Thank you for joining us! Here you will find a summary of the chapters that were read this week. If you haven’t finished reading yet, do not worry. If you do not want to read the summary, you can click “comment” right below this post to access the discussion questions. We invite you to begin participating in the discussion questions underneath this post and reply to as many as you wish. They will be open for discussion from today until April 30th, so you still have time to read and reply. (For next week’s discussion, read chapters 8 through 13.)
Chapter One: The book opens with the girls lamenting about how hard Christmas will be for them this year, with their poverty and their father away, serving as a chaplain in the Civil War. The girls decide to use their hard-earned money to buy presents for their mother instead of presents for themselves. The girls then practice their Christmas play that Jo wrote. Mrs. March comes home and reads the girls a letter from Mr. March, in which he encourages the girls to work hard to be good. Mrs. March reminds the girls that life is like Pilgrim’s Progress and encourages them to continue onward to see how much they grow before their father returns.
Chapter Two: On Christmas morning, Mrs. March asks the girls if they would give their Christmas breakfast to a poorer family, the Hummels. The girls find joy in giving to the Hummels and in surprising their mother with gifts. That evening, they perform their play for their friends, and afterward they are surprised with ice cream and treats. Mr. Laurence sent the food as a gift because he heard of their generosity toward the Hummels.
Chapter Three: Meg and Jo are invited to Mrs. Gardiner’s New Year's Eve party. The girls share one good set of gloves because Jo ruined her pair, and Jo accidentally burns Meg’s hair off attempting to curl it for the party. When they get to the party, Meg makes sure Jo acts ladylike and does not dance, because then people would see the patch where Jo had once burned her dress. Attempting to hide, Jo runs into Theodore Laurence (Laurie). The two get along well and dance in the hall away from everyone else. Later, Meg sprains her ankle and Laurie offers them a carriage ride home.
Chapter Four: The girls struggle to cheerfully work again after the holidays. While all the girls grumble and Meg and Jo leave to go to their work, their mother is kind and waves goodbye as always. Her steady kindness surprises them. We learn that Mr. March lost his money while helping a friend, and Meg and Jo then wanted to work to help the family. When Meg and Jo come back home, each of the girls share a story about their day and their mother uses their stories to remind them to be grateful for their blessings.
Chapter Five: While Jo is outside shoveling snow, she decides to go over to the Laurence house to be kind to Laurie, because he “is suffering for society and fun,” once Mr. Laurence leaves. As they talk, Laurie reveals how lonely life is for him. Jo entertains Laurie with a story about Aunt March, and Laurie shows Jo his grandfather’s library and plays the piano. Jo says she isn’t much afraid of Mr. Laurence, and when he suddenly returns home, she appeals for Laurie to have more fun with people his age. After tea, Laurie plays piano and Mr. Laurence suddenly ends the visit. We learn that Laurie’s father married an Italian musician Mr. Laurence did not like and then both parents died when Laurie was young. Jo tells her family about the visit and does not catch that the “medicine” Laurie was thankful for was actually her.
Chapter Six: The Marches and Laurences’ friendship grows, but Beth is still afraid of Mr. Laurence. When Beth finds the courage to begin playing his piano, she does not realize how much her playing touches his heart. She decides to make him a pair of slippers to thank him for letting her play. He is so touched by her gift that he sends her a piano which belonged to his granddaughter who died years before. Beth is so touched that she conquers her fears and goes right to Mr. Laurence to thank him.
Chapter Seven: Amy needs money because the girls at school have been giving her pickled limes, and Meg gives her money to repay the girls because that is what the girls expect. The girls all act nicely to Amy when they learn she has limes to give out, but Amy remembers that Miss Snow was rude to her about her nose and refuses to give her one. Miss Snow tells the teacher that Amy has limes, which aren’t allowed, and the teacher makes Amy throw them out the window. Then he whips her hand and makes her stand in front of the school as punishment. When Amy tells her family, Marmee decides that Amy will not go back to the school, because she disapproves of the teacher’s punishment. Marmee still reproves Amy for her rule breaking and encourages her to be more modest like Laurie.
Question 1: What sort of parents do Mr. and Mrs. March seem to be?
ReplyDeleteVery laid back parents for the time. They never pushed their daughter into doing studies or things they did not want to do. Also, they were very encouraging & supportive to each of the girls.
DeleteI am surprised and challenged by just how tender Marmee is. She is so kind and so patient!
DeleteGenerous. They care about serving others (as a Chaplin, as neighbors) and have tried to instill these values in their children. We see this when the girls give up their Christmas breakfast to help a needy family and when their father reminds the girls to continue to battle their individual “bosom enemies."
DeleteAlyssa, I agree about how tender Marmee is during such a tough time. She's got some great parenting skills. From what the narrator has said about Mr. March and what we have seen of Mrs. March, I see both as very nurturing to their daughters. They clearly want the best for each girl and not simply one overall goal, as seen by the girls getting their education or work experience in different ways.
DeleteSamantha,
DeleteI almost wonder if we could say that Alcott makes Marmee a "perfect character" in the book. Everyone else so far seems to have their faults, and Marmee seems to have conquered hers already. I almost see her as the idealized character Alcott uses to contrast the more "human" problems the girls have. Do you see her the same way? Maybe I'm reading into things too much lol
Alyssa, when life comes to tough times, there tend to be two types of parents (from my youth experience): (1) parents who share the struggles with their children and (2) parents who let their children be children and hide much of their personal struggles away as adult problems. While the girls do share in Mr. March not being home and low finances, I imagine Marmee hides some of her despair and personal struggles from her daughters.
DeleteQuestion 2: In Chapter One, as they all sit in the evening sewing sheets for Aunt March, Jo creatively begins a discussion about continents. Have you had a recent experience where you had to get creative with a boring task so that it was more fun?
ReplyDeleteListening to audiobooks makes many boring tasks more fun for me, though I've been doing that for a long time. It's more helpful right now since I'm stuck at home more
DeleteListening to audiobooks has made boring tasks more interesting for a long time now. It has become more important now that I'm spending more time at home
DeleteI agree with Nancy, listening to audio-books makes many tasks more interesting. I also like to listen to music while I work. Recently, my husband and I have started a trivia game for when we have to clean/do chores.
DeleteQuestion 3: In Chapter One on Christmas Eve, the girls discuss their father, who was too old to join the army but was called to serve as a Chaplin. Based on the reading, how has the war impacted their family and daily life?
ReplyDeleteThe Civil War stripped the March's of luxuries they once had. Meg periodically reminiscences of the easier life from before. Mr. March isn't home to provide for the family, leaving the women to find ways to bring money and food into the home. They have also all felt a bit forlorn at times and work to cheer one another up. The war has shown each the importance of family and loved ones over material possessions. The girls showed Marmee how they are working on remembering this by surprising her with Christmas gifts, when they knew no gifts would be coming for them that year.
DeleteQuestion 4: In “The Laurence Boy,” Meg and Jo approach preparing for the party and enjoying the party very differently. How do their actions reveal their values?
ReplyDeleteWhen preparing for the party, Meg is predominately worried about how she looks to the other guests and to her hosts. She socializes with others, until she injures herself in shoes that are painful to wear. Jo, on the other hand, is more worried about simply looking alright in her sister's eyes and having a good time without embarrassing her sister. These actions reveal that Meg still prioritizes class, despite having less than she once did. Jo is mostly concerned about her family's feelings and spending time with someone she believes is a quality human being that she has already been curious about. She seems little concerned with social appearances beyond how she makes her family be perceived.
DeleteQuestion 5: In “Being Neighborly,” we see a strong contrast between the March home and the Laurence House. How does this contrast and Laurie’s description of his daily life support Marmee’s advice (at the end of Chapter Four) for her girls to think over their blessings and be grateful? What do you think “being rich” means to Alcott?
ReplyDeleteQuestion 6: In Chapter Five, Jo does not realize that the “medicine” Laurie is thankful for is her companionship. What is your first impression of Laurie? What words from the book give you your impression?
ReplyDeleteLaurie seems lonely and gentle when we first meet him. He gives Jo a "gallant bow" when he asks her to dance, and he doesn't take over the conversations. He also "very gently" handles the burnt dress situation. His words are classy and he seems like a calm person. There is a "solitary, hungry look in his eyes" when Jo goes over to his house, and Alcott says that Laurie admires Jo. Meg seems to imply at the end of Chapter Five that Laurie likes Jo, but Jo doesn't think his manners mean anything special. It's a curious distinction.
DeleteQuestion 7: Both Beth and Amy have their own short stories in Chapters Six and Seven. How do these little stories build upon the girls’ fighting their individual “bosom enemies"?
ReplyDeleteI like how these chapters give a close-up to their personalities. Beth has a strong shyness that she pushes past when she realizes how much Mr. Laurence misses his grandchild and needs to receive kindness from others.
DeleteAmy needs approval from others. This tendency motivates her a lot and her desire to be admired sometimes overrules her desire to be good. This common war within humanity makes her very relatable.