In the following essay excerpt, Elbert discusses the major themes in Little Women: "domesticity, the achievement of individual identity through work, and true love."

I may be strong minded, but no one can say I'm out
of my sphere now, for woman's special mission is>
supposed to be drying tears and bearing burdens. I'm
to carry my share, Friedrich, and help to earn the
home. Make up your mind to that, or I'll never go.

"

The title of Louisa May Alcott's most famous book is taken from a commonplace nineteenth-century term. In the opening chapter, Marmee reads a Christmas letter from her absent husband to his daughters, which tenderly admonishes them to "conquer themselves so beautifully that when I come back to them I may be fonder and prouder of my little women." This sentimental diminutive is puzzling in a feminist who...