A Feminist Look at Louisa May Alcott - Essay Example

Can a book that was written in 1868 be criticized by feminists today? Until the feminist academics got a hold of it, the book Little Women was just a nice piece of literature about girls growing up in the late 1800s, showing their trials and tribulations and ultimate sacrifices and triumphs.

Perhaps feminists can constructively criticize a book they grew up reading. Simone de Beauvoir and Gertrude Stein both read the book as young girls and found much to admire in the character of Jo (Baker, 2006; Friedell, 2005). If the reader ignores the ending where Jo burns her manuscripts, there is much that a feminist could admire about the strength and focus of her character. There is much, also, to admire in the real-life Louisa Alcott, who became a masculine stereotype as the breadwinner for her real-life family.

According to Friedell (2005), Alcott worked 14-hour days at her writing, spent her earnings on her parents and younger sister, and cared for various nieces and nephews when her other sisters died. By the age of 40, Alcott declared proudly that her family was out of debt and finally free, but she continued to produce writing to support the family. When she contracted mercury poisoning while serving as a nurse during the Civil War, Alcott became addicted to morphine and continued to work. She didn’t even enjoy writing Little Women. While she was usually willing to change stories and novels to please her editors, refused to marry Jo off to Laurie, but gave in to the general idea of marriage, saying in her journals she did not want Jo to end up like herself, worked to the bone with no time to enjoy anything, and alone.

Interestingly, the character of Laurie was probably patterned after a real-life romance between Alcott and Ladislas Wisniewski (Sands-O’Connor, 2001). Most of the characters in this novel were patterned after someone Alcott knew, and her journals and letters are vague as to whether there was a real romance between Ladislas and Louisa, or whether she simply fictionalized that, too. The feminists speculate whether Alcott was bisexual or lesbian, and a romance with Wisniewski never blossomed in public.

The book Little Woman and the character of Jo certainly start as being admirable to today’s feminists: Jo is a “feisty tomboy” who wants to grow up to be a writer, practically unheard-of for women in 1868, despite how famous Alcott turned out to be (Baker, 2006, p. 281). Jo might be the main character, but her sister Beth is also a powerful character, and she is not the type whom feminists would consider a poster child. Meg is a great mother character; again, not ideal for feminists. Amy’s society airs are empty of meaning. Jo scribbles in her garret until she produces, but eventually, Jo conforms, too, just as her book is about to be published. She settles into believing the typical life might not be so bad, and after all, she can still write on the side (Foote, 2005; Baker, 2006).

The sisters learn that while their father is gone they must make many sacrifices, “but they learn that happiness is not dependent on riches, and trouble doesn’t last forever” (Miller, 2009, p. 57). Their trials teach them to rise above it all and sacrifice unselfishly for others, to “disregard the self by pleasing others” (Friedell, 2005, p. 43). Read More