Little Women - Response

Response

G. K. Chesterton noted that in Little Women, Alcott "anticipated realism by twenty or thirty years," and that Fritz's proposal to Jo, and her acceptance, "is one of the really human things in human literature." Gregory S. Jackson argued that Alcott's use of realism belongs to the American Protestant pedagogical tradition that includes a range of religious literary traditions with which Alcott was familiar. The nineteenth-century images he produces of devotional guides for children provides an interesting background for the game of "playing pilgrim" that, in part, comprises Book One's plot structure.

When Little Women was published, it was well received. During the 19th century, there was a “scarcity of models for nontraditional womanhood” which led more women to look toward “literature for self-authorization. This is especially true during adolescence.” Little Women became “the paradigmatic text for young women of the era and one in which family literary culture is prominently featured.” Adult elements of women’s fiction were in Little Women, such as “a change of heart necessary” for the female protagonist to evolve in the story. However, even with much critical acclaim, there were criticisms. Some felt that Little Women was the beginning of “a decline in the radical power of women’s fiction,” partly because women’s fiction was now being idealized with a hearth and home children’s story. Both women’s literature historians and juvenile fiction historians agreed that Little Women was the apex of this “downward spiral.” Elbert argued that Little Women did not “belittle women’s fiction" and that Alcott stayed true to her “Romantic birthright.”

Little Women’s popular audience was responsive to ideas of social change as they were shown “within the familiar construct of domesticity.” Even though Alcott was supposed to just write a story for girls, her main heroine, Jo March, became a favorite of many different women, including educated women writers through the 20th century. The girl story became a new “new publishing category with a domestic focus that paralleled boys’ adventure stories.” Other women, such as Jewish immigrant women, also found a close connection to Little Women. One reason Little Women was vastly popular was because it was able to appeal to different classes of women along with different nationalities. Through the March sisters, women could relate and dream where they may not have before. “Both the passion Little Women has engendered in diverse readers and its ability to survive its era and transcend its genre point to a text of unusual permeability.”

Young girls had a social perception that marriage was their end goal. This was evident after the publication of part one of Little Women when girls wrote Alcott asking her “who the little women marry.” The unresolved ending added to the popularity of Little Women. Sicherman said that the unsatisfying ending worked to “keep the story alive” almost in hopes that if the reader read it enough times the story would conclude differently. “Alcott particularly battled the conventional marriage plot in writing Little Women” Alcott did not have Jo accept Laurie’s hand in marriage; rather, when she finally had Jo get married, she picked an unconventional man for Jo’s husband. Alcott used Friederich to “subvert adolescent romantic ideals” because he was much older and seemingly unsuited for Jo.

Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children." It was one of the "Top 100 Chapter Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal.