Analysis Of Optimism: The March Family In Louisa May Alcott's Little Women

In life, optimism has many meanings. Optimism can be represented by making the best of the situation you are in or seeing the good in everything around you. The March family in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott had to do their best to stay optimistic. They were originally rich, but had fallen into the middle class because of the war. The middle class life changed the way that the March sisters looked at life overall. They each change their lives according to their new perspective of life. However, each sister changed their lives’ differently. Meg became another mother to her sisters. She had a job with Marmee where they mended clothes at night so that they were able to make enough money to sustain their lifestyle. This is Meg showing the …show more content…
However, she is learning how to live a life of poverty. Amy originally intended to spend a small amount on Marmee that first Christmas because she had wanted a new paint brush set. But, on Christmas morning, she realized that her sisters had done so much more and went to the store to exchange her purchase, a small bottle of cologne, for a larger bottle of cologne. Amy didn’t want to be the selfish one out of the group, and so she acted selflessly. Nevertheless, she was still spoilt because she wanted to be cool and have limes like the other girls. After Amy had gotten the limes, she learned the lesson of humility as her teacher took away her limes in front of the entire class. Amy later wished that she had never asked for the money and wished that she had never wished for the limes. As Amy grew up, she found more struggles relating to money and she never wanted to have to deal with them again. So, she planned to marry a rich man. Everywhere she went she looked for men who came from money that she could tolerate being married to. She eventually stopped looking at the monetary aspect of men and started looking for love. Amy found love with Laurie, but with Laurie it was never about the money. Amy may have stayed the spoilt rich girl, but she found love in the best of …show more content…
They changed their lives in ways that allowed them to survive in the middle class. They all have a few moments from time to time that can compare to the wealthy, i.e. jealousy and greed, but most of the girls’ traits contrast to the wealthy. Marmee raised her girls to be kind to others, selfless, and most of all loving. Because of this, their lives changed overall. Not many people can say that they were able to stay as optimistic as the March family did. In the future, hopefully more families that run into monetary troubles will find ways to stay