One of the most important women in myth is Pandora. She is the one who was credited with the opening of the box that contained all the evils in the world. She has impacted today’s world in the sense that people tend to associate foolishness and lack of discipline to women. The whole story of her in the mythology presents her as something that was very curious and very flimsy in her ways of doing things. This might have been the origin why women today are deemed as being flimsy in their decisions. Her role in the Greek myth was one that also opened the box for the second time in order to release the thing they call as hope. This led to the unanswered question of her attempt to repair that which she has destroyed already. The culture at that time was able to portray the character of Pandora as such because the poet Homer was using themes such as this in order to promote the superiority of men and the inferiority of the females. Pandora was significant to the women of today in such that they are made aware of what their weaknesses are, hence they have a better understanding on how to control and minimize it.

Another important woman in the myth is the goddess Athena. She is usually held to be the goddess of intelligence and also trickery. This fact was evidenced by the way that she chose her mortal favorite in this case it was Odysseus. She was also depicted to be stern and has impressive fighting skills. While this was in conflict to what was Pandora symbolizes, nevertheless she still was important in today’s perception that women are creatures of cunning and deceit. This is because while Athena is not known for using excessive violence in fighting, she was considered by many as to equal her father Zeus in cunning and in the managing of wars that they attend to like the famous Trojan War.

She was also able to display this amazing skill for planning when she was with Odysseus in the Trojan War and when the hero was on his House back in Ithaca planning to regain the house he had left for so long.

Of course, no one can forget the goddess of love and beauty, Venus. Though she is perfectly exemplifying the virtues of the positive side of love, she is nevertheless portrayed as also being treacherous and deceptive. She is always connected to those situations where there was previously no trouble but whose situation eventually     escalated into serious complications because of her manipulations and biddings. While she is indeed beautiful and truly attractive, every story that is connected to her are more or less associated with themes of damage and strife because of the unreasonableness of love. She is also doing things that are sometimes causing other to suffer just in the name of love. She makes mortals do foolish things that they would otherwise not have done without her influence. She has influenced women of today by the idea that they are also objects of desire and that they have the power to wield men’s attention if they so desire.

There is also Freyja from the Norse mythology. She is closely associated with the fertility of women and also war, death and wealth. While she is also sometimes depicted as having some control over the love aspect of all existing things, she is nevertheless more associated with the fertility aspect of the human race than she is connected to love. While it is strange that she is also the goddess of death, it is quite reasonable to believe that this was simply pa of the norse belief that life and death are intertwined. Since she is the goddess of fertility, it is but natural that she is also connected to the aspect of life that is the reverse of it which is death. She has impacted today’s modern culture in the way that ideas about the interconnectivity of life and everything else are omnipresent in this realm of existence.

Of course, there can be none more important when it comes to the creation part all existence there is as portrayed by the mother of all things. Her name is Gaia, and she is considered to be the source of all things that has life into it. She is considered as the mother Earth herself. She is the one from which both gods and monsters of Greek mythology were based upon. She is said to have been the source of both the gods and monsters from which the gods late did battle. It might be said that her children was a symbolical representation of the world that is to come and the human nature which has a dual aspect. Her impact in today’s modern world is the perception of everyone that women are the source and the mother of all things. It solidified he role of women as nurturer and giving care for all things there is whether it is bad or good. The idea was that she is the source of all things there is. She is the womb from which all things came into being. The variation is not in her control but the fact that they all came from her somehow points a deeper philosophical connection to the idea that the female form is the source of all things there is. It is significant to the women of today because they realize that they are also instruments from which new life comes out and that they are precious since they are the carriers from which new hope comes out.

Diana the goddess of hunting and the woods was the symbol of virginity and independence. In Greek mythology, she is the twin sister of Apollo who was the god of truth and justice. This goddess is usually depicted as being fair and of great beauty although her form is always that of the wilds that she is said to frequent and inhabit. She is symbolizing the pureness and the innocence of the female form while at its early stage in life. Though she is also known to have had suitors, she never ever had a particular liking to any of them. She has impacted the modern day and age by giving meaning and symbol as to the innocence of the female and all the virtues attached to its virginity.

It has impacted the modern day women by giving them the idea that they can be as carefree and happy as they want. They don’t have to submit to the expectations of the men around them.

There is also Persephone who was the wife of the king of the dead. Although she is said to be of great beauty and liveliness, she came to become associated with the continuous change of the season since it is because of her that the spring blooms when she arrives to the earth from the realm of the dead and the cause of winter when she is to return to the realm of the dead to accompany her husband. Thought the story was that she was forcibly taken by Hades the king of the underworld, there was no way that her mother could ever recover her later for some archaic reasons according to the story. This continuous travel of hers between the worlds of life and death is deeply associated with the continuous re-cycle of human life and death also. Her figure speaks of birth and re-birth. She is always bringing life and energy into the rest of the world as her beauty and virtues are so great that all things are saddened by her departure into the underworld and their subsequent joy when she is to come back into the realm of the living once again. It is not surprising that      she has impacted the modern world’s thinking and concept that women are the source of joy and life for all whether they are the wife of a man or as daughters to their parents.

The bright side of feminine qualities is also greatly exemplified in her. It impacted the women of today by implanting the idea that they are symbols of joy and gaiety. It’s no wonder that women are joyful by nature and that they tend to do things in a light hearted way.

Then again there is also Medea which was instrumental in the story of the Argonauts. She is depicted to be a witch and also that of deceiving characters. She is showing aggressive methods in order to get what she wants and when she is threatened in any way. While she was in love with Jason on his way to a quest in getting the Golden Fleece from her father, she was the one that helped him and his companions acquire their mission’s objective. She became the symbol of a woman’s wrath and unrelenting energy when they are angry or impassioned. The way that she gets her objectives done might be violent and outright savage but nevertheless it was all done with the purpose that she will not compromise anything for her to achieve the goal she aims for. She has impacted the modern world by the idea that women can and are very much capable of getting things done when they set their minds into it. She also sort of came to symbolize the kind of wrath that women have when they are seriously scorned or deeply wronged. It was also through her that feminine characters are not thought of as suitable only for the secondary roles in their husband’s lives. She came to signify the strength of women when they are forced to act upon the situation. It has impacted the women of today by instilling in them the idea that they have to fight for their rights in order to get it.

Rhea was also another female figure that was very important in the creation of the Greek mythology and the succeeding chain of events that followed. She is also considered as a mother figure next to the All-mother Gaea. This is because she was the mother of all the gods in Greek mythology with Cronus as her husband. It was because of her determination to let her children live that Zeus was able to take over the control of the universe from his father. She did this by disguising Zeus and letting Cronus swallow a stone in his stead since he was swallowing his children as soon as they were born.

She impacted the creation of the Greek mythology because if not through her efforts, there would not have been any continuation of the universe. It has impacted the women of today by influencing them to do what is right despite the prevailing hardship associated with their decision.

There is also Hestia which is the sister of Zeus himself. She is the ultimate symbol of all the hearths that there is. Her position in the hierarchy of the gods is something that is so domestic that she has become the symbol the unity and the solidarity of a family. She is almost synonymous with the symbol of women who are the unifying factors in their won homes. She is also the mother of Persephone that Hades had kidnapped in order to marry. Because of her great sorrow, she didn’t allow spring to come into being until all the gods finally relented that Hades allow his wife Persephone to return to her mother every half of the year. This was the beginning of the seasons change. It was because of this that here is summer and winter. Every winter, the world comes to a semi asleep state since her daughter Persephone has to go back again to the kingdom of the dead. Naturally, the spring only comes alive once she is awakened by her daughter’s kiss on the forehead as the story goes. It has impacted the modern society by giving the basis for the basic function of women to be the source of all that is life and the things that are associated with the life at home. All things that are domestic are attributed to her. As you can see her symbol which is the hearth of every home, her influence is naturally as sublime as the symbol is. She is something that is so basic in the life of every family that it is considered to be a basic component of life itself. This can be translated into the woman of today being the one who is providing the sustenance that makes domestic life bearable. It has impacted the women of today by teaching them that it is in their hands to make all things in their lives and those of the members of their family.

Bibliography:

Women in mythology

http://www.umich.edu/~homeros/Politics%20in%20Homer/women%20in%20the%20odyssey.htm

Edith Hamilton, The Greek Mythology, Homer, (2000)

Harold Newman, A Genealogical Chart of Greek Mythology (2007)

Norse Mythology, (2007)

http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/europe/norse/

Nordic Mythology, (2007)

http://www.luth.se/luth/present/sweden/history/gods/Old_norse_myth.html

INTRODUCTION

1.         Chinua Achebe ranks as the most famous  well read and influential of all contemporary writers. ‘Things Fall Apart’ ‘ his first novel  is a narrative dealing with the colonization of Africa by Europe and is told from the view point of the colonized people. First published in 1958, the book narrates the life of the warrior  and village hero Okonkwo, who is  the principle character of this book. It  describes the arrival of white missionaries to his Igbo village and their impact on African life and society at the end of the nineteenth century. Achebe, through his brilliant writing counters the images of African society and its people as depicted in Western literature and media, and goes on to  reclaim his own and his people’s history.

2.         The narrative of Things Fall Apart is set in the period during  Europe’s violent partitioning of Africa at the end of the 19th century, and Achebe wrote and published the novel towards the end of the colonial period, during a time of burgeoning nationalism across Africa:

“African frustration was compounded by the inconsistency between, on the one hand, universalistic Christian ideals (for Christianity spread widely during the colonial period, as did Islam) and liberal political ideas which colonialism introduced into Africa, and, on the other hand, the discrimination and racism which marked colonialism everywhere. This discrepancy deepened during the Second World War, when the British and French exhorted their African subjects to provide military service and labor for a war effort which was intended, in part, to uphold the principle of national self-determination. Post-war Africans were well aware that they were being denied the very rights for which they and their colonial masters had fought.

This deepening sense of frustration and injustice set in motion the events which would lead to national independence for most of Africa by the mid-1960s” (”Issues in African History”).

References

Achebe, Chinua, “The African Writer and the English Language.” In Achebe, Chinua, Morning Yet on Creation Day: Essays. New York: Doubleday, 1975. 91-103.

—–, Things Fall Apart. New York: Ballantine Books, 1959.

http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=382

3.         Majority of reviews and comments on Things Fall Apart have been focusing on Okonkwo, however in this paper, the discussion will be focused on  two major female characters, Ekwefi and Ezinma, and one minor figure, Ojiugo. The female characters of these book have so far been rarely discussed,if at alll, by other critics of the text, and when referred to, it is only in relation to Okonkwo’s actions or motivations. In this paper, we will examine the roles played by the women in a patriarchial society   according to their self-perceptions, as well as societal awareness of them as women, wives, mothers and daughters. Exploring the relationships between these women reveals not only alliances between mothers and their offspring, but also alliances between comrades in arms This paper will be done in three parts and the focus of my study will include:

(a)         Status of women in Achebe’s world.

(b)        Ekwefi, His second wife and Ojiugo, the third wife(a minor player).

(c)        Enzienne, the daughter of Okunuwa

STATUS OF WOMEN IN ACHEBE’S WORLD

4.         The world in Things Fall Apart is one in which patriarchy intrudes oppressively into every sphere of existence. It is an androcentric world where the man is everything and the woman amounts to nothing of significance. In domestic terms, women are quantified as part of men’s acquisitions. Three things — wives, yam barns, social titles — are the highest accolades for the successful farmer, warrior, and man of worth. These possessions determine a man’s social status, as illustrated by Nwakibie who has three huge barns, nine wives and thirty children, and the highest but one title which a man can take in the clan (21).

5.         The society described by  Achebe is  (1850-1900) an agrarian one in which the crop — the yam — is synonymous with virility. Achebe explains that this all-important crop [stands] for manliness, and he who [can] feed his family on yams from one harvest to another [is] a very great man indeed . . . . Yam, the king of crops, [is] a very exacting king (34-35). Consequently, to produce an abundant harvest, the traditional farmer needs a good workforce. Women constitute (and still do) the core of the rural workforce — farming, tending animals, nurturing children, among other activities. To echo the Nigerian critic Juliet Okonkwo,  Achebe’s cultural universe is one in which women [are] to be seen not heard, coming and going, with mounds of foofoo, pots of water, market baskets, fetching kola, being scolded and beaten before they disappear behind the huts of their compound (36). It would not be out of place to ally the existence of such women to that of other diasporic black women described by Zora Neale Hurston’s metaphor “mule[s] uh de world” (14). Indeed, Zora s Janie is robbed of her voice by her own husband Jody, who, like Okonkwo, chauvinistically believes that women s place is in the home (41), lumps together women and chillun and chickens and cows (67), and wants to be a big voice” (27) in the affairs of the community.

EKWEFI

6.         Ekwefi, Okonkwo’s second wife is portrayed as an insignificant person if viewed purely from the patriarchal standpoint, but when reexamined, her character emerges as that of a woman of  knowledge, love, and fierce independence.Throughout her life,  Ekwefi has endured much heartache and stigmatism. In Things Fall Apart (1969), women are viewed mainly as child bearers and help mates for their husbands. Due to the phallocentric notion that women must produce many hardy, male progenies to be valued within their cultural milieu, Ekwefi is considered a cursed woman because after ten live births, only one child - a daughter-survives. Thus, “By the time Onwumbiko was born, Ekwefi was a very bitter woman.”1 Accordingly, she resents the good fortune of the first wife: her ability to produce healthy, strong male children. Conversely, Culler (1982) asserts, “criticism based on the presumption of continuity between the readers’ experience and a woman’s experience and on a concern with the images of women is likely to become most forceful as a critique of phallocentric assumptions that govern literary works.”2 The conventional perspective of most readings of this text is that Ekwefi has been debilitated by life’s harsh circumstances. However, instead of continuing to lament her adversity, Ekwefi devotes her time and energy to the one child who does live, and finds solace in her relationship with her daughter.

8.         While male readings indicate that “the man is the point of reference in this society” Palmer (1983) stresses that as child bearers, women are pivotal to the literal survival of community and societal norms.’3 After the death of her second child, it is Okonkwo, not Ekwefi, who consults the dibia to locate the source of her difficulty. It is also Okonkwo who confers with yet another dibia after the death of Ekwefi’s third child, highlighting Palmer’s contention that Ekwefi has failed, not because she cannot have a viable child, but because she cannot provide her husband with male progeny who would, then, carry on in his father’s name. Okonkwo is concerned about the deaths of the children, but impervious to Ekwefi’s privation. No one comforts Ekwefi as she is forced to watch the dibia mutilate her child, drag him through the streets by his ankles, and finally lay him to rest in the Evil Forest with other obanje children and outcasts. It is significant, though that Okonkwo does demonstrate concern for the female child, Ezinma, as he follows her into the forest after she is taken by the Priestess, Chielo.

9.         Moreover, most readings of the novel do not address the brutal beating Ekwefi receives at the hands of Okonkwo: “Who killed this banana tree?” He asked. A hush fell over the compound immediately . . . Without further argument Okonkwo gave her a sound beating and left her and her only daughter weeping.”4The novel continues with a brief discussion of this continued abuse later when Okonkwo threatens Ekwefi with a gun after hearing her murmur under her breath. Yet, the next day, the New Yam Festival continues without a public outcry for this battered woman. Reading as a woman, one may understand Ekwefi’s resignation, as she recalls how she came to be Okonkwo’s second wife:

“Many years ago when she was the village beauty Okonkwo had won her heart by throwing the Cat in the greatest contest within living memory. She did not marry him then because he was too poor to pay her bride-price. But a few years later she ran away from her husband and came to live with Okonkwo.”5

10.       Culler (1982) writes that “women’s experience, many feminist critics claims, will lead them to value works differently from their male counterparts, who may regard the problems women characteristically encounter as of limited interest.”6

Therefore, although a male critic may deem these events as minor instances, the feminist reader must note that there is, in these passages, a great sense of irony and regret. Preparing to attend her favorite pastime, the annual wrestling event, Ekwefi recollects her great love for the then impoverished Okonkwo. Although she was married to another man, Ekwefi’s desire for Okonkwo is so great that at the first opportunity she abandons her husband to be with him, yet a sound beating is the compensation she receives for her love and devotion. Although this brutality does not warrant any attention from the elders, Okonkwo’s flogging of his youngest wife, Ojiugo, does. There is a public outcry, not because of the physical battering, but, rather the timing of the occurrence - The Week of Peace: “You have committed a great evil’…It was the first time for many years that a man had broken the sacred peace. Even the oldest men could only remember one or two other occasions somewhere in the dim past.”7 Iyasere (1969) notes “the peace of the tribe as a whole takes precedence over personal considerations.”8He could have continued, elaborating that particularly in reference to women, the unanimity of the patriarchy is the main priority of the community, rather than the physical safety of its women.

11.       Furthermore, there is no regard from the elders about Ojiugo’s condition; to the contrary, one elder boldly asserts that she is at fault, and thus, the beating itself is not the point of contention. Moreover, because Ekwefi is beaten after this week, there is no outrage beyond the intercession of the other two wives who dare say in support of their wounded sister, “It is enough.”9Communal events merely continue as normal. The great fight is fought, and new wrestling heroes are born. One may also wonder if while reflecting upon her life, Ekwefi is pondering the life of another young woman who has just decided that the new wrestling hero will become her husband, and the possible ramifications of such a decision. However, since Ojiugo is battered during the sacred week, Okonkwo must make a sacrifice to the earth goddess to recompense for himself and the community, which may be punished because of his dishonorable deed.

12.       Culler (1982) notes that one strategy in the attempt to read as a woman is to “take an author’s ideas seriously when . . . they wish to be taken seriously.”11 There is, moreover, no week or even day of peace for the women of Umuofia. They cannot find sanctuary within the confines of their own homes, or in the arms of their own husbands.

EZINMA, OKONKWO’S DAUGHTER

13.       There is one woman, or young girl who elicits pure love from all the lives she touches, even her father, Okonkwo. However, he cannot fully appreciate Ezinma as a person. Instead of admiring her for her strength and disposition as a burgeoning woman, Oknonkwo is saddened by the fact that she is not male.

14.       Ezinma is Ekwefi’s only living child, and it is demonstrated that her father does in fact respect her character. When Okonkwo acknowledges these affections, a male reading may solicit a sense of alliance with him and wish, for his sake, that Ezinma were male: “She should have been a boy, he thought as he looked at his ten-year-old daughter . . . If Ezinma had been a boy I would have been happier. She has the right spirit. “12Reading the text from the male purview, one may empathize with Okonkwo who, because of the fates, has no child, except a daughter, worthy of conveying familial legacies. But because Ezinma is female, she cannot function in this capacity. Moreover, even a woman, in a traditional reading of the text would support this notion. Culler (1982) articulates that “what feminists ignore or deny at their peril . . . is that women share men’s anti-female feelings–usually in a mitigated form, but deeply nevertheless.” According to Culler this stems partly from the fact that women “have been steeped in self-derogatory societal stereotypes,” while being constantly “pitted against each other for the favors of the reigning sex . . . “13 While reading as a woman, one must acknowledge that women are also indoctrinated to envision the world from a patriarchal perspective, and that, in Ezinma’s case, one must revise these biases to appreciate her strength, singularity and vivacity.

15.       Initially believed to be an obanje child who had only come to stay for a short period, after Ezinma thrives, she is pampered by her mother, and as the child who would be king if she were male. Ezinma is the embodiment of all the women in this novel represent: intelligence, vitality, and fortitude. Even in her relationship with her mother, Ezinma exhibits what Okonkwo, through his phallocentric lens, perceives as masculine tendencies:

“Ezinma did not call her mother Nne like all children. She called her by her name, Ekwefi, as her father and other grown-up people did. The relationship between them was not only that of mother and child. There was something in it like the companionship of equals, which was strengthened by such little conspiracies as eating eggs in the bedroom.”14

16.       Ezinma calls her mother by her name, signifying the development of an autonomous, effectual being. Ezinma and Ekwefi share a bond that is unlike most other parental ties in the novel: they are virtually equals. Their affiliation is based on mutual love, respect, and understanding. They share secret moments, such as eating eggs in the confines of her bedroom (eggs are considered a delicacy), solidifying their esprit de corps, even after Okonkwo threatens them both. Culler (1982) notes that when analyzing one’s position as a female reader, “Critics identify (the) fear that female solidarity threatens male dominance and the male character.”15 Thus, this maternal connection becomes a caveat for Okonkwo and traditional society because he cannot control the depths of love and the shared enthusiasm between mother and daughter. This is most evident when, for example, Okonkwo forbids Ekwefi to leave her hut after Ezinma is carried off by the chief priestess. Ekwefi ignores her husband and risks a flogging to follow Chielo and her daughter throughout the night, until she is certain that her daughter will return home safely. When Okonkwo asks, “Where are you going?” Ekwefi boldly asserts that she is following Chielo.16 But instead of attempting to detain her, Okonkwo joins the journey, following from a safe distance, also to ensure the safety of his beloved child. This mother/daughter alliance is explicated throughout the text, though there is little discussion of it in most analyses of the novel.

17.       One must acknowledge as well that male and female roles are societal constructs, and thus, the entire female identity is based more upon societal constraints rather than physiological realities. Women are taught to mother, while men are conditioned to dominate and control. Hence, we know that men may also read as women, if they are willing to rethink their positions, as well as women’s positions within patriarchal constructs. Culler (1982) writes “For a woman to read as a woman is not to repeat an identity or an experience that is given but to play a role she constructs with reference to her identity as a woman, which is also a construct…”17

18.       As this constructed woman reader analyzes the characters of Ekwefi, Ojiugo, and Ezinma as major figures whose lives are not just affected by the whims of their father/husband, but also as women who affect their husband/father and each other, I believe that only when one consciously attempts to read as a woman, these formerly peripheral characters may be afforded proper critical attention by male/female readers of this great African novel.

REFERENCES

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1969.

Cary, Joyce. Mister Johnson. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1989.

Cook, David. African Literature: A Critical View. London: Longman, 1977.

Culler, Jonathan. On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982.

Iyasere, Solomon. “Narrative Techniques in Things Fall Apart”. Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe. Ed. Killam, G.D. London: Heyman, 1969.

JanMohammed, Abdul. The Economy of Manichean Allegory: The Function of Racial Difference in Colonialist Literature. “Race,” Writing and Difference. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986. Pp. 78-106.

Perspectives on Chinua Achebe. London: Heyman, 1969.

Obiechina, Emmanuel N. Language and Theme: Essays on African Literature. Washington, DC: Howard UP, 1990.

Palmer, Eustace. The Feminine Point of View in Buchi Emecheta’s ‘The Joy of Motherhood’. African Literature Today. Ed. Eldred Durosimi Jones. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1983. Pp. 38-55.

NOTES

1. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1969. p. 76.

2. Culler, Jonathan. On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982. p. 46.

3. Palmer, Eustace. The Feminine Point of View in Buchi Emecheta’s The Joy of Motherhood. African Literature Today. Ed. Eldred Durosimi Jones. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1983. p. 40.

4. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1969. p. 39.

5. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1969. p. 40.

6. Culler, Jonathan. On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982. p. 45.

7. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1969. Pp. 32-33.

8. Iyasere, Solomon. “Narrative Techniques in Things Fall Apart”. Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe. Ed. Killam, G.D. London: Heyman, 1969. p. 94.

9. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1969.

10. Culler, Jonathan. On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982. p.47.

11. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1969. Pp. 61-63.

12. Culler, Jonathan. On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982. p.53.

13. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1969. p. 73.

14. Culler, Jonathan. On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982. p. 54.

15. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1969. p. 97.

16. Culler, Jonathan. On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982. p. 64.

Like many great American novels, Little Women (written by Louis May Alcott) focuses on the dynamics of character growth and development.  Unlike most, however, there are four subjects to this focus, four loving sisters who, as the first part of the novel progresses, find themselves in a whirlwind of holiday activities.  Starting from lamenting their poverty and deciding to make presents for their beloved mother, the four sisters find themselves having a Christmas that even today many people would envy.

The second part of the novel begins several years later, focusing on the dynamics of romantic themes so effectively that Little Women is still held to this day as the epitome of romantic novels.  Controversially, theses romantic themes revolve around a single man, a charming young man the girls had met during their holiday adventure years before, and progress with each of the four sisters having an opportunity to capture the young man’s heart, yet in the end, obviously, only one could keep it.

• Little Women has found much criticism in its depiction of youthful romance due to the author having each of the four sisters the subject of the same young man’s potential affections.  Why would Alcott have done this?  How did this fact affect the progress of the story?  Could the underlying messages have been delivered without using a single paramour?
• A subplot to the novel is the sisters’ development, particularly Jo’s development as a writer and her subsequent romantic relationship with one of her teachers from her college.  Draw out the sequence of these developments and discuss how each of them affected the character’s internal development.

Considering Little Women’s standing as one of the most significant novels in American history, the fact that Alcott never really liked it is ironic.  Alcott wrote Little Women at the request of her publisher.  Its amazing popularity caused the author to question the quality of the writing; was she writing serious, quality fiction, or playing to trite demands of marketability, resulting in works only suitable for young girls and children.  It is often said such questions can only be answered by time.  Time has spoken its judgment.

Though the book is frequently used in the study of American literature, many students have difficulty today evaluating the finer points of “Little Women.”  The social status of women today, along with their hopes, aspirations, and priorities, are sufficiently different to cause students to overlook many important aspects of the novel.

Professional writers, such as those working for our company, have studied this novel alongside dozens or even hundreds of others, giving them unique perspective of the novel’s significance.  With this perspective, and years of experience in writing, our writers stand ready to assist the student with essays on this an many other novels of literary significance.  All they need is your order.