The plot of the novel revolves around four sisters and their mother, Marmee who live in a new neighborhood. Meg and Jo must work to support the family. Beth is content to stay at home and help with housework; and Amy is still at school. Laurie, the neighbor boy, becomes close friends with the sisters, particularly Jo. Little Women addresses three major themes — domesticity, work, and true love, all of them interdependent and necessary to the success of main protagonist’s individual identity.
Louisa May Alcott is an American author, known globally for her children’s books, especially the classic Little Women. The publication of Hospital Sketches, her letters in book form, published in 1863, brought her the first taste of fame. Even as her family needs were pressing, the autobiographical Little Women provided her with an immediate success. The novel created a realistic but wholesome picture of family life with which younger readers could easily identify. This was followed by its two sequels — Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys and Jo’s Boys and How They Turned Out. Work: A Story of Experience), based on the author’s own struggles, tells the story of a poor girl trying to support herself by a succession of menial jobs. Alcott also wrote several other domestic stories drawn from her early experiences: