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Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau brought to light the divinity of nature and humanity as the main point of it all was to the inherent goodness of people and nature. They believed that people work at their best when they are self-reliant because they can express independence and create themselves instead of following the conformity of society. In all, Transcendentalism has become a form of intuition with oneself, it has allowed people to have their sense of meaning, trust, and imagination to create and it’s exactly what Louisa May Alcott did in her film Little Women; she took Emmerson and Thoreau inspiration of limitless and potentiality and implemented it on women. With regards to this, Little Women depicts the life of Four sisters who are at home with their mother while their father is fighting at War. Meg and Jo who are the two oldest and the two youngest Beth and Amy are struggling under the guidance of their mother Marmee. As time passes news comes that their father falls ill leading Jo to make a sacrifice and sell her hair so her mother can be with their father; when their mother leaves Beth becomes sick with scarlet fever and later on, dies leaving just three of the sisters. Meg eventually gets married, Jo decides to move to New York and Amy leaves to live in Paris, but as the sisters separate, confusion falls within one another for instance, Jo doesn’t feel the love that she felt before with her husband who she then decides to leave and then meets a Professor by the name of Friedrich Baeher who wasn’t young nor rich but kind, unselfish, and intelligent; knowing her parents will disapprove, Jo starts to write stories and later on attends an event with Baeher where he speaks about religion to a couple of philosophers and becomes intrigued about his way of believing and thinking. As time passes, her sister Amy being now a beautiful grown woman starts to have feelings for Laurence but is hesitant in saying or doing anything because she is unsure about the whole ordeal as for Megan she’s been tied up with being a mom that she has neglected her husband but eventually snaps out of it. As things start to change, Jo finds out that Amy and Laurence are engaged and Sis is thrilled but it leaves her wanting to find love, she then meets up with the professor and she now feels that she’s able to connect with him leading her mind to travel philosophically. Nonetheless, all the sisters found a calling during their time in what I like to call confusion as they didn’t know what they wanted, they managed to find themselves through work and were able to live the life they wanted to live.
To continue, the way that transcendentalism is reflected in the themes of little women is by the first depiction of the sisters who were in the hands of their mother as they paid more attention and time finding ways to keep going to survive as they didn’t have the chance to grow as a person due to the struggle between family duty. At the time the role of women was so strict that there was so little to do as they were strictly depicted as household keepers and nothing more; the characters were expected to marry young and carry on their families but it’s not what they wanted to live up to, they wanted more from life and they considered that especially Jo who found herself after she left her husband. But, through the four different sisters, Alcott illustrated the roles of the women, Meg who married and became a mother, Beth who focused on her art and as a person, Amy who struggled in picking her side yet struggled to live a life of duty and her career and at the end, only two fell into the desired role of women, but Jo she became her source of inspiration especially when she began to write stories and think in a broader perspective as it always left her questioning the roles in life. More so, there is also the theme of the dangers that stereotyping has within the film, as Jo doesn’t want to be seen as the expected mother or woman she wants to earn her living and not just depend on a man and she does it, although she fell in love with the professor she was able to do what she wanted to do and set her goals nonetheless leaving her to find happiness. Overall as mentioned previously the meaning of transcendentalism is to grow and be entwined with nature and oneself, and even though two of the sisters still played their role as 19th-century women I have to say they found their meaning along with Jo who created her story and own work to finally become who she wanted to be.
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