Little Women Analysis

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Little Women Big Minds: The Role of Women in 19th Century America
For over 300 years women in the United States have been trying to rewrite their roles in society. From Abigail Adams to Hillary Clinton women throughout American history have fought to break down the barriers set before them in order to gain equal rights. During the 19th century, Louisa May Alcott dedicated her life’s work to such issues. In her classic fictional novel, Little Women, Louisa May Alcott uses the literary devices of self-insertion, setting, and specific characterization to analyze the position of women in society.
Alcott reveals the place of women in society through the setting, principally the location and time period, of her novel. The March family, the main …show more content…

The majority of the first part of Little Women deals with the "deals with the autobiographical component", of Alcott’s life that is inserted into Little Women (MacDonald 10). Alcott and Jo are comparable in numerous ways. Both of the young women wanted "to do something splendid", before they were forgotten or too aged (Alcott 144). They relied on the support of their families and the lessons they had learned as young girls to benefit them as they rose to the top of the authorial society. Both women did not tend to care about the restrictions set before them and set a pathway for younger generations of women to come. The second part of the novel highlights the similarities between the authorial portions of the women’s lives. Jo goes "to New York", to accomplish her writing goals, while Alcott writes in Concord,Massachusetts, the city that Little Women occurred in (Alcott 323). Louisa 's and Jo 's similar climb upward to success showed how the women of the 19th century were "adjusting to changing times", and slowly breaking the molds of their traditional past (May 4). In writing her novel Little Women, Alcott tends to use "many of the incidents”, which “were taken from her own experiences", and impose them into the plot line (MacDonald 10). Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist, which she imposes as characteristics onto Jo March and somewhat onto Mrs.March. Her writing also allows the three sisters to be compelled by their family to experience their lives to the fullest, much similar to how Alcott’s family did to Louisa. The three sisters had a very meaningful relationship with each other, much like Alcott had with her three

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