Fixing the Faults of Amy March: Spoiled to Respectable

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a book written for and about women. Though the role of women in life has shifted greatly from the time that this novel was written, the struggles that the sisters face within Little Women are parallel to what women these days have to deal with. Within the novel, the sisters work to better themselves by following Marmee's example. They discover their flaws and work to fix them so that they can be the best women they can be. The most important example of a character arc in Little Women is Amy, the youngest and most spoiled of all the sisters.

In the beginning of the novel, Amy frequently obsesses over material things, such as pickled limes, and associates such things with status and popularity. In fact, when Amy gets in trouble for having the limes, she complains to Marmee about how she was "disgraced before the whole school" (Alcott 70). However, Marmee responds in an attempt to condone Amy's actions by saying that she's "getting to be altogether too conceited" in order to fix Amy's image-obsessed mentality (70). Amy's actions, however, stay self-involved, as directly after the whole pickled lime fiasco, Amy gets mad at Jo for not allowing her to go to the theater with Laurie and Meg. Amy takes matters into her own hands and tells Jo that "[she'll] be sorry for this" (73). Amy then burns Jo's manuscript and only begins to regret it when her sisters and Marmee rally around Jo and her loss.

However, over the years Amy grows into a respectable young lady with such wonderful manners compared to some of her sisters, namely Jo. More specifically, when Amy and Jo go out on calls together, Jo acts rudely to and dismissive of Aunt March's and Aunt Carrol's questions. On the other hand, Amy responds beautifully and respectfully, leaving a wonderful impression of "sunshine" on the Aunts, compared to Jo's impression "of shadow" (298). This distinction is especially important because Amy, from this call, is granted a trip around Europe due to her actions.

The change in Amy mimics the change that a lot of young girls have gone through throughout all of time. Alcott's depiction of the change as a result of small punishments and lessons from Marmee is specific to the March sisters.