Contributions Of Louisa May Alcott

Throughout history, early American authors, such as Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Jefferson, and Olaudah Equiano, convey how they view human nature in their pieces of literature. Although these early American authors are different people, they share similar views on human nature, through their use of rhetorical strategies, such as figurative language, parallelism, and connotative diction, to show different perspectives of human nature.

Nobody likes the war and it is really a difficult topic to write on it. Louisa May Alcott expressed her personal experience with a dying war soldier in such a beautiful way that it extract the sympathy and emotions of the audience and readers. In her excerpt “Hospital Sketches”, she writes about a young, brave and bachelor soldier named John, who participated in the civil war in 1863. She encountered him in an army hospital, while working there as a nurse. He was brought there with the fatal injuries. Using her writer’s experience, she presents an emotional retelling of an story, which advances an argument. She gets her readers emotionally involved in this narrative. By using diction, imagery, selection of details and her rhetorical

American literature has evolved greatly from the Native Americans to 1870’s. American literature has changed, it teaches us how we have become more independent ourselves. The World on a Turtle’s Back, a myth, The Scarlet Letter, a book in a puritan setting, and A Rose for Emily is a southern gothic story. American literature would not be the same today without these forms of writing. The teachings from these are passed down generation to generation.

American History, it has done so much in time that has affected how we live life today and how we interpret things. American Literature reflects that and all it has left us with. Throughout the stories and passages we’ve read this course all of them have left a impact on how and why the writers wrote about what they did. It was all because of American History which later went on and fathered American Literature. American Literature has made society how it is today and painted a vivid picture of how American’s and people live and many of these writers had that in mind when they took these notes.

Known for her unique collection of short stories, Flannery O’Connor had a major impact on the writing industry during the 20th century. She is still to this day considered one of the most famous American authors. She very well shows that your life really impacts your writing technique, and tone of writing.

In the 1860’s, American society during the war was of two minds. To fully illustrate the discontent and anger felt for the war, analysis of the personal accounts of women during the Civil War will be introduced in this writing. The personal accounts include diary excerpts and letters, as well as an illustration produced at the time of the war. The wavering of unity on both the South and North due to the separation of family and the destruction of the United States and its individuals set the tone of what was deemed to be an insignificant war. The disengagement of the family unit and the destruction and hardships created due to the wartime circumstances led to discontent with the war, further leading it to be viewed in a negative light by

As stated by intellectual Joseph Wong, “influence is our inner ability to lift people up to our perspectives” (Young Ch. 6). Throughout history, numerous writers have utilized their ability to impact their readers to encourage their audience to follow the author’s principles and beliefs. Louisa May Alcott, born in Pennsylvania in 1832, was the type of writer to use her power to influence her lectors’ views on the topics and issues that she was passionate about. Alcott’s father, Amos Bronson Alcott, was a writer, lecturer, and educator, and her mother, Abba May, was a strong-willed and independent woman and bright educator. Her brilliant parents helped Alcott grow to be an intellectual, an independent female, and, as mentioned by Clark Moreland in one of his lectures, “…a dark headed, volatile, and energetic child” (“Lecture 3.4…”). After her parents fell into deep debt, Alcott began to work to support her family. She served as a seamstress, teacher, and, of course, a writer. As an open-minded individual, Alcott was an advocate of many causes and policies, and, through her compositions, she shared her beliefs to guide her readers towards integrating her ideals into their lives. For instance, in 1863, Alcott released her work “My Contraband,” first titled “The Brothers.” The piece featured a Civil War nurse, Faith Dane, in the Union side who was in charge of caring for a captured, dying Confederate captain and

There are many authors that have made a great impact on their time period and the world today. Each author has a unique writing style due to the way that each individual was raised. For example, some authors may advocate slavery, but other authors were raised to believe slavery was a horrible mistreatment of others. Thus, whichever bias was believed by each author was reflected through their writing. Opinion after opinion, writers in America still had an influential voice. Phillis Wheatley’s “On Being Brought From Africa to America,” Henry Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government,” Frederick Douglass’ “A Parody,” and Fanny Fern’s “Male Criticism on Ladies Books” share a similar theme of injustice inferiority to others and bias; however, on the contrary, they differ in the seriousness

In “September, 1918”, Amy Lowell shows her readers an interesting and illuminating poem. That war can be an ugly time and the people that experience it often seems to live in a “broken world” (19). To fight an evil, sometimes war is needed, nonetheless it is still costly to the people living through the war. Some in a literal sense, like soldiers fighting in a war, while some in a physical sense by the world that they now see and live in. I find the poem truly interesting though, in how the author shows that even in war we can still hold onto hope for more promising days. Lowell portrays a melancholy mood throughout her poem that makes her readers thinking about war but also the hope of it being over.

The war was happening in their own backyards and was disrupting families and homes. This letter brings to my attention what women were enduring as well. Henrietta writes to the General about the harm he is bringing to helpless women and children. She goes on to write about the burning of two homes and mothers and children being turned out of their doors. This letter reveals how heartbreaking and troublesome this era was. Men were fighting against each other in their own country, soldiers were dying leaving women widowed with children, and houses were being burnt down for purpose of war.

Using firsthand accounts of people’s lives, such as letters and diaries, gives the reader the ability to experience the writer’s thoughts, feelings, hopes, and dreams. This tactic was used by two authors to use these firsthand accounts for differing outcomes. Author James McPherson provides a comprehensive analysis of the Civil War using over 25,000 letters and 250 private diaries in his book, For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War. McPherson in his book answers to age-old questions; who was the common soldier and why did soldiers fight – what was their motivation? While McPherson answers these questions, another author uses diaries and letters of Civil War soldiers to understand the physical side of war. Author Kathryn

Through telling and retelling these people’s stories O’Brien (and any character doing the storytelling) is preserving and extending the people’s lives. Most of the stories and characters in this novel are made up; this much O’Brien admits to. Only through exaggerating and inventing stories, O’Brien argues, can the true sentiments of the stories and the people in them be conveyed. O’Brien admits that he “invented incidents that did not in fact occur but that nonetheless help to clarify and explain” what it was like to go through the war (O’Brien, 107). Only through these inventions can we truly begin to understand who the characters are and how they were affected by the events that took place in the

Louisa May Alcott is an American Novelist best known as the author of the novel “Little Women”. Louisa was born in November 1982, grew up in Germantown- Washington D.C and was known to be an abolitionist, feminist and also a naturalist. Being a naturalist meant that she believed that nothing existed beyond the natural earth i.e. no such thing as spirituality or the supernatural. Her family suffered from financial difficulties and so Alcott had to work to support her family in an early age. She penned the story “My Contraband” (1869) which was formerly known as “The Brothers” (1863). Contraband was a black slave who escaped to or was brought within union lines (Alcott 759). In “My Contraband”, Louisa

For her, life in New York City corresponds with independence: she can live however she wants and wear whatever she chooses without receiving any form of judgment. On the other hand, the familiarity of Maycomb is consoling and homely, but it is also limiting. Finally, in terms of racial issues, from a Southern perspective, Jean Louise belongs from a group that hates the NAACP and thinks of blacks as an uncivilized race. But, as a New Yorker with Northern views about racial equality, she belongs to a group who rarely notice and often do not care if they are surrounded by a black individual; blacks are treated the same as everyone else. Moreover, this demonstrates that Jean Louise has grown up and is now an individual of her own; she can make choices for herself and experience the world through her own eyes, not her father’s eyes.

Most of the stories we read are fiction, but are relatable to some people or we may know someone who has some of the same characteristics. I chose Alice Walker as someone who we should continue to study in future American Literature classes. Some of the authors we read are still alive and still produce work and adding to the history of American Literature. I believe the big reason we study literature is to gain knowledge of people and understand the diversity of the people around us. I think any author we studied in this course will continue to add value to future American Literature classes of the 21st century. There are also a lot of new authors who will continue to add value to our literature and create new history for us to study.