Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29th, 1832, to Abigail May and Amos Bronson Alcott in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Her father taught her, as well as her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth, and May, until 1848, as part of his experiment in communal living. She also studied informally with people such as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Theodore Parker, who were friends of her family. While she resided in Boston and Concord, Massachusetts, Alcott worked as a teacher and domestic server as well as other positions from 1850 to 1862 in order to help support her family. She then went to work as a nurse in Washington D.C. during the Civil War. From early on, Alcott aspired to make her family rich, and become famous. At first, she …show more content…
With her most successful piece, Little Women, she finally had the financial independence that she had long sought after. Little Women also made a demand for more works and, throughout the late years of her life, Alcott produced a steady flow of novels and short stories. Most of these pieces were targeted towards younger audiences and were drawn straight from her upbringing and family life. Some of these books include Little Men (1871), Eight Cousins (1875), and Jo’s Boys (1886). Some of her lesser-known novels, targeted at an older crowd, include Work (1873) and A Modern Mephistopheles (1877). Alcotts last novel, A Garland For Girls, was a collection of fairy tales told to her daughter, Lulu Niereker, and was published in the year of her …show more content…
During the time Little Women was written, women’s societal status was beginning to slowly increase, and Alcott demonstrated four different ways to go about being a women bound by the nineteenth-century social expectations. One option was to create a new family by marrying young, as Meg does; or to be obedient to one’s close family, like Beth; or be like Amy at first, and focus on personal art and pleasure; or struggle to be dutiful and loyal towards one’s family and lead a meaningful professional life, like Jo does. Meg and Beth both conform more to society’s pressures and expectations of the role that women should play, while Amy and Jo try to break free from those constraints at first and cherish their individuality. Jo also despises the idea of being a traditional model of a lady at times, and is frustrated with the gender stereotypes placed on her. She wants things that are typically preposterous for women in that rime, like earning her own living and fighting in the war, which are usually duties reserved for men. However, Amy and Jo both eventually end up marrying and settling into a more customary life. While Louisa Alcott in no way implies that one way of womanhood is necessarily better, she recognizes one as more realistic for women in her time
“Ah, the creative process is the same secret in science as it is in art,” said Josef Mengele, comparing science to an art. He was less of an artist and more of a curious, debatably crazy, doctor. He was a scientist in Nazi Germany. In general, there was a history of injustice in the world targeting a certain race. When Mengele was around, there were very few medical regulations, so no consent had to be given for doctors to take patients’ cells and other tests done on the patients’ bodies without their consent. This was the same time that Henrietta Lacks lived. Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who went to the doctor because she had cervical cancer. Her cells were taken and are still alive in culture today (Skloot 41). Hence, her cells were nicknamed Immortal (Skloot 41). Although many, at the time, saw no issue with using a patient without consent issue with what?, on numerous occasions since then courts have determined that having consent is necessary for taking any cells. The story of Henrietta lacks is has similarities to an episode of Law and Order titled Immortal, which is an ethical conundrum. Despite this, the shows are not exactly the same and show differences between them. Both of these stories, one supposedly fictional, can also be compared to the injustices performed by Josef Mengele in Nazi Germany.
As the Great Depression and the World War came to a dramatic close during the mid 1940s, the American society prepared for a redefinition of its core ideologies and values. During this time, the idea of a quintessential “American family” was once again reinforced after two decades of social strife. Under such historical context, the 1941 novel Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain and its 1945 film adaptation by Michael Curtiz both carries a strong idea that when one, especially a female, tries to disobey their traditional family roles and social etiquettes, undesirable consequences would inevitably follow. However, the film adaptation, utilizing a slightly different narrative configuration and plot organization, further intensifies and emphasizes
In the nineteenth century domestic, maternal women were considered the ideal. Several authors challenged this ideal while others glorified it and showed it as completely pragmatic. After all, who better to raise and feed the family than the one who is responsible for giving life to them? Louisa May Alcott shows her primary female figure in Transcendental Wild Oats, Hope Lamb, in a strong traditional female role. Hope is arguably the strongest character in the story and serves as an alternative to the typical modern feminist society promotes today. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance, Zenobia is the heroine who to a great extend runs the commune. She is bold physically, spiritually and intellectually. She is very much different from Hope Lamb, but in many crucial ways, they are all too similar.
The novel slowly weans you onto the idea that women will become much more dominant by the end of the story than in the early moments of the beginning chapters. Steinbeck’s characterization of Ma Joad is a positive characterization of a woman. She embodies the prowess of the sought-after woman, and she is a symbol for positive motherhood. She is strong, and she is never fragile. She becomes a leader, and personifies the role of every mother and wife forced to defend her young. Ma is described in the early chapters of the book as “thick, with child bearing and work”(99), which makes her appearance sound like a very strong woman. Ma is supposed to be seen as the matriarchal archetype, a strong-willed, beautiful woman who can take care of her family. While men were distracted by how bad things got, “the women knew how the past would cry to them in the coming days”. (111) ...
In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre there are many occasions in which there is motifs about division and bias relations. Money was a major division between people in the Victorian Era. Family made people rise in the standings with others, If your family was rich or well known, then you were going to be well known and well liked. There are many situations in which Jane is thought of as poor and worthless, as well as having no family.
On June 14, 1811 Harriet Beecher Stowe was born. She came into this world with twelve siblings. When she was young she went to a public school and made friends. But sadly she moved to her sister’s school in first grade. In the summer at the age of five her mom died. At her sisters school she would write short stories in her free time. She went to that school from grade school to college. When she graduated she was very happy and continued her love for writing books.
Sojourner Truth was a Civil Rights Activist, and a Women’s Rights Activist 1797-1883. Sojourner Truth was known for spontaneous speech on racial equal opportunities. Her speech “Aint I a Women? “Was given to an Ohio Women’s Rights convention in 1851. Sojourner Truth’s was a slave in New York, where she was born and raised and was sold into slavery at an early age (bio, 2016)
Many people know Susan B. Anthony as ‘the women that dared to vote.’ Many women go to vote without knowing how important she was on that decision. She is one of the most recognized historical people fighting for Women Suffrage. She was an icon on Women’s Rights history. Women regardless of age, religion, social class, fought for one objective; the achievement to get the right to vote, the right to make their own decisions. She was part of this achievement. Susan B. Anthony was an American women hero.
Alcott grew up in a poor family with three sisters. Early on in her life, she was forced to work as a teacher, nanny, seamstress, and at other odd jobs in order to help support her family. Her education came mainly from her father, Bronson Alcott, who was a teacher, philosopher, and vegan. From him Alcott obtained her transcendentalist beliefs and gained many of her ideas, techniques, and most likely her power of rhetoric. She possessed an independent spirit and was sometimes rebellious against the standards of society and the restrictions that they put on her as a woman.
Watson, N. (2009) ‘Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (1868-9) Introduction’, in Montgomery H and Watson N (eds), Children’s Literature Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University, pp.13-17
When dealing with the subject matter of understanding life, the negativity and joyfulness tend to bring out the curiosity state of mind. However " Lucinda Matlock" gives a perspective of the purpose of life to accept and understand the negativity and positivity of life. This poem can make the audience realize what life is really about because some people don't like to accept the negativity in life. It can inspire the audience to balance their life in their own way with both positivity and negativity to make life enriched and worthwhile.
Coretta Scott King was one of the most important women leaders in the world. Working side-by-side with her husband, she took part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and worked to pass the Civil Rights Act. After King's death, she founded The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. Mrs. King traveled around the world speaking out on behalf of racial and economic justice, women’s and children’s rights, religious freedom, the needs of the poor and homeless, full-employment, health care, educational opportunities, and environmental justice.
The story Little Women takes place at a time when women were taking on uncustomary roles like physical laborer, family protector and provider, and military volunteer while their husbands served during the Civil War. Keeping within the boundaries of the time, Louisa May Alcott uses herself and her own three sisters to create this classical novel from personal experiences. Each sister is different. They each set goals and dreams for their selves whether it goes along with their contemporary society or not. With the assistance of their mother, friends and experiences, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy struggle between their personal expectations and society’s expectations as they plan for their future and choose their destinies.
Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. Louisa wasn’t like every other girl in her time in fact she was nothing her family and nineteenth century New England required her to be as a young girl. She stated “no boy could be my friend until I had beaten him in a race and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences, and be a tomboy.” In all she was her own person or as she was taught to see it willful, selfish, and proud (Bronson Alcott). She was the second of four girls born to Amos Bronson Alcott and Abigail May. Her father was a transcendentalist, philosopher, and educational experimenter, and her mom stayed home and raised her and her sisters on practical Christianity.
Weisgall, Deborah. “The Mother of All Girls’ Books.” The American Prospect. n.p. 11 June 2012. Web. 29 March 2014. .