Caddie Woodlawn

Caddie, in Carol Ryrie Brink’s novel Caddie Woodlawn, spends the majority of her time outside playing with her brothers. Despite her father’s insistence early in the story that she run around with her brothers to protect her health, he later tells her that women have their own place in society and that she should welcome it and set aside the freedom she experiences as a tomboy. At the end of the novel, Caddie begins to embrace the role she is expected to play since Mr. Woodlawn parents Caddie by combining masculine and feminine roles and traits. He teaches Caddie that she does not have to completely occupy only one gender sphere; she can incorporate both and accomplish what society expects of her while being true to herself. Caddie is encouraged…

In her article “The Caddie Woodlawn Syndrome,” Anne Scott MacLeod explores the typical upbringing of American girls in the nineteenth century. MacLeod notes that while the common assumption for a girl’s experience growing up in nineteenth century America was much different than Caddie’s, autobiographies written around the same time Caddie Woodlawn takes place tell a different truth. Elizabeth Allen, one of the women who wrote an autobiography, explains her experience growing up: “I suppose…

by a lynched, which was the main reason she supported anti lynching laws and gave to the National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The Walker family gave to many charities from religious to civil rights organizations. Walker had a very fast paced life so much to the point it caused her, her own life. Walker's doctors warned her about her fast pace lifestyle and that it was going to catch up with her but she didn’t listen. May 25, 1919 being only 51 year old, she died of…

Women and Caddie Woodlawn The idea of a strong, independent woman is appealing, but these two books may actually be going in the opposite direction of feminism’s path through history. The theme in both Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink is that strong, independent women end up conforming to the person they have always been told to be. The main characters from both books, Caddie and Jo, start out as boyish and independent, and don’t want to be like…