In the history of literature, female literature is a beautiful landscape; it tends to have a distinctive feminist tendency。 Female consciousness is the most direct and important part which conveys a deep spiritual world of women。 Generally speaking, female consciousness refers to women’s understanding of personal identity, social status, values and other aspects。 It exists forever in female literature and changes with the development of the times。 It is a key to understand a large number of female literary works。 Elaine Showalter pided the evolution of women’s writings into three phases—“feminine” from1840 to the death of George Eliot in 1880, “feminist” from 1880 to 1920,the date of female suffrage in America, and “female” from 1920 to the present(Rui 193)。 Many scholars in the academic world put Little Women into the “feminine” stage of Showalter。 The novel came forth with the development of the first feminism movement。 At that moment, female consciousness was gradually awakened, more and more women began to pursue their own rights and try to be self-independent(Zhu 433)。 It can be said that the rise of female consciousness led to a large number of women began their spiritual journey。 They kept trying to liberate themselves from the traditional female image。 They held a dream of creating a brand-new female image to conform to the trend of the times。 The growth of female characters was one of the most valuable topics in Little Women, since the analysis of the growth exemplified women’s positive attitudes toward life in the period of America social transformation in the 19th century。 It exerted a positive influence for both contemporary and future women generations。

The thesis consists of five parts。 Part one is a general introduction of the thesis。 Part two will briefly introduce the popularity and development of Little Women among the readers all over the world, the researches of former scholars as well as my own standpoints。 Part three will introduce the growth of the four girls in the novel from the following perspectives—from subordination to independence, from submission to traditional marriage to the pursuit of a marriage based on love as well as from compromise with the patriarchal society to the establishment of a harmonious gender relationship。 Part four will dissect the reasons for the growth of the four girls with a macroscopic perspective such as social background and family atmosphere。 And the last part will summarize the whole study, as well as tell the findings and inspirations of the thesis。

2。 Literature Review文献综述

To Alcott’s surprise, Little Women achieved a great success in literary circles once it was published in 1869。 It encouraged women to sedulously appreciate life and motivated them to pursue the right of equal opportunity between men and themselves。 For more than 100 years, it has been warmly welcomed as a classic work among American readers。 After the successful publication of Little Women, many scholars at home and abroad studied this novel from different points of view。 Firstly, there are many scholars who throw their light on the family education。 Huang Yan held the view that due to the guidance of their mother, the March’s four sisters could always walk on the right path and kept their longing for dreams。 Mrs。 March was both a very successful mother and an educator in the author’s world。 Luo Min was one of the distinguished scholars, who made a great success in the study of transcendentalism in Little Women。 She described the important features of transcendentalism and the main characters’ self-reliance in shaping the theme of the novel。 Transcendentalism gave the sisters the charm of personality and guided them to complete their spiritual journey as well as finding their best destination(Luo 124)。 In addition to the forementioned research perspectives, Li Qiaoling commented on the theme of Little Women。 She believed that music and the degree of a person’s conformity to the secular world had a very interesting connection。 The girls in March’s family, the more talented they were in music, the more traditional it was to fulfill the responsibilities set by the society at that time。 Compared with scholars who studied the novel from the angle of family education; more scholars carried out their research of female images。 According to Jiang Yonghong’s point of view, she highlighted the western social personality embodied in the girls。 She showed readers the girl’s reaction to the troubles and misfortunes around and their gradually development of personality characteristics(Jiang 78)。