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Little Women
by
Louisa May Alcott
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Little Women
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Little Women Themes
Little Words, Big Ideas
Women and Femininity
Little Women considers the place of women in society by presenting the portraits of several very different but equally praiseworthy women. As we read the novel, we experience their different interp...
The Home
In Little Women, the home is more than a house where you sleep at night. The domestic sphere provides a moral center for men and women alike, and a comfortable home, full of love, is depicted as th...
Principles
The girls in Little Women are raised to hold fast to their moral principles, listening to their own consciences before they pay attention to anything else. The principles in this novel are firmly b...
Literature and Writing
Little Women is a text about writing texts. The protagonist, herself an author, experiments with different genres and voices in order to find her own "truth" as a writer. Literature also provides i...
Love
Love is everywhere in Little Women, a novel about four marriageable sisters and their various friends. Often it is romantic love, either reciprocated or unrequited. But there are many other kinds o...
Marriage
In Little Women, marriage is depicted as a wonderful and beneficial institution, the culmination of all the different kinds of love and domestic lessons that women – and men – learn in...
Sacrifice
In Little Women, the ability to make sacrifices, both great and small, is an essential part of ethical behavior. Everyone must be able to show a certain degree of selflessness – doing without...
Poverty
There are many different kinds of poverty in Little Women. Most obvious is financial poverty, lacking money and material goods. Financial poverty comes in many strains, and the novel reminds us tha...
Ambition
Most of the characters in Little Women are ambitious – either they want to get rich, or they want to be famous, or they just want to see the world and have a good time. As they mature, each m...