Until Book One Of Little Women drew to an end, Mr. March came back home. He was not described by as many lines as Mrs. March, but he played a considerably important role in the education of his daughters. When Beth was seriously ill, “the girls gave their hearts into their mother's keeping, their souls into their father's, and to both parents, who lived and labored so faithfully for them”(Alcott, 2007: 280). Mr. March was the soul leader of this family. When Mrs. March was young, she had a bad temper and experienced a hard time with a good many bitter tears over her failures especially after her mother’s death. At that time, Mr. March came to help and comfort her. Several decades later, Mrs. March used this example to guide her daughter when Jo was deeply depressed for her evilness. To some extent, Mrs. March was the bearer of Mr. March’s beliefs and virtues. 来~自^吹冰论+文.网www.chuibin.com/

“The war is over, and Mr. March safely at home, busy with his books and the small parish which found in him a minister by nature as by grace, a quiet, studious man, rich in the wisdom that is better than learning, the charity which calls all mankind `brother', the piety that blossoms into character, making it august and lovely.” (Alcott, 2007: 279) And Mrs. March was still conscientiously caring for the family daily life. They played cleanly defined and separate roles in the family education cooperatively with health development of self-awareness instead of excessive mutual dependence. While Father acted as the spiritual core, Mother acted as a mentor of detailed life experiences. Besides, they shared consistent values based on warm romance and showed each other proper respect. Thus, they could avoid unnecessary conflict about parenting problems on the basis of family equality. This is a significant precondition for favorable family education.

2.2 Transcendentalism and Family Education of Little Women

The Alcott family moved to Boston in 1834. Two years later, a little book named Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson was published, which symbolized the emergence of transcendentalism. This philosophy accorded with many people’s dissatisfaction with materialistic-oriented life in New England in the 19th century. Afterwards, these New Englanders founded the transcendentalism club. Louisa’s father, Bronson Alcott was also one of them.

Emerson’s philosophy involved many scopes which can be summed up as following: first, Over-Soul is a pine spirit which exists in every form of being including people and the whole nature with god. It is a brand new worldview distinguished from the concept that the world is made up of matter. Secondly, nature is full of existence of the Spirit and God. So nature is a way to communicate with god so as to revive one’s body and refresh one’s mind. Thirdly, transcendentalists laid stress on the inpidual under the crisis that the capitalism and industrialization of New England was depriving people of their personality. (Wang Pin, 2012: 6)