Abstract:

Little Women is a well-known novel by Louisa May Alcott, an American author in the 19th century and the representative writer of a group of female authors during the Gilded Age. It is a novel about the Alcott family set in the American Civil War. Drawing from her own childhood experiences, the author tells about four sisters’ life in New England of the USA. In this paper, the four sisters’ different characters and their view of life, value and love will be analyzed. The main line is girls’ love and dedication for the family. The four sisters will be introduced in the order of their age: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. In Meg’s part, her character of sweetness and well-behaving will be involved, as well as her little weakness of vanity. Jo’s character was more outstanding than other sisters; the focus will be on yearning for freedom and desiring to be a writer. About Beth, I will pay much attention on how she confronted death bravely. Finally as for the youngest girl, Amy, I will center on her love for painting and pursuing the high society life. In Little Women, the description of the four sisters’ appearance and personality was very vivid. Based on the above analysis, this paper concludes that the four sisters not only have their own pursuits and dreams, but also the courage to break through themselves; and in their pursuits, they struggled with issues like selfishness and generosity, the nature of individual integrity.

Keywords: Family love; Responsibility; Dedication; True love

摘  要：

《小妇人》是由19世纪美国作家路易莎·梅·奥尔科特创作的一部家庭小说。该书以美国南北战争为背景，主要讲述了美国新英格兰地区马奇家四姐妹的生活琐事。我主要分析四姐妹不同性格以及她们不同的人生观，价值观和爱情观。文章的主线是四姐妹对家庭的爱和付出。我将依次从长到幼的顺序介绍她们。关于梅格，她性格乖巧和爱慕虚荣的缺点会被提及。乔的性格与其他姐妹相比，更突出一点，重点将放在她勇于承担责任，向往自由以及渴望成为一名作家。至于贝思，她就是一个天使,将侧重于描写她如何勇敢地面对死亡，她害羞和助人为乐的特点也会提及。最后一个艾美，主要描写她热爱绘画，一心向往上流社会的生活。此书对四姐妹的外貌，性格都进行了生动的描写。基于以上的分析，这篇文章总结了四姐妹每个人都有自己的秉性，有自己的追求和梦想，敢于突破自我。
 
关键词：亲情；责任；奉献；真爱

1  Introduction
Louisa May Alcott was an American author who was born on November 29, 1832 in Germantown in Pennsylvania. She stood as one of the great American practitioners of the girls’ novel and the family story. Being a teacher, nurse and hired labor provided real writing material for her writing Little Women. She was very aggressive and started writing at fifteen years old. She was best known as the author of the novel Little Women which was published in 1868. The book was set in the American civil war in the middle of the 19th century and told the story about how the four sisters eventually grew into the little women. The three major themes of the novel are domesticity, work and true love. Although there were many difficulties in their life, they managed to live meaningfully and beautifully. The novel was for the large part based on the author’s own experience and was influenced by the thinker Emerson at that time. The story also expressed the theme of family love, taking responsibility and dedication and they would be the impetus for people to make success.