Summary — Chapter 29: Calls
Amy and Jo go out visiting, and Amy makes Jo dress up
and behave nicely. At the first house, Amy reprimands Jo for being
too reserved and for hardly speaking at all. To tease her sister,
Jo imitates a social butterfly named May Chester at the second house
they visit. Amy grows even more mortified as Jo reveals secrets
of their poverty. At the third house, after Amy tells her to stop
this new behavior, Jo amuses herself by playing with a group of
young boys, telling them stories. As Amy and Jo walk to Aunt March’s
house, Amy declares that poor young women should be pleasant because
they have nothing else to give. Disagreeing, Jo says that she will
probably be crotchety all of her days. Aunt Carrol is at Aunt March’s
house when they arrive. During the visit, Amy is charming, but Jo
is curt. Alcott indicates that something good will happen to Amy
because she is so delightful that day.
Summary — Chapter 30: Consequences
Amy is to work at the art table at the Chesters’ upcoming
fair. She works hard to put the display together. The night
before the fair, Mrs. Chester hears how the March girls insulted
her daughter, May, and tells Amy that she should work at the flower
table instead, while May will work at the art table. Amy is insulted,
but she maintains her composure, taking her art with her to the
new booth. The next day, hoping to smooth things over, Amy offers
her art back to May. Over the course of the day, few people go to
the flower table. That night, however, the Marches send over a brigade
of young men led by Laurie. These boys surround Amy and buy all
her flowers. Then, to kill May with kindness, Amy sends the boys
to May’s booth to buy the vases that May has made. Amy returns home
to find the vases filled with flowers for her. She then receives
a note from Aunt Carrol, telling her that she is going to Europe
and wants Amy to accompany her. Amy is thrilled, but Jo is very
disappointed, having hoped that she would get to go on the trip. Before
Amy sails for Europe, she asks Laurie to come comfort her if something
should happen. He agrees to do so.
Summary — Chapter 31: Our Foreign Correspondent
Amy sends several letters from Europe, detailing her romps
through England, France, Germany, and Switzerland. She says that
she is trying to absorb every beautiful attraction. Along the way,
she runs into Fred and Frank Vaughn, Laurie’s English friends. She
and Florence, Aunt Carrol’s daughter, spend a lot of time with them,
and it becomes clear that Fred is interested in courting Amy. She
decides that she will accept him if he proposes. She is not madly
in love with him, but she likes him and thinks that his fortune
will help the whole family. But Fred finds out that Frank is very
ill, and must leave abruptly. Fred asks Amy to remember him, and
tells her meaningfully that he will return to her soon.
Summary — Chapter 32: Tender Troubles
Marmee asks Jo to find out if something is troubling Beth,
for Beth’s spirits seem low. After thinking, Jo concludes that Beth
might be in love with Laurie, but Jo is afraid that Laurie is in
love Jo herself. Jo asks her mother if she might go away for a while
in an attempt to broaden her horizons and to escape Laurie’s growing
love. She hopes that Laurie will fall in love with Beth while she
is gone. Marmee agrees that Jo and Laurie are unsuited for each
other because they are too similar, with their strong wills and
frequent quarrels. Jo decides to go to New York to live with a woman
named Mrs. Kirke and to teach her children. When Jo tells Laurie
of her decision to leave, he responds by telling her, teasingly
but seriously, that she will not get out of his grasp so easily.
Summary — Chapter 33: Jo’s Journal
Jo sends letters from New York. She reports that the children
are fine and that she is enjoying her little room in the big boarding house.
She also writes about another boarder, a German professor named
Frederick Bhaer. Professor Bhaer does not have much money, and tutors
children in order to make a living. He is not particularly good-looking,
and is around forty years old. Jo watches him doing good for everyone
around him and is impressed by his kindness. They become friends
when she mends some of his garments for him. Soon, he begins teaching
her German. At Christmas, he gives her a beloved volume of Shakespeare
from which he hopes she will learn. She gives him many trinkets
in return. For New Year’s Eve, the boarding house has a masquerade,
and Jo goes as Mrs. Malaprop, a character from a Restoration comedy
by Richard Sheridan called The Rivals. Bhaer goes
as Nick Bottom, from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Jo
thoroughly enjoys herself.
Analysis — Chapters 29–33
In Part Two of the novel, Alcott uses a narrative technique
slightly different from the one she employs in Part One. Whereas
the first part of the novel is didactic, tending to teach us lessons,
the second part is sentimental, tending to steer the novel in an
emotionally satisfying direction. Alcott addresses her audience
more frequently here than she does in the first part; this direct
address is a common device in sentimental literature. These direct
and sometimes syrupy appeals to the reader are supposed to inspire
emotion. This shift in genres may be due partly to audience
response and artistic choices. It may also be due to the fact that
Alcott is no longer writing about the cloistered, all-female household
that so closely mimics her own early womanhood, but now writes about
strictly imagined events. In particular, Jo’s resemblance to Alcott
lessens in the second part of the novel.
