Essentially a Love Letter to Alcott and an Appreciation for the New

I understand that most of my classmates felt a great breath of fresh air reading Hawthorne, but it wasn’t until “Transcendental Wild Oats” that I felt free from the heaviness that transcendental writings tend to have. Hawthorne’s prose is unbelievably wordy and for me personally goes on like sludge. It is much wittier, but it doesn’t possess the great tone or pace that Alcott has mastered. What I like about Alcott’s writing is that she has found the perfect balance to unveil the obvious flaws within not only a commune but societies. I find that most of the writings we have read focused on unimportant details that only add to a melodramatic overtone rather than add to the actual essence of the overall piece. Now, not ALL writing does this, but I found it somewhat of a pattern. Alcott does not do this. I actually wanted to hear about every detail about the bread and the trials of being a woman on this commune. She hit a new tone with me that no other writer we have read so far has. Today, although this may be factually wrong, the Transcendentalists are viewed by the everyday man, Joe the plumber if you will, as merely academics. They just wrote. I feel that Alcott was not only making fun of but challenging this view. My moment in this reading was, “that Moses said no more, though he indulged in a shake of the head as he glanced at hands that had held nothing heavier than a pen for years”(Alcott 2). The thought of a bunch of writers suddenly becoming enthusiastic gardeners is quite humorous.
Although Blithedale Romance sparked some thought, this particular essay really made me consider what would happen if my group’s Utopia actually existed? What would be the first problem? What type of people would want to live in that kind of society today? I will not go into too much detail because my group will be presenting. However, we have had plenty of details in our planning but I still feel that there would be so much that we are missing. Our Utopia is run by a committee. What if the committee has too many conflicting personalities? What would happen to the poor people who were not on the committee and would suffer from the tension that the committee was facing? And what of those who wished to live in the commune but not pull their weight in work like the woman in Alcott’s story? But most importantly the section that addressed eating animal products brought up the question of adjustment. How long would it take someone to adjust to a completely new environment? Because of this and how people have grown accustomed to luxurious living I wonder if it is possible. Perhaps this is something my group needs to further address. Overall, I completely enjoyed Alcott and now am even more eager to reread Little Women. I have not read the novel in quite some time and would like to compare its tone to this piece of writing and see how similar or different it is. From what I recall it’s rather different.