Little Women and The Hobbit: A Text Pairing

An argument may be made that Louisa May Alcott’s quintessential coming-of-age classic Little Women is a difficult text for educators to spark interest in the ever-increasingly jaded pallet of today’s young adults. I’d like to counter that by suggesting a literary pairing with J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit to encourage and entice, inspire and connect as a classroom introduction to a (hopefully) lifelong love of reading. To that end, I propose a comparison of the two stories and their characters, themes, and philosophies.

First, our protagonists:  From Little Women, the inestimable Josephine “Jo” March is arguably one of the most beloved female characters in classic American literature. She is feisty, loyal, hard-working, intelligent, and defiant. The character is celebrated as a strong feminist role-model and continues to delight readers of all ages and backgrounds.

From The Hobbit, we have Bilbo Baggins. He is fond of good food, his hearth and home – creature comforts, in other words. But just as there is more than meets the eye with Jo March, so it is with Bilbo Baggins. I believe many parallels may be drawn between the two characters, knitting their seemingly disparate stories together in a way that may be used to engender an appreciation of literature by classrooms of youthful readers. Among a few of the themes that could foster discussion:

1.     Both stories entail “journeys” that include personal growth; leaving behind “home” and comfort; and, often-changing expectations and personal bias (for example, Jo goes to New York; Bilbo to the Lonely Mountain – what happens to them during these trips?)

2.     Loyalty – to one’s family and friends

3.     A desire for material things (a larger home, money/gold, a higher position in society) versus how that desire (or even greediness) may come at the expense of other, more important intangibles

4.     A willingness to take a chance and be open to new things, ideas, people

Using these themes, or prompts, a class conducting a side-by-side study of both books may point out how comfortable Bilbo is, and yet how his comfort has left him stagnant, and worried about his status and reputation in the community:

We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things . . . I can’t think what anybody sees in them . . . Then he took out his morning letters, and began to read, pretending to take no more notice of the old man. He had decided that he was not quite his sort, and wanted him to go away. (Tolkien 18)

While Jo, the admitted tomboy, revels in her chosen, non-traditional position:

No gentlemen were admitted, so Jo played male parts to her heart's content and took immense satisfaction in a pair of russet leather boots given her by a friend, who knew a lady who knew an actor. These boots, an old foil, and a slashed doublet once used by an artist for some picture, were Jo's chief treasures and appeared on all occasions. (Alcott 15)

Classroom exploration may include debates regarding Bilbo’s evolution from a timid homebody to a stalwart friend, someone who can be called upon in a time of crisis - brave even, or does he?  “The Tookish part was getting very tired, and the Baggins was daily getting stronger. ‘I wish now only to be in my own arm-chair.’”  (Tolkien 278)   By contrast, Jo begins her story as a self-identified rebel; by the end of the book, the reader sees that she has succumbed to a type of societal status quo by marrying. Through perhaps class or small-group discussions, dialogue as to how these characters change and adapt could be introduced, comparing and contrasting how they may be seen to evolve/devolve, depending upon one’s point of view and argument.

Theme analysis of both books may also foster questions related to whether or not the pursuit of material wealth comes at the cost of one’s morality, goodness, and even a place to call home. Throughout The Hobbit, we witness the effect greed has – the dwarves lose their home as a result of greed, which sets the stage for one hardship after another during their quest. So, a question could be posed to the class that, with respect to Little Women and The Hobbit:  Does greed, or even simply the desire for more possessions, actually lend itself to the loss of the truly important things in life:  home, family, friends, a sense of security?

Although not an all-inclusive list of points that could be made by a pairing of these two texts, hopefully they have been enough to show that two outwardly dissimilar books may provide a springboard upon which to spur discourse and interest in both “the classics” and reading in general.

Work Cited

Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. Free-eBooks.net. Web-book.com, n.d. PDF. 21 May 2016.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit. New York: Ballantine Books, 1978. Print.