Work by Louisa Alcott - Book Report/Review Example

Christie works for a number of employers to find her way. First she works as a servant and befriends a black maid. Soon Christie is dismissed from her job because she was accused of a small fire caused by a gas lamp. Christie moves on and becomes an actress and is quite successful in her new profession but this one is also short lived due to lack of fulfillment. Then, she is appointed as an attendant to a young girl who suffers from nervous breakdown but then again she had to quit this job. Christie who was hired as a governess had to quit after her boss’ bachelor brother proposed.

Finally, she starts working as a seamstress but again resigns for this job to show loyalty to one of her colleague who was insulted for have an indecent past. Christie was unable to support herself and decided to commit suicide however some kind people saved her, ultimately falling in love and getting married to Henry David. Her contentment with life is curtailed on the start of the Civil War making her resilient and prudent. Christie is able to thrive and prosper because of her honesty and integrity as well as her commitment to her loved ones.

This story shows how difficult it is for women to work and build distinctiveness of their own, far from their family. In the end, Christie works as an activist with the support of the ladies around her. We are shown that the women have assembled for a cause, but Christie’s toddler daughter makes it prominent and joins the triumph. Christie has led a very difficult life to get liberation, which was hard earned. About the author The author of the book Work: A Story of Experience, Louisa May Alcott, was born on November 29, 1832 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States (Alcott, Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters and Journals, 1889 16).

Alcott along with her sisters Anna, Elizabeth and May were educated by their father, Bronson Alcott, who was a teacher and philosopher by profession. Alcott spent her early days in Boston where she had access to Ralph Waldo’s library. Alcott was a tom boy when she was young and she showed herself as Jo March in her novel Little Women. Alcott loved writing from an early age. She was imaginative and most of the time her novels became melodramas which Alcott and her sisters acted out for their friends.

Alcott always chose to play the lurid roles like that of villains, ghosts, bandits and so on. When Alcott was 15, the Alcott family was poverty stricken and she promised to help her family financially no matter what she had to do. She vowed to herself that she would be rich and a prominent figure before she dies. For a number of years Alcott did whatever work she found. Alcott’s career as a novelist began when her poetries and short stories were published in widely read magazines. Alcott’s first book Flower Fables was published in 1854 when she was only 22.

A breakthrough in her career was “Hospital Sketches” which was based on the letters she wrote when she was serving as a nurse in Washington DC during the Civil War. Alcott’s publisher, Thomas Niles, told her to write a book for girls and then she came up with the Little Women which is based on Alcott and her sisters’ life. The book is set in England. Alcott was the one who played the role of Jo March in the book who was the first young American heroine. Alcott has written a large number of books out of which over 39 books have been published.

Alcott passed away on March 6, 1988 soon after her father’s deaths and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord. Evaluation Work: A Story of Experience is a very good book but has some flaws in it. Alcott has failed to express her political views naturally into the story. She has thrown her feminist