Review of Little Women

Below is a review of Little Women written by Alcott, Louisa May, which was first published in 1868 in America. The author Alcott, Louisa May is an American female writer, who is famous for writing children's books. She was an active slave abolitionist and volunteered to be a nurse during the American Civil War, in which she contracted typhoid fever and has not recovered fully since then. The publication of her epistles "Sketch of the Hospital" made her debut. And the autobiographical novel "Little Woman" made her a great success and paid off her debts. After Louisa became famous, she continued to write novels and stories including "Mediocre Girl", "Little Boy" "Joe's Boys" and devoted herself to the women's election campaign and the prohibition campaign. Due to her colorful experience, she wrote the meaningful book and created such distinctive characters, which brought us joy and emotion. Little Women, set in the Civil War, is about the four sisters of the March family—Joe, Meg, Amy, and Beth, who have different personalities. The eldest daughter, Meg, is beautiful and has been longing for love; the second daughter, Joe, is independent and committed to becoming a writer; the third daughter, Beth, is a traditionally good-natured girl, who is soft and tender; and the youngest daughter, Amy, loves painting. Although they don’t live in a rich family and they are all ordinary girls, they still working hard and strive to solve the hardships and difficulties in the daily life. Finally, from the little girls to the women, they all found their own love, realized their dreams and live a happy life of their own. The author apply her own writing skills to the book. The book describes the family life of a group of small people at the bottom of the society. Due to their low social status, the Marches and their friends in the novel have experienced hardship that they cannot change in their lives. However, the author didn’t lay emphasis on the hard life and what is written emphatically is that they comfort and encourage each other and gain happiness from their harmonious family life, through which they achieved self-growth and redemption. What’s more, Alcott is very expert at reflecting the warmth of family life through detailed description so there are always countless little surprises in the plain life. In my opinion, what impresses me most is Joe, the core protagonist of the book. She acts as a leader of the little sisters and always show strong optimism and self-reliance. Through her unremitting efforts, she finally became a writer and started a school. Even after marriage, she is still strongly independent. I think this personality is very important and every woman need to own that. We should be independent and strong instead of being the stereotype that women should rely on the men. All in all, the book is so successful that it has been put on the screen many times and was rated as one of the world's best-selling outstanding works by the National Library of America and one of the best family novels in the United States since its publication more than 100 years ago. Many people are warmed and moved by this book，and at the same time, they also learned to love and live from it.