payment page
First appearing in Chapter 2, the Hummels are a poor German family who live in a run-down shack near the March house. Mrs. March introduces her daughters to them on Christmas morning, asking if they might be kind enough to gift their special breakfast to the starving children, and Alcott references them periodically throughout the remainder of the novel. The individual members of the family are rather unidentifiable as most of them never receive a name. Beyond the fact that Mrs. Hummel, who has no husband to help her, has a baby as well as six other children, the reader has very little access to information about them. Focusing on the family as a whole rather than the individual people who belong to it allows the Hummels to serve as a symbol of their social class more broadly. They become a reflection of the financial and cultural struggles that many immigrant families faced in 19th-century America, emphasizing the effect that nationality had on the social hierarchy. Like Hannah, the Hummels’ presence in the novel also works to contextualize the Marches’ loss of wealth. They may find themselves living frugally in the wake of Mr. March’s failed attempt to help a friend, but their sense of poverty is nothing in comparison to the desperate state of the Hummels. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy realize as much when they first meet the family, a moment which inspires them to be thankful for what they have and to help others. This impulse to serve others carries throughout the rest of the novel in a myriad of ways, but the Marches’ relationship with the Hummels has a distinct impact on the arc of the plot. In Chapter 17, Beth returns from the Hummels and reveals that the baby has died of scarlet fever. This moment is particularly consequential as Beth herself falls gravely ill and eventually dies after the disease wreaks havoc on her body. Through the connection between the two families, Alcott highlights both the brighter and darker aspects of acts of charity.
