Little Women

Use these links to supplement and complement students’ reading of the work and to increase their overall enjoyment of literature. Challenge them to discern parallel themes, engage through visual and aural stimuli, and delve deeper into the thematic possibilities presented by the title.

Recommended Texts for Pairing

Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

• The follow-up novel to Little Women documents a year at Plumfield Academy, Professor Bhaer and Jo’s school.

“Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Emerson’s work was deeply influential for Alcott, as he was one of her teachers growing up.
• The essay will help students see the independence that goes along with the theme of Womanhood.

Other Student Resources

Taking Little Women Seriously by Anne Boyd Rioux

• provides a primer on the various debates surrounding Little Women as a work of literature as well as a look at its growing legacy
• discusses the theme of Womanhood through the feminist reclamation of the book in the 1960s and 70s

Louisa May Alcott - Transcendentalism

• Louisa May Alcott was close to transcendentalist thinkers such as Thoreau and Emerson, and this PBS video and accompanying notes will help students think about the transcendentalist ideas that inform Little Women, particularly Jo’s nonconformity.