The Civil Wars Influence on Alcott’s “Little Women”

History and Writing:

It is impossible to examine American Literature without discussing historical events, which influenced writers. Louisa May Alcott is no exception. The Civil War and her feelings about abolition and a women’s place in her world impacted her writing, including her most well-known work “Little Women”.  

Early Influences on Louisa May Alcott:

Born on November 29, 1832, Alcott’s socially progressive and educated parents exposed her to famous writers and personal friends Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Margaret Fuller. Later Alcott and her family served as stationmasters on the Underground Railroad. (Stein, Sattlemeyer 2002) Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist, she was twenty-seven when Civil War broke out, and just beginning her writing career. The history unfolding around her and the era she lived in influenced her novel.

Tension and Metaphor in the Novel:

“Little Women” was written between 1968 and 1869 and can be read as an escape from life by women who knew the gender constraints of the time. Both political perception and anger are found in “Little Women”, and the protagonist Jo’s expresses her resentment at not being in the middle of the action. “Keeping her temper at home was a much harder task than facing a rebel or two down South” (Alcott, Little Women 14) Alcott fought the constraints of her gender and expressed frustration at not being able to offer more assistance with the families financial situation early in life. The Civil War in her book can be seen as a metaphor for her own internal conflicts. The tensions in the book relate to the conflict between overt and covert messages felt by the author and expressed in her book. (Fetterley 1979) The national conflict of the Civil War represents individual struggles against gender norms. The internal wars of self-control and sacrifice to others that abound in “Little Women” are reflected in that of a nation at war. 

“Little Woman” Feminine Character and The Civil War:

Alcott is frustrated by the economic dependence women had to their fathers, then husbands in the patriarchal culture. Judith Fetterley writes for “Feminist Studies” and says that the message in little women reflects Alcott’s belief that maintaining the little women character is “less a matter of virtue than of necessity… (suggesting) that women’s acceptance of the domestic sphere as the best and happiest place may be less a matter of wise choice than of harsh necessity.” (Fetterley p376) Feminist writer Elizabeth Young states “Alcott had ongoing private struggles against the constraints of Victorian gender norms, the intellectual world of midcentury Concord, Massachusetts, and the obligations of an eccentric family” (Young 1996 p441) The coming of the Civil War challenged the ideology of Victorian domesticity and the antebellum era definitions of a woman’s place. Women were forced into a more public life than their mothers could have ever imagined. 

Alcott and Civil War Service:

Alcott’s service during the Civil War is documented in a Georgetown D.C. hospital.  She served as a female nurse for two months in 1862, her short career as a nurse ended with a bout of typhoid and suffered from her treatments of calomel (mercury poisoning) for the rest of her life. (Prologue: Pieces of History) A year later she wrote her novel “Hospital Sketches”, utilizing letters she had written home. As a “war experience” novel, “Hospital Sketches” deals more directly with the Civil War than “Little Women”, and was her first best-selling novel.  At this time it was extremely rare for a woman to work outside the home. Louisa wanted to know life herself, outside of her family home. Nursing matured her and replaced her book knowledge with real-life experience. (Reisen 2009)  Alcott’s writing, including “Little Women”, offers insight into nineteenth-century changing ideas of femininity, individuality, war, and nationhood. 

“Little Women” Parallels to Alcott’s Life:

Alcott’s publisher asked her to write a children’s book for girls. In a very short time, she produced the work she would become most famous for “Little Women”, which had many parallels to her own life growing up in New England. Jo March, the protagonist, is a tomboy. (Stein, Sattelmeyer 2002) The father in “Little Women” presses the importance of rigid moral character, like Alcott’s father and the society around her. 

A Civil War Christmas:

The beginning of “Little Women” offers immediate illustration into the concepts played out throughout the novel. It sets the story firmly in the Civil War, with the girls complaining of the lack of gifts due to their mother’s belief that they should not spend money on pleasure when so many men are suffering in the army. The struggle between restraint and wanting played throughout the novel has begun. 

Again, Alcott brings the drama of the Civil War and her struggle with her desire for a larger life than any Victorian women can expect. The historical events and constraints of the society around her, as well as her family life, all influenced Louisa May Alcott’s novels, including “Little Women”.

Works Cited

Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. Project Guttenberg - Free E-books: A Public Domain Book, 2011. Print.

Fetterley, Judith. ""Little Women": Alcott's Covo; War." Feminist Studies 5.Summer (1979): 369-383. JSTOR. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.

Krull, Kathleen, and Carlyn Beccia. Louisa May's battle: how the Civil War led to Little Women. New York: Walker & Co., 2013. Print.

"Prologue: Pieces of History » Little Women in the Civil War." National Archives Blog Sites. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2013. <http://blogs.archives.gov/prologue/?p=7747>.

Reisen, Harriet. Louisa May Alcott: the woman behind Little women. New York: Henry Holt, 2009. Print.

Stein, Alice P., and Robert Sattelmeyer. "Louisa May Alcott." History Net: Where History Comes Alive - World & US History Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://www.historynet.com/louisa-may-alcott>.

Young, Elizabeth. "A Wound of One's Own: Louisa May Alcott's Civil War Fiction." American Quarterly 48.3 (1996): 439-474. JSTOR. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.