A STUDY ON THE CHARACTER OF
JOSEPHINE MARCH
IN LOUISA MAY ALCOTT’S
LITTLE
WOMEN
ABSTRACT
A STUDY ON THE CHARACTERS OF JOSEPHINE
MARCH IN LOUISA MAY ALCOTT’S LITTLE WOMEN
The
writer uses a raw material of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women as her study in
this paper. She finds one of the major characters in Little Women, Josephine March, has a very unique personality.
Different from all of her sisters, Jo, the name Josephine uses to call herself
to make it sound manlier, doesn’t like the fact that she is born as a girl. On
the first chapter she often complains about how she hopes to be a boy so she
could go and fight with her Father. She is also a very smart girl who has a
great talent in writing. She even has a job which is something rare for
nineteenth century American girl. Her character and personality is strongly
affected by the writer itself, Louisa May Alcott. This fact intrigues the
writer to find out why Jo has that unique character and to analyze what factors
influencing it and also to find the similarity between the character, Josephine
March, and the writer, Louisa May Alcott. In carrying out her study, she uses a
literary approach that is based on sociological theory namely Feminist theory and
biographical approach. Both of this approach are used to point out why Jo March
has a very unique behavior for a nineteenth century girl.
This
study is conducted by means of the content analysis. The data for the analysis
cover the behavior of Josephine March in the novel.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First
of all, the writer would like to express her best gratitude to God for His
blessing that she can finish her study. The writer also refers her great
gratitude to both of her parents who have supported her study and given her
encouragement to finish her study.
The
writer would like to express her deepest thank to Mrs. Yokhebed Santoso, her
advisor who has provided her time, advices and all necessary resources needed
in her papers. Finally, she also thanks all of her friends who have given her
encouragement to finish this paper.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.
INTRODUCTION
I.1. BACKGROUD
OF THE PROBLEM
I.2. THE
PROBLEM STATEMENT
I.3. OBJECTIVE
OF THE STUDY
I.4. IMPORTANCE
OF THE STUDY
I.5. SCOPE
AND LIMITATION
I.6. UNDERLYING
THEORY
I.7. ORGANIZING
OF THE STUDY
II.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
II.1.
III.
METHOD OF THE STUDY
III.1. DATA
COLLEVTION
III.2. DATA
ANALYSIS
III.3. ANALYSIS
III.4. CONCLUSION
IV.
ANALYSIS
IV.1. asd
V.
CONCLUSION
V.1. CONCLUSION
OF
CHAPTER
1
INTRODUCTION
The
writer of this paper divides this introductory chapter into seven parts. They
are the background of the problem, statement of the problem, objectives of the
study, importance of the study, scope and limitation of the study, the theory
underlying and the organization of the study.
1.1.Background of The Study
Louisa May Alcott
was an American writer who authored over 30 books and short-story collections
and wrote poetry as well. Little Women, her most famous book, was a
novel for girls. Written in 1868, it departed from the existing practice
of idealized and/or stereotypical children in books meant for young readers.
Instead, it offered a fully realized young heroine in the spirited character of
tomboy Jo March. Little Women remains a beloved classic of children’s
literature today. Alcott is also remembered for her book Hospital Sketches,
which she penned in 1863 based on letters she had written home while serving as
a nurse in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War.
Little Women is one of Louisa May Alcott’s special novels.
This novel was based on the life of Louisa May Alcott herself and also her
three sisters. The four major character are a semi-portray of herself and her
three sisters.
The writer is
impressed by the novel Little Women
and decides to analyze it because when she read it, she is really interested with
the plot line and also the strong personality of each March siblings,
especially Josephine March’s personality which the writer find really unique.
Unlike her other three sisters, Jo act like a boy in her family when her Father
has to go to the war. Moreover based on the background of Alcott’s biography,
there are some similarity between the novelist and one of the major characters,
Josephine March.
The writer wonders
why Jo has a unique personality and behavior that doesn’t show that she is a
nineteenth century American girl. Instead behaving well like a lady, Jo often
complains how she wishes to become a boy so she could go to the war and help
her Father. This action of her is so contradicted to how nineteenth century
girls usually act.
Therefore, in
carrying out her study, the writer will use a literary approach and
biographical approach. For the literary approach, the writer will use social
factor, more specifically she will use the Feminist theory. Feminist theory
is the extension of feminism into theoretical or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. The strange behavior of Josephine March
encourage the writer to find out what social factors affect it through Literary
and Biographical approach
1.2.Problem Statement
Despite
the growth of industry, urban centers and immigration, America in the late 19th
century was still predominantly rural. Seven out of ten people in the United
States lived in small towns with populations under 2500 or on farms in 1870. In
Indiana, the 1880 census reported a population of almost 2 million residents,
about 55 per square mile, 1,010,000 men and 968,000 women. About three out of
four people lived in rural areas. The nineteenth century American women were
tied to house and children, doing endlessly unacknowledged work, and little
opportunity for outside contact or variety of experience.
Josephine
March is one of those nineteenth century American girls. All her other sisters acts
just like the other girls at that time should act, especially her little
sister, Amy March. But, unlike them, she acts like a boy and even her other
sisters consider her as their ‘brother’. She also often hopes to be a boy
instead of a girl. But in the end, Jo’s behavior change after she falls in love
with Mr. Bhaer.
On
the basis of the above background, the writer wants to analyze what factors
make Jo acts oppositely from the other nineteenth century American girl and to
find the influence Alcott gives to her character, Josephine March. The problem
of the study can be formulated as follow: 1. What kind of changes occur in Jo’s
behavior? 2. What factors that makes Jo acts oppositely from the other nineteenth
century American girl? 3. What kind of influence that Alcott gives to her
character, Josephine March?
1.3.The Objective of The Study
This
study is geared to the following objectives:
1. To
find what kind of changes occur in one of the major characters of Little Women, Josephine March’s
behavior.
2. To
find out the factors that makes Jo acts oppositely from the other nineteenth
century American girl.
3. To
find the influence given by Louisa May Alcott to her character, Jo.
1.4.The Importance of The Study
The
writer hopes that this paper will broaden the other students’ horizon toward
the study of literary in relation to the application of literary works: such
as, in examining the personality and behavior of the character in the novel
through literary field from the Sociological factor namely feminist theory. We
also can study about the relation of the social factors with the behavior and
personality in a character and also the influence given by the story writer to
her/his character. Finally, this study will show that social factors have a
great effect on people’s behavior.
1.5.The Scope and Limitation of The
Study
In
doing this research, the writer limits this study to one of the major
characters, Josephine March, in Little
Women because Jo shows a strange and unique behavior compare to the other
characters.
She
also limits her data to both sociological factors and biographical factors. The
sociological factors are limited to the personality and behavior of Jo March
toward the other participants. The writer will use only the feminist theory to
show the change in Jo March’s behavior through the novel.
1.6.Underlying Theory
The
study is based on the Sociological theory or more specifically it is based on
the feminist theory. Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's social roles, experience, interests, and feminist politics in
a variety of fields, such as anthropology and sociology, communication, psychoanalysis, economics, literature, education, and philosophy. Feminist theory focuses on analyzing gender inequality. Themes explored in feminism include discrimination, objectification (especially sexual objectification), oppression, patriarchy, stereotyping, art history and contemporary art, and aesthetics.
1.7.The Organization of The Study
This
paper consists of five chapters. Chapter one is introduction that talks about
the background of the study, problem statement, objective of the study, the
importance of the study, that scope and limitation of the study and the
organization of the study. Then, the review of the literature is in the chapter
two. Chapter three is research method and the analysis of the novel can be
founded in chapter four. The last chapter consist the conclusion of the study.
CHAPTER
II
REVIEW
OF RELATED LITERATURE
In
doing the research, the researcher tries to relate the literary work and
theories which enable her to approach her problem in the study. Because of that
reason, she tries to search for relevant theories that help her to answer the
question of her problem.
Here,
the writer of the paper realizes that she should stand on some theories related
to her study so she can analyzes the relationship between the data and the
objectives of the study. In this chapter, she reviews some relevant theories,
namely: Sociological theory and Biographical theory.
2.1.
Sociological
Theories
The
Sociological Theories are analysis based on the idea that art is a way of
making a political statement, and that examination of a text will reveal some
of the social, economic and political structures of a particular culture. This
chapter will only presents the Feminist Theory which will be used by the writer
on her study.
Feminist
theory is one of the major contemporary sociological theories, which analyzes
the status of women and men in society with the purpose of using that knowledge
to better women's lives. Feminist theorists have also started to question the
differences between women, including how race, class, ethnicity, and age
intersect with gender. Feminist theory is most concerned with giving a voice to
women and highlighting the various ways women have contributed to society.
There are
four main types of feminist theory that attempt to explain the societal
differences between men and women:
·
Gender
Differences:
The gender difference perspective examines how women's location in, and experience of, social situations differ
from men's. For example, cultural feminists look to the different values
associated with womanhood and femininity as a reason why men and women
experience the social world differently. Other feminist theorists believe that
the different roles assigned to women and men within institutions better
explain gender difference, including the sexual division of labor in the
household. Existential and phenomenological feminists focus on how women have been
marginalized and defined as the “other” in patriarchal societies. Women are thus seen as
objects and are denied the opportunity for self-realization.
·
Gender Inequality:
Gender-inequality theories recognize that women's location in, and experience
of, social situations are not only different but also unequal to men's. Liberal
feminists argue that women have the same capacity as men for moral reasoning
and agency, but that patriarchy, particularly the sexist patterning of the
division of labor, has historically denied women the opportunity to express and
practice this reasoning. Women have been isolated to the private sphere of the
household and, thus, left without a voice in the public sphere. Even after
women enter the public sphere, they are still expected to manage the private
sphere and take care of household duties and child rearing. Liberal feminists
point out that marriage is a site of gender inequality and that women do not
benefit from being married as men do. Indeed, married women have higher levels
of stress than unmarried women and married men. According to liberal feminists,
the sexual division of labor in both the public and private spheres needs to be
altered in order for women to achieve equality.
·
Gender Oppression:
Theories of gender oppression go further than theories of gender difference and
gender inequality by arguing that not only are women different from or unequal
to men, but that they are actively oppressed, subordinated, and even abused by
men. Power is the key variable in the two main theories of gender oppression:
psychoanalytic feminism and radical feminism. Psychoanalytic feminists attempt
to explain power relations between men and women by reformulating Freud's theories
of the subconscious and unconscious, human emotions, and childhood development.
They feel that conscious calculation cannot fully explain the production and
reproduction of patriarchy. Radical feminists argue that being a woman is a
positive thing in and of itself, but that this is not acknowledged in
patriarchal societies where women are oppressed. They identify physical
violence as being at the base of patriarchy, but they think that patriarchy can
be defeated if women recognize their own value and strength, establish a
sisterhood of trust with other women, confront oppression critically, and form
female separatist networks in the private and public spheres.
·
Structural Oppression:
Structural oppression theories posit that women's oppression and inequality are
a result of capitalism, patriarchy, and racism. Socialist feminists agree with Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels that the working class is
exploited as a consequence of the capitalist mode of production, but they seek
to extend this exploitation not just to class but also to gender.
Intersectionality theorists seek to explain oppression and inequality across a
variety of variables, including class, gender, race, ethnicity, and age. They
make the important insight that not all women experience oppression in the same
way. White women and black women, for example, face different forms of
discrimination in the workplace. Thus, different groups of women come to view
the world through a shared standpoint of "heterogeneous commonality."
2.2.
Biographical
Theories
According
to A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature: Fourth Edition the
Historical-Biographical approach can be defined as the approach that "...sees
a literary work chiefly, if not exclusively, as a reflection of the author's
life and times or the life and times of the characters in the work" (Guerin,
22). Understanding the social structure or way of life of a certain time period
give the reader a greater knowledge base from which to draw conclusions and
better understand the story. Discovering details about the author's life and
times also provide similar ways to further develop ideas about a story.
Like any critical methodology, biographical
criticism can be used with discretion and insight or employed as a superficial
shortcut to understanding the literary work on its own terms through such
strategies as Formalism. Hence 19th
century biographical criticism came under disapproval by the so-called New Critics of the 1920s, who coined the term "biographical fallacy"
to describe criticism that neglected the imaginative genesis of literature. Notwithstanding
this critique, biographical criticism remained a significant mode of literary
inquiry throughout the 20th century, particularly in studies of Charles Dickens and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among
others. The method continues to be employed in the study of such authors as John Steinbeck, Walt Whitman and William Shakespeare.
CHAPTER
III
METHOD
OF STUDY
This
paper uses the research technique of content analysis method because the raw
material for the study is Alcott’s Little
Women and not to mention, the reason for the study is to find out the
change in Jo’s unique behavior and also its change from her childhood time to
the time when she gets married.
According
to Borg and Gall(1980: 511-512)
