Although nat when he is found. mrs jo

Although the third book to the Little Women series, Little Men has an incompatible moral and idea, different to Little Women and Good Wives – the previous 2 books. Little Men was written by Louisa May Alcott – the infamous author of Little Women, Jo’s Boys and many other favoured books. Little Men is a novel about second chances and forgiving.

Dan, a young boy who has undergone a lot of trouble, is an epitome of this notion. He breaks all the rules and does not learn from any of his mistakes. Shortly after his adversities, he gets sent  away, nevertheless he returns to the Bhaers, a family who superintend a school and take any child in, and redeems himself but the others are up to more mischief. The story commences by Nathaniel – mostly known as  Nat – Blake being discerned by Mr Laurence, or Laurie as Jo calls him, in a cellar. He is a 12 year old street musician, who is also an orphan. Mrs Jo – the motherly figure in the story – shows lots of affection and love for Nat when he is found.

Mrs Jo adores his musical abilities  and indeterminately so do the other children. Originally, there were 10 boys but later on in the story Nat, Nan and Dan arrive. Later in the story, Daisy, the only girl in the phrontistery, soon gets bored and stultified of only spending time with her twin brother – Demi, a scholarly, thoughtful boy. However, Mr and Mrs Bhaer see the problem and invite Nan – a 10 year old girl who is a strong feminist and ever since her mother died and run wild. Nan had undoubtedly livened up the house, making Daisy very satisfied. Around halfway through the tale, Dan is introduced by Nat. At the beginning, Dan was slightly impertinent and off-hand and after his abrupt introduction, things got even more loathsome. Dan harbingers the others to smoking, swearing, drinking, gambling and fighting.

Nat and Tommy get pressured by Dan to gamble, smoke and drink. All of these had an adverse impact on Tommy and Dan. Tommy, who had an excruciating headache, decided to retire to his bed. Unfortunately, he also opted to take the cigar with him.

This triggered a fire and injured both Tommy and Demi. After all these catastrophes Dan got temporarily removed from Plumfield. Eventually he returned to the school but he was injured. When Dan returned he tried to make things right, he tried to redeem himself and he tried to make himself better. He did most of these by standing up for Nat, when Nat got accused of stealing money. Dan redeemed himself by teaching all the children about natural history.

When Laurie visited, he saw how intrigued and engrossed Dan was in insects and animals and, therefore, decided to open a natural history museum for all the children. Since the children were so delightful and beholden towards Laurie, they named the museum after him. Near the end of the novel, many relationships were formed. Some of these were Dan getting very attached and drawn close to Demi, who was a supportive and encouraging influence for Dan, Nat his old friend and Teddy, the captivating, charming child. Substantially, I would rate this book 4 stars out of 5 because the morality and humour of the book was splendid but one concept of the book I, personally, didn’t enjoy the sudden death of Mr Brooke.

It seemed quite immediate and the story would have been better if it had eased into the death. This would have added intensity and exaggeration. In addition, the way Demi and Daisy were simply just told that their father was poorly didn’t add any sympathy or consolation. Apart from a few drawbacks, the book was very enjoyable to read. I would definitely recommend this to anyone of the ages 10+.