Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown Pennsylvania to Amos Bronson and Abigail Alcott on November 29 1832. Bronson Alcott was a transcendental philosopher and teacher, some of his friends included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Theodore Parker. These poets greatly influenced Louisa in everyday life, as many of them were her teachers. Feeling responsible for her family’s financial troubles, Alcott began working odd jobs in 1849 hating these jobs she began writing and published her first poem called “Sunlight” in 1852. Creating several different pseudonyms Alcott began her writing career. Her best-known work “Little Women” was based on her family and written in the Alcott home pictured on the right.

A known abolitionist and suffragette, Alcott’s works would best be classified as a part of the American Romanticism movement. Some of her works include: Little Men, Jo’s Boys, Flower Fables, An Old Fashioned Girl, The Inheritance, Eight Cousins and A Long Fatal Love Chase. Louisa May Alcott died on March 6th 1888 in Boston, Massachusetts just two days after her father.
American Romanticism is generally defined as the pre-civil war America from 1830 to 1860. It was a movement that emphasized a sentimental nature, individualism, desire-and-loss, rebellion and equality. The American Romanticism was not the only “Ziet Geist” that influenced Alcott. Although the primary influence for her works about families the Civil War, abolitionist and suffrage movements also influenced Alcott’s work. In “Little Women” for example the Civil War and its toll on the home life influence the entire March Family.

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

"It's so dreadful to be poor!” sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

"I don't think it's fair for some girls to have lots of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all," added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

"We've got father and mother, and each other, anyhow,” said Beth, contentedly, from her corner.

The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words, but darkened again as Jo said sadly?

"We haven't got father, and shall not have him for a long time." She didn't say "perhaps never, "but each silently added it, thinking of father far away, where the fighting was.

Nobody spoke for a minute; then Meg said in an altered tone, "You know the reason mother proposed not having any presents this Christmas, was because it's going to be a hard winter for every one; and she thinks we ought not to spend money for pleasure, when our men are suffering so in the army. We can't do much, but we can make our little sacrifices, and ought to do it gladly. But I am afraid I don't;" and Meg shook her head, as she thought regretfully of all the pretty things she wanted.

The character of Josephine March is also a free thinker who believes in equality. Jo March directly reflects Louisa May Alcott’s own beliefs and interest in regards to suffrage and women’s rights by portraying Jo as a tomboy who wants to fight with the men.

"Really, girls, you are both to be blamed," said Meg, beginning to lecture in her elder-sisterly fashion. "You are old enough to leave off boyish tricks, and to behave better, Josephine. It didn't matter so much when you were a little girl; but now you are so tall, and turn up your hair, you should remember that you are a young lady."

"I'm not! And if turning up my hair makes me one, I'll wear it in two tails till I'm twenty," cried Jo, pulling off her net, and shaking down a chestnut mane. "I hate to think I've got to grow up, and be Miss March, and wear long gowns, and look as prim as a China aster! It's bad enough to be a girl, anyway, when I like boys' games and work and manners! I can't get over my disappointment in not being a boy; and it's worse than ever now, for I'm dying to go and fight with Papa, and I can only stay at home and knit, like a poky old woman!" And Jo shook the blue army sock till the needles rattled like castanets, and her ball bounded across the room.

"Poor Jo! It's too bad, but it can't be helped. So you must try to be contented with making your name boyish, and playing brother to us girls," said Beth, stroking the rough head at her knee with a hand that all the dishwashing and dusting in the world could not make ungentle in its touch.

Alcott was the first American writer to portray a juvenile heroine as an individual with her own thoughts, feelings and struggles instead of the stereotyped angel. The ways in which she wrote and the characters that she created in her novels are a direct reflection of the “Ziest Geist” of the time. A combination of the romantic and idealistic Alcott is a masterful writer who reflected her own original ideas in her writings.


Works Cited:

Alcott, Louisa May. “Little Women.” Barnes&Noble. May 3, 2007 http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9781566194754&displayonly=EXC&z=y#EXC

“L(ouisa) M(ay) Alcott (1832-1888)-psuedonyms: A. Barnard, Flora Fairfield.”May 3, 2007 http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lmalcott.htm

Marsh, Ellen. “Louisa May Alcott’s Long-Lost Novel.” May 3, 2007 http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/1997-07/alcott.html .

Meriman, C.D. “Louisa May Alcott.” The Literature Network. May 3, 2007http://www.online-literature.com/alcott/ .

“Romanticism.” Wikipedia. May 3, 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism .