英文版小妇人读后感

Little Women is a novel published in 1868 and written by American author Louisa May Alcott. The story concerns the lives and loves of four sisters growing up during the American Civil War. It was based on Alcott's own experiences as a child in Concord, Massachusetts with her three sisters, Anna, May, and Elizabeth. Little Women is the story of The Marches, a family used to hard toil and suffering. Although Father March is away with the Union armies, the sisters Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth keep in high spirits with their mother, affectionately named Marmee. Their friendly gift of a Christmas holiday breakfast to a neighbouring family is an act of generosity rewarded with wealthy Mr. Laurence's gift of a surprise Christmas feast. However, despite their efforts to be good, the girls show faults: the pretty Meg becomes discontented with the children she teaches; boyish Jo loses her temper regularly; while the golden-haired schoolgirl Amy is inclined towards affectation. However, Beth, who keeps the house is always kind and gentle. After certain happy times winning over the Laurences, dark times arrive as Marmee finds out about her husband's illness. Worse is to come as Beth contracts scarlet fever in her Samaritan efforts for a sick neighbour and becomes more or lean invalid. The novel tells of their progreinto young womanhood with the additional strains of romance, Beth's terminal illness, the pressures of marriage and the outside world. This is the story of their growing maturity and wisdom and the search for the contentedneof family life. It was written in 1867 and is a fictionalised biography of Alcott and her sisters. It has become a much loved classic tale and, while some of its issues seem outdated, many of the trials of the sisters are all too relevant today as evidenced by its continued following.

Little Women

Before I read this book, I had watched a cartoon movie made by Japan. So I have a strong interest on it

It all begins in the dead of winter; The Christmas Season. The coldest one of all, were the war has made fuel for heating very scarce. While her husband is off at war, Marmee is left alone to raise their four daughters: Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy.

On Christmas Eve, Marmee has just arrived home from passing out food to the lefortunate with a letter from her husband, the girls' father. The all gather together around the fire to read the letter. Afterwards, the girls are teary eyed. Marmee kisses them and they are off to bed.

Jo is longing to become a writer. So, every night she stays up late writing the script for soap operas. As morning comes she is the last one awake. The table is set, and food prepared for their Christmas feast.

As dusk falls, the girls are all up in the attic acting out Jo's play, which she reads from the local (fake) newspa-pe-r. As they are performing, their rich, next-door neighbors grandson watches from the window.

The 2 oldest girls: Jo and Meg, get ready to attend the Christmas Ball. While Jo is curling Meg's hair, there is a strange smell to the air. Amy screams, Megs hair is being singed. They continue digging through the old clothes bin for a pair of white gloves.

One of the prominent themes in Little Women is the coming of age or maturation of the girls. During the course of the novel we see them grow in many ways -- physically, intellectually, and especially emotionally. One question which readers must ask themselves is whether the views the characters have on the coming of age proceare shared by Alcott. If they aren't, what are Alcott's views and how do they differ from those of the women in her story?

It is interesting to examine the last half of Chapter 20, "Confidential." Jo addresses the maturation issue as she speaks with Marmee of the situation between Meg and Mr. Brooke. The possible love between these two represents one of the very important aspects in coming of age for a teenage girl. Jo treats this natural proceas if it were some sort of disease, however. Jo cannot understand why Meg would want to stop behaving "like a sensible creature" (p.202), and refers to love as "such nonsense."