Commentary of Lizzie:
Oh, how I love this book! Little Women is the epitome of some of the most important ideals I choose to keep close to my heart: sisterhood, familial ideals, and personal growth. Along with reading the newspaper, I love to read! I especially love to read stories like these to which I can relate to! Having a sister at home to take care of, this book reminded me of the times of the Goblin Market incident where both of us looked out for each other. The book emphasizes the close bond between the four sisters in the book, Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy. I can relate to these sisters as their jobs were very similar to mine during the incident, especially Meg. Meg is the oldest girl in this book, and it seems as if she is the more responsible one amongst the others, just like me. She is the most hardworking out of all of her sisters. She is also the most traditionally feminine out of all of her sisters, so she gets married first. After settling down in her marriage, she is still very hardworking and family-oriented, just like I am. Once I got married and settled down a bit, I realized that there is a correlation between pertaining to familial duties and personal growth. You can do both as long as you put your mind to it. Reading about this ideal is particularly what sparked my interest as it is something I can relate to in so many ways. It puts both aspects of my youthful self back in the day with my sister, Laura, and my married life currently.
Editor Commentary:
There's a reason why they call this book a classic. It highlights so many ideals that women held in the 1860s including sisterhood, familial ideals, personal growth, finding happiness through work, being genuine, and especially combating gender stereotyping. Gender stereotyping can be related to the Victorian Era ideals as well as the struggles of women's sexuality and gender roles was a big issue this period. Women were often only expected to serve their families or stay in the kitchen and could not exceed this. Although this book's setting takes place during the Civil War in the United States, it shows the same stigma that surrounded a women's role in the patriarchal society both in the US and England. The book emphasized the importance of family as well in this context. Little Women has an emphasis on the women's role in a family. It shows how a woman should have feminine ideals for her to be marriageable material, just like Meg. Meg, the oldest sister, was traditionally the most feminine out of all of her sisters and was an example of the perfect "Victorian woman" in the United States. She was the "Angel in the House" in the story as she was innocent and sweet-natured, which is what society expected women to be back then. This aspect also tied in with the Victorian era ideals of gender/sexuality roles of women. Society's expectations controlled women and how they were supposed to compose themselves as their only importance was seen as being feminine and family-oriented, and not in any way thinking about themselves. Therefore, it was so hard for women, like Lizzie, to seek personal growth. Cruel society members, like the goblin men, would mistreat her and her sister. However, Lizzie fought back as an empowered woman. There is no question about why she would have not chosen this book as it empowered women to be strong as seen within the context of the story.
Citation:
Alcott, L. M. (1868). Little Women. Boston, Massachusetts: Roberts Brothers.