Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29, 1832 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Growing up, she was greatly impacted by her parents political and religious beliefs. This was due to her parents being active in popular religious movements. When she was a young child, she took on the act of reading and writing. She learned a lot from her parents but was greatly impacted by philosophers and popular authors.

Her first work, which was a poem, “Sunlight” was published in 1854. At the start of the Civil war in 1861, she worked as a nurse but contracted a typhoid fever. Her experiences influenced her novel called, Hospital Sketches. After this period of time passed, she gained a following and published more works under the name, A.M Bernard.

Louisa May Alcott’s greatest work is none other than the American favorite, Little Women. Published in 1868, the story takes place during the Civil War in 1860s Massachusetts. Alcott tells a story of four sisters making the transition from childhood to womanhood. The characters explore society’s boundaries and discover that life isn’t what it seems to be. They struggle through society’s strict ideals of feminism.

Similar to her novel, Alcott was also one of four daughters. Alcott’s family suffered from financial issues, and was forced to go to school consecutively. Like some of the sisters, Alcott did what she could for her family. She worked many different jobs . But, she found writing as a way for emotional and financial support. Like in the story, she discovers the hardships in a woman’s adolescent years. She uncovers personal growth and development within herself.

My quote is - “I’ll try and be what he loves to call me, ‘a little woman,’ and not be rough and wild; but do my duty here instead of wanting to be somewhere else.”

In this quote, one of the main characters, Jo, explains how she would much rather be doing something more exciting like battling in the civil war. She felt this way despite that women weren’t allowed to go fight in war. She explains how she feels that women don’t live as exciting or adventurous lives as men do. She continues to please her father by acting like a stereotypical girl. She wishes to live a life filled with adventure and independence while also helping her family. This is what makes the story quite more relatable to certain audiences like young women.

Louisa May Alcott’s work introduced readers to educated legendary female women. She’s known for creating “colorful” and accurately relatable characters that her audience can resonate with. She painted true pictures in her writing. Her writing styles impacted American literature in a huge way.

Alcott was also an active feminist. She was involved in the women’s suffrage movement. This was the movement to allow women to vote. She actively went place to place and door to door to get people to vote. She impacted people mainly through her writing, encouraging them to vote. As her life went on, she contributed to several publications that helped promote women’s rights.

What I think: I can say that I have never read or gone into depth about any of Louisa May Alcott’s works but I do think that she really poured her whole soul into her projects. She wanted to give back to women. She deeply cared about what she wrote and cared about representing us.

This seemed like a good question in particular for this author because Louisa May Alcott is known for her relatable characters in her stories. In her most famous work, Little Women, she gives her characters real issues and struggles that one might see themselves dealing with. What I want to know is why do we seem attracted to them? We tend to see ourselves in these fictional characters. There could be endless factors and reasons as to why we are drawn to them. Some might not be drawn to them even if they relate to them. This is mainly up for our subconscious to decide.