Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1988

Thesis Director

John David Moore

Abstract

This thesis discusses the development of the family story from the late nineteenth century to the present, beginning with What Katy Did as an example of the earlier moral story from which this genre grows. It then focuses on Little Women as the beginning of the modern family story and uses Jo from Little Women as the starting point to discuss the development of the female adolescent protagonist in these stories. And lastly, comparing Little Women to modern family life stories which began to appear about 1940, the thesis discusses changes in didacticism which have occurred since the late nineteenth century. (In the years between 1890 and 1940, stories with adolescent female protagonists focused mainly on the female alone, often as an orphan, rather than as part of a family.)

In the hundred years since What Katy Did appeared, codes of female behavior and family structure have changed extensively. However, the family story has not changed as much as might be expected. Modern families in these stories (like their real counterparts) deal with such crises as divorce, abandonment, and illegitimacy. No matter what the cause of the disruption, the message underlying these novels is that the family unit is worth preserving in some form.

Jo in Little Women became the prototype for the modern adolescent female in the family story. Jo is allowed to be a tomboy, to make mistakes, to be a person. In stories like What Katy Did, however, tomboys who do not automatically conform to traditional female roles are forced to accept those roles or are punished until they do. The more modern characters, who follow in Jo's footsteps, are not perfect daughters, nor do they automatically become perfect mothers. They have strengths and weaknesses; they do not always know the right answer. But there is no implication that God gets even with them for their shortcomings as there is in What Katy Did.

As we move to the newer family stories, the family unit is still functional. In stories such as Vera and Bill Cleaver's Where the Lilies Bloom (1969) and Cynthia Voigt's Dicey's Song (1982), the importance of the family is clear. The preaching in these stories, however, is even less obvious than it was in Little Women. The value of the family is inherent in the novel, but the codes of behavior are not as strict. Proper behavior in the Victorian sense does not apply as much as the individual family's ability to determine what behavior best serves its needs. These families can no longer depend upon society to impose traditional codes of behavior. In their isolation they have to find answers for themselves. These books show the value of the family unit and endorse ways in which the families can remain functional in a world which provides little support for the family unit.

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