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Again when their Father is sick, Marmee urges the girls to invest their energy into their work to keep their spirits up, led by Hannah who believes that “work is the panacea for most afflictions” (130). During vacation, when the girls experiment with resting from work, they grow idle and dissatisfied, and they learn from Marmee to maintain a balance of work and play. John Brooke defends Meg and the working class to Kate Vaughn as an example of American independence. Meg often resents her work, envying her friends’ leisurely ways, but she strives to do her work more cheerfully, and is rewarded by her Father’s recognition. Several characters throughout the novel learn that honest work, while not easy, is rewarding and worthwhile. Poverty, while challenging, can foster the development of creativity, strength, and character. The Laurences show us that money can be usefully and helpfully employed, particularly to help others. Time and again we are reminded – by the King family, the Gardiners, the Moffats, and Aunt March – that wealth is no guarantee of happiness. Meg marries John Brooke, and Amy tells Laurie she would have married him even if he were a pauper. Meg and Amy have to learn several times to live within their means, but all the girls come to believe that love is preferable to riches. The poverty of the March family is particularly touching because it is a result of Mr. But as Amy and Laurie discuss, “out-and-out beggars get taken care of, but poor gentlefolks fare badly,” including aspiring young men and women. Kindness is shown to those in the book with less than the March family, such as the Hummels.
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Little Women focuses on a particular type of poverty – that of the working poor.
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Thus, marriage does not replace but rather enhances the familial bond. While Jo initially a threat to her family unit, the March family actually expands to include these new families. Laurie in particular evolves from being a neighbor and friend to being a son and brother. Each of the grooms spends significant time meeting and being accepted by the family before the marriage. Alcott and her characters devote great attention to finding good husbands. Marmee's discussions with the girls about their duties to each other and their parents evolve into discussions about their duties to their husbands and children. Marmee teachers her daughters that having a loving husband and family is the greatest joy a woman can have, as emphasized by the concluding line of the book. The theme of family encompasses the girls marrying and starting families of their own.
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The girls miss their Father or Mother not because it makes their work harder, but because they are the moral head and heart of the family. The main dramas play out within the family as well, such as Jo and Amy’s fight over the burnt manuscript. Without money or an urge to be very active in society, much of the March family’s experiences and emotions take place within the family unit, inventing plays and clubs. When Aunt March offers to adopt a child, Father and Mother reject, insisting that they stay together. Throughout the novel, Alcott emphasizes the importance of family as not only a practical or economic unit but also a deeply meaningful one. The characters are defined by their familial relations and behaviors toward each other, and all are deeply invested in cultivating and supporting one another. The dominant theme of Little Women, as for girls in the nineteenth century, is family.