Little Men

Chapter 15 highlights the ways that the students at Plumfield have grown through their relationships with each other. Although the novel chiefly focuses on the boys’ development, Alcott subverts the typical boys-only school story for a mixed gender school, modelled on real society.

The two young girls, Daisy and Nan, act as foils to each other, representing different paths in womanhood. Despite their different personalities, Daisy and Nan are close friends and often play by doing domestic tasks together, such as washing their dolls’ clothes. Nan is a determined to break the barrier of traditional gender roles when she grows up; her rejection of the role of dedicated mother is humorously depicted through her dialogue about feeding her dolls: “Let ’em die then; I’m tired of fussing over babies, and I’m going to play with the boys” (221). She is both encouraged and cautioned by Mrs. Jo—whose own gender nonconforming coming of age is one of the main plots of Little Women. Mrs. Jo hopes to influence Nan to pursue her dreams within the limits of 19th-century society, just as Mrs. Jo has. Nan’s strong-willed nature emboldens her to pursue a career in medicine, rather than restrict herself to a purely domestic life. Mrs. Jo supports this decision, but also tempers Nan’s hopes with the reality that there are limitations to women’s freedoms and that she must be logical and patient to succeed. On the other hand, Daisy’s love of domesticity is stereotypical of a woman at the time, whose sphere of influence was generally limited to the home. While Nan is characterized as a “rampant reformer,” Daisy is content with the status quo, and finds happiness despite knowing “nothing about women’s rights” (221). Despite this, Daisy enjoys the benefit of an academic education equal to her brother Demi’s, which was rare for girls in her era. Additionally, her friendship with Nan reveals that Daisy has an independent spirit and exposes her to alternate ways of thinking. The novel demonstrates their unity as women, and their interactions with the boys indicate women’s influence on the public sphere through relationships between men and women.

The relationship between Nat and Tommy exposes the serious world of little men, who must each make decisions about honesty, integrity and finances that will affect their lives, and those of their dependents. The Plumfield economy, in which each boy barters or sells goods to the local community, mirrors the larger economy that they must enter in adulthood. Mr. Bhaer encourages each boy to develop a skillset that they can earn a living from, as many of the boys are orphaned or impoverished, and must learn to support themselves. Within this micro-economy, Tommy is the richest due to the profits from his hens’ eggs. His awareness of the responsibility of his position is satirized through the hyperbolic description of him as someone “on whom the cares and anxieties of a millionaire weighed heavily” (226)—Tommy worries about people wanting to take advantage of him because of his success. However, the school promotes an enlightened form of capitalism, relying on the Christian virtue of charity to temper the system’s excesses. Mr. Bhaer appeals to Tommy’s good-hearted nature and suggests that he dedicate his excess funds to a charitable cause. Tommy’s decision to be generous and buy Dan a present as amends for mistrusting him influences Nat, who decides to buy his friend Dan a butterfly net rather than spend the money more self-interestedly. The novel uses symbolism to describe charitable acts as “gold”—a description that reassigns monetary value to virtuous ideals—and to praise the boys’ morally worthy behavior. This supports the depiction of Plumfield as a mini utopia, in which a holistic and personalized education can redeem any young person, despite their previous circumstances.