while Amy objected to the fun, and, with the best intentions in life, Jo quenched the sprightly scenes which relieved the sombre character of the story.Dark and serious.
Little Women
Chapter 27
Louisa May Alcott · Trailblazers 4th–6th
Copywork
Meg admired the tragedy; so Jo piled up the agony to suit her, while Amy objected to the fun, and, with the best intentions in life, Jo quenched the sprightly scenes which relieved the sombre character of the story. Then, to complete the ruin, she cut it down one third, and confidingly sent the poor little romance, like a picked robin, out into the big, busy world, to try its fate.
Read your copy aloud. Meg and Amy each wanted something. Say what each one wanted and what Jo did about it. Then find what Jo does last to complete the ruin, and the phrase that tells you what the fun had been doing for the story.
Discussion
Narration Tell back how Jo won the prize, what she did with the money, and what happened to her novel.
- When Jo is writing, her family reads her cap and asks, "Does genius burn, Jo?" What does the way they ask show about how they see her writing? Inference
- Father says, "Aim at the highest, and never mind the money," yet the money sends Beth and Marmee to the sea. How do you weigh his words against what the money does? Moral reasoning
- Meg wants every explanation kept. Amy says, "Do as he tells you; he knows what will sell." What does each sister seem to want for Jo's book? Character
- The narrator says Jo chopped her novel "as ruthlessly as any ogre" and sent it out "like a picked robin." What feeling do these two pictures give us? Tone
- Jo says she has "the joke on my side," since critics call her real scenes absurd and her invented ones true. Is that a comfort to her, or does it hide a sting? Theme
Make a Connection Tell about a time you got different advice from different people and had to decide what to do.
Vocabulary
- sombre
- sprightly
while Amy objected to the fun, and, with the best intentions in life, Jo quenched the sprightly scenes which relieved the sombre character of the story.
Lively and light.- vortex
Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room, put on her scribbling suit, and “fall into a vortex,” as she expressed it,
A whirlpool that draws everything in.- afflatus
The divine afflatus usually lasted a week or two, and then she emerged from her “vortex,” hungry, sleepy, cross, or despondent.
A rush of inspiration.- denouement
and, having located it in Lisbon, she wound up with an earthquake, as a striking and appropriate denouement.
The winding up of a story's plot.- impartial
It will be a great help to have cool, impartial persons take a look at it, and tell me what they think of it.”
Not favoring either side.- ruthlessly
So, with Spartan firmness, the young authoress laid her firstborn on her table, and chopped it up as ruthlessly as any ogre.
Without pity.- bewilderment
likewise plenty of praise and blame, both so much greater than she expected that she was thrown into a state of bewilderment, from which it took her some time to recover.
Complete confusion.- partial
We are too partial; but the praise and blame of outsiders will prove useful, even if she gets but little money.”
Biased in favor of someone.- buffeting
and when the first soreness was over, she could laugh at her poor little book, yet believe in it still, and feel herself the wiser and stronger for the buffeting she had received.
Repeated hard knocks.
Critical thinking
- Jo stares at the prize check "as if it had been a snake" and then cries. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what the prize means to her beyond the cash.
- Beth says only, "I should so like to see it printed soon." Using two pieces of evidence, explain how her few words change what Jo does.
- At the lecture Jo reads the boy's sensation story and says she could do as well. Using two pieces of evidence, explain how she sees such stories and what she does.