jolly for them before it was too late. I see so many going to ruin for want of help at the right minute, I love so to
do anything for them, I seem to feel their wants, and sympathize with their troubles, and oh, I should so like to be a mother to them’ p.454-
456
4.2 Women can work
Society in the nineteenth-century did not expect women to work to support themselves. Family obligations and duties takes away from the woman’s ability to attend to
her own needs and wants. As the American society grew and changed, so did the household. The American nineteenth-century family often consisted of a man working outside the home,
while the women took care of the house and the family. According to the old English Common laws, men had absolute power over the family. A woman who has turned into their
puberty will be managed to marry a man who is usually her relative or acquaintance. Most of them were not permitted to enter the school, even to work. From the statement below, the
characters of Little Women show us that women can work just like men and earn money. Margareth “Meg” March, as the oldest daughter help mother in run the house. By
being a nursery governess for King’s family and raise a small salary, Meg shows that woman can do everything even though Meg has ever felt being a daughter with everything served by
her parents before the lost of her parents’ property. ‘I know I do—teaching those tiresome children nearly all day, when I’m
longing to enjoy myself at home,’ began Meg, in the complaining tone again. p.8
When Mr. March lost his property in trying to help an unfortunate friend, the two oldest girls begged to be allowed to do something toward their
own support, at least. Believing that they could not begin too early to cultivate energy, industry, and independence, their parents consented,
and both fell to work with the hearty good will which in spite of all obstacles is sure to succeed at last. Margaret found a place as nursery
governess and felt rich with her small salary. As she said, she was ‘fond of luxury’, and her chief trouble was poverty. She found it harder to bear
than the others because she could remember a time when home was
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beautiful, life full of ease and pleasure, and want of any kind unknown. She
tried not to be envious or discontented, but it was very natural that the young girl should long for pretty things, gay friends, accomplishments,
and a happy life. At the Kings’ she daily saw all she wanted, for the children’s older sisters were just out, and Meg caught frequent glimpses
of dainty ball dresses and bouquets, heard lively gossip about theaters, concerts, sleighing parties, and merrymakings of all kinds, and saw
money lavished on trifles which would have been so precious to her. Poor Meg seldom complained, but a sense of injustice made her feel
bitter toward everyone sometimes, for she had not yet learned to know how rich she was in the blessings which alone can make life happy.
p.39-40
Josephine “Jo” March as the second daughter is a tomboy, outspoken and has a passion of writing. In helping the March financial Jo is working with Aunt March being her
companion. Jo is unhappy employed as a companion by her aunt, but in order to get money she has to do it.
‘You don’t have half such a hard time as I do,’ said Jo. ‘How would you like to be shut up for hours with a nervous, fussy old lady, who keeps
you trotting, is never satisfied, and worries you till you you’re ready to fly out the window or cry? p.8
When March family receives a telegram from Washington told about Mr. March is seriously ill makes Marmee has to come to Washington and taking care of Mr. March. In
order to be there Mrs. March need money and asked Jo to borrow money from the rich Aunt March, but knowing the stingy of Aunt March finally Jo decide to make money by her own.
In the way to get to Aunt March house, she decides to sell something that belongs to her. It is her long hair such a good sacrifice that Jo made. Jo goes and has her hair cut off and so that
she can provide the family 25.00.
They began to get anxious, and Laurie went off to find her for no one knew what freak Jo might take into her head. He missed her, however,
and she came walking in with a very queer expression of countenance, for there was a mixture of fun and fear, satisfaction and regret in it,
which puzzled the family as much as did the roll of bills she laid before her mother, saying with a little choke in her voice, ‘That’s my
contribution toward making Father comfortable and bringing him home’
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‘My dear, where did you get it? Twenty-five dollars Jo, I hope you haven’t done anything rash?’ ‘No, it’s mine honestly. I didn’t beg,
borrow, or steal it. I earned it, and I don’t think you’ll blame me, for I only sold what was my own.’ As she spoke, Jo took off her bonnet, and a
general outcry arose, for all her abundant hair was cut short. ‘Your hair Your
beautiful hair’ ‘Oh, Jo, how could you? Your one beauty.’ ‘My dear girl, there was no need of this.’ ‘She doesn’t look like my Jo any more,
but I love her dearly for it’ p.155-156
Jo’s hobbies in writing any story she like, finally in bravely she decide to let her story to be printed even though she got nothing for it. It is because as beginners she paid for
nothing, but let her story published is enough for her. ‘Tell us about it.’ ‘When did it come?’ ‘How much did you get for it?’
‘What will Father say?’ ‘Won’t Laurie laugh?’ cried the family, all in one breath as they clustered about Jo, for these foolish, affectionate
people mad a jubilee of every little household joy. ‘Stop jabbering, girls, and I’ll tell you everything,’ said Jo, wondering if Miss Burney felt any
grander over her Evilina than she did over her ‘Rival Painters’. Having told how she disposed of her tales, Jo added, ‘And when I went to get
my answer, the man said he liked them both, but didn’t pay beginners, only let them print in his paper, and noticed the stories. It was good
practice, he said, and when the beginners improved, anyone would pay. So I let him have the two stories, and today this was sent to me, and
Laurie caught me with it and insisted on seeing it, so I let him. And he said it was good, and I shall write more, and he’s going to get the next
paid for, and I am so happy, for in time I may be able to support myself and help the girls.’ p.150-151
Joe finally can earn money from her story “rubbish” as she called it. The purpose of her to write a story is to satisfy her to do her hobby. As she and her family need money to
stay alive, finally Jo sent her story to a newspaper to be published. And she made it well even the money she gets is to small, but she still tries it until she becomes a great writer. She called
her story “rubbish” because the moral lesson of the story should be cut because of the demand of the market which likes the sensational story with no moral lesson in it.
As long as THE SPREAD EAGLE paid her a dollar a column for her ‘rubbish’, as she called it, Jo felt herself a woman of means, and spun
her little romances diligently. But great plans fermented in her busy brain and ambitious mind, and the old tin kitchen in the garret held a
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slowly increasing pile of blotted manuscript, which was one day to place the name of March upon the roll of fame. p.227
A good girl is a girl who can arrange her financial. Jo as one of the March daughter who has earn money by being a companion of her aunt know how difficult to earn money and
warn her sister Amy to spend her money for such a need thing and not spend it for nothing.
‘Why in the world should you spend your money, worry your family, and turn the house upside down for a parcel of girls who don’t care a
sixpence for you? I thought you had too much pride and sense to truckle to any mortal woman just because she wears French boots and rides in a
coupe,’ said Jo, who, being called from the tragic climax of her novel, was not in the best mood for social enterprises. p.246
The purpose of Jo going to New York is to get money and can make her family and especially Beth happy and can get what Beth wants. Jo knows that with money she can buy
an organ for Beth and filling home with comforts and going herself abroad.
Though very happy in the social atmosphere about her, and very busy with the daily work that earned her bread and made it sweeter for the
effort, Jo still found time for literary labors. The purpose which now took possession of her was a natural one to a poor and ambitious girl, but
the means she took to gain her end were not the best. She saw that money conferred power, therefore, she resolved to have, not to be used
for herself alone, but for those whom she loved more than life. The dream of filling home with comforts, giving Beth everything she
wanted, from strawberries in winter to an organ in her bedroom, going abroad herself, and always having more than enough, so that she might
indulge in the luxury of charity, had been for years Jo’s most cherished castle in the air. The prize-story experience had seemed to open a way
which might, after long traveling and much uphill work, lead to this delightful chateau en Espagne. But the novel disaster quenched her
courage for a time, for public opinion is a giant which has frightened stouter-hearted Jacks on bigger beanstalks than hers. Like that immortal
hero, she reposed awhile after the first attempt, which resulted in a tumble and the least lovely of the giant’s treasures, if I remember rightly.
But the ‘up again and take another’ spirit was as strong in Jo as in Jack, so she scrambled up on the shady side this time and got more booty, but
nearly left behind her what was far more precious than the moneybags. p.327
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Jo March has the story with moral lesson inside, but because the market ask something in sensational story with no moral lesson, so Jo should cut her story and just left
the sensational part and lose the moral lesson part. There is a bad thing at her heart because she thinks that a story has to have a moral lesson inside, but because she needs money she
just cut it and at the end she decide to write a story with moral lesson inside.
When she went again, Mr. Dashwood was alone, whereat she rejoiced. Mr. Dashwood was much wider awake than before, which was agreeable
and Mr. Dashwood was not too deeply absorbed in a cigar to remember his manners, so the second interview was much more comfortable than
the first. ‘We’ll take this editors never say I, if you don’t object to a few alterations. It’s too long, but omitting the passages
I’ve marked will make it just the right length,’ he said, in a businesslike tone. Jo hardly knew her own MS again, so crumpled and underscored
were its pages and paragraphs, but feeling as a tender patent might on being asked to cut off her baby’s legs in order that it might fit into a new
cradle, she looked at the marked passages and was surprised to find that all the moral reflections—which she had carefully put in as ballast for
much romance—had been stricken out. ‘But, Sir, I thought every story should have some sort of a moral, so I
took care to have a few of my sinners repent.’ Mr. Dashwoods’s editorial gravity relaxed into a smile, for Jo had
forgotten her ‘friend’, and spoken as only an author could. ‘People want to be amused, not preached at, you
know. Morals don’t sell nowadays.’ Which was not quite a correct statement, by the way.
‘You think it would do with these alterations, then?’ ‘Yes, it’s a new plot, and pretty well worked up— language good, and
so on,’ was Mr. Dashwood’s affable reply. p.329
‘What do you—that is, what compensation—’ began Jo, not exactly knowing how to express herself. ‘Oh, yes, well, we give from twenty-
five to thirty for things of this sort. Pay when it comes out,’ returned Mr. Dashwood, as if that point had escaped him. Such trifles do escape the
editorial mind, it is said. ‘Very well, you can have it,’ said Jo, handing back the story with a satisfied air, for after the dollar-a-column work,
even twenty-five seemed good pay. p.329-330
After decide to write what is inside of her heart Jo finishes her new story and sent by her father to a magazine and got paid for it. Jo dedicates her work to her family. And also this
story is another success for the independence of women in Little Women
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An hour afterward her mother peeped in and there she was, scratching away, with her black pinafore on, and an absorbed expression, which
caused Mrs. March to smile and slip away, well pleased with the success of her suggestion. Jo never knew how it happened, but something got
into that story that went straight to the hearts of those who read it, for when her family had laughed and cried over it, her father sent it, much
against her will, to one of the popular magazines, and to her utter surprise, it was not only paid for, but others requested.
Letters from several persons, whose praise was honor, followed the appearance of the little story, newspapers copied it, and strangers as well
as friends, admired it. For a small thing it was a great success, and Jo was more astonished than when her novel was commended and
condemned all at once. ‘I don’t understand it. What can there be in a simple little story like that
to make people praise it so?’ she said, quite bewildered. ‘There is truth in it, Jo, that’s the secret. Humor and pathos make it alive,
and you have found your style at last. You wrote with not thoughts of fame and money, and put your heart into
it, my daughter. You have had the bitter, now comes the sweet. Do your best, and grow as happy as we are in your success.’
‘If there is anything good or true in what I write, it isn’t mine. I owe it all to you and Mother and Beth,’ said Jo, more touched by her father’s
words than by any amount of praise from the world. So taught by love and sorrow, Jo wrote her little stories, and sent them
away to make friends for themselves and her, finding it a very charitable world to such humble wanderers, for they were kindly welcomed, and
sent home comfortable tokens to their mother, like dutiful children whom good fortune overtakes. p.411-412
4.3 Women can make decision in self determination
