel was very well received and is still a popular children's novel today. Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist. She died in Boston on March 6, 1888.
Alcott was born on November 29, 1832, in Germantown . On her father's 33rd birthday. She was the daughter of transcendentalist and educator Amos Bronson Alcott and social worker Abby May and the second of four daughters: Anna Bronson Alcott was the eldest; Elizabeth Sewall Alcott and Abigail May Alcott were the two youngest. Bronson Alcott's opinions on education and tough views on child-rearing shaped young Alcott's mind with a desire to achieve perfection, a goal of the transcendentalists.
Alcott died at age 55 of a stroke in Boston, on March 6, 1888. Two days after her father's death. She is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, near Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau, on a hillside now known as \"Authors' Ridge
Louisa May Alcott wrote from the heart. It was based on author’s own experiences. Little Women is the story of the Marches, a family used to hard toil and suffering. The novel doesn’t have fantastic plot, and the author described the happy family life with simple language. However, this is a story of how they growing up and their happy family life. It has become a much loved classic tale and many of the trials among the sisters are relevant to today’s family life.
It tells a story of the March sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. Their father is away fighting in the war, they live with their mother. Mrs. March is the authority of the family. She attaches importance to the education of the girl and teaches them many precious virtues. Although they are poor, she still helps people who are poorer. For instance, she tells her children there is a family who is starving and asks girls if they can give their breakfast as presents to the poor family. The education ways of Mrs. March are valuable. She is no doubt a qualifier mother.
Meg is the eldest one in the family. She has a sweet and pious nature, which unconsciously influenced her sisters, especially Jo. But she also has shortcoming. At last she corrects it and marries a man who is not rich but loves her very much.
Amy is a fair lady, she always wants to marry a rich man, and regards her successful marriage as her obligation to her family. She thinks she is selfish, and she fights for the shortcoming all the time. She uses her all money to buy a big bottle as the Christmas present for her mother because she is truly trying not to be selfish. And in the end, she refuses Fred and marries Laurie who is not as rich as Fred.
Beth is shy, kind, sensitive and very gentle. She never minds making sacrifice for others. She is fond of music. Unfortunately she died when she was very young.
Jo, clearly is the main character of the story, she was a tomboy and hated all the prim and proper ways of the ladies. Jo is the one who first has enough courage to go over to the frightening house next door and talking with the Laurence Boy. Jo has an uncontrollable temper that can erupt at any time. This is quite evident one day when Amy burns one of Jo's most precious books that she wrote stories in and had for years. She is so angry that she cannot even look Amy in the face. Her selfishness and anger almost cost her own sister. Mrs. March then teaches Jo how to control her temper, and that was one of the most valuable lessons she ever learned. She likes reading very much. The library of aunt March and Mr. Laurance is the places where she often goes to. Plenty of books reading is useful for her writing. When her father is wounded, she cuts her hair and sells them to raise money for her mother. Jo has the ability to see things as they are. She cares about her family and does whatever she can to help her families to live better lives.
Jo makes me think: the women’s struggling between family duty and personal growth; the necessary of work. And the last one: the importance to be genuine. No matter what age you are in, you need to keep equality concept in mind. The concept of family and the beautiful virtue of human are always the attractions of this book.
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