ENGB35H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: The Contemporary Review, Puritans, American Literature
Document Summary
Domestic genre of realism, implied girl child reader. Balant difference b/w this and treasure island - gender. Moral and conservative -- also unleashes rebellious engeries. From the beginning it was deemed excellent girls fiction -- understood as very moral. Two aspects to the moral framework -- beth (puritan child reader) and more broadly implied child reader. Pilgrim"s progress is used by alcott to give us the moral framework of the book. Beth is an puritan narrative and her sisters are not. She is the most goldy, embodies christianness, self-sacrificing, worldly, only one when mrs. march to tend to her husband shes the one who continues the charity work. Beth -- her goodness linked to her death. Page 41 -- narrator insists that beth is a very human girl -- there are many beths in the world, shy and quiet, sitting in the corner till needed, and living for others so cheerfully .
