Tolerance and Prejudice

There are subtle anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic scenes in Little Women. When Amy goes to Aunt March’s house while Beth has scarlet fever, she makes friends with Aunt March’s maid, Esther. Esther is French and she’s also Catholic. Esther tries to make Amy feel better about Beth by seting her up with a little closet shrine to pray in. She gives Amy a painting of baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and a rosary. Alcott is careful to point out that Amy never uses the rosary, describing it as “dusty” and “untouched” and emphasizing that Amy leaves it hanging on a peg. Looking to the painting for comfort is acceptable, however, even though I don’t think most Protestant sects use saint imagery. Amy doesn’t pray to the painting, she just looks at it, and I think that’s the distinction.

There’s another scene involving Amy that’s kind of anti-Semitic. She and Laurie are at a ball, and all these fancy but slightly ridiculous guests have arrived. One of them is a Jewish man who spends the whole time eating and smiling at everyone. This played on the stereotype of the greedy Jew.

These passages interest me because Alcott is expressing prejudice at the same time as she preaches tolerance. By saying that Amy’s shrine is only okay because she doesn’t use the rosary or pray to the Virgin Mary, she implies that doing these things is wrong, and that Amy is right for abstaining. But her portrayal of Esther is sympathetic, she is clearly a good person. Alcott is also open-minded enough to show that there is more than one way to connect with God. Amy combines elements of Catholic and Protestant traditions to create a personal way of worshiping. That’s a very transcendentalist idea. If it’s extended, it can mean that Catholicism is just as legitimate as Protestantism. Alcott doesn’t extend it, but she takes steps in that direction.

Similarly, although her portrayal of the Jewish guest at the ball is definitely anti-Semitic, it’s also not without kindness. By depicting a Jewish person being gluttonous, Alcott perpetuates negative stereotypes. She also makes sure to point out that the guest is Jewish. This immediately makes him “other” and strange. She doesn’t take the time to take away this otherness, either. Esther is initially other, because she is French and Catholic, but we get to know her, and this humanizes her. The Jewish man at the party doesn’t even have a name, he’s just a Jew, a type. He isn’t evil or repugnant, however. He seems friendly and content. So while Alcott is not friendly to Jews in this book, she’s not deeply hostile, either.

These scenes strike a weird balance between prejudice and tolerance, especially the one at the ball. They both made me uncomfortable. At the time, however, I’m guessing Alcott’s attitude would have been considered open and progressive. So she gets points for trying, but she still clearly had deeply embedded prejudices.