Set in the idyllic town of Concord, MA, Little Women follows the March family as they spend their first Christmas without their father who, after losing all of the family’s money, went off to do his part in the Civil War as a pastor. Just like the March sisters, Alcott and her siblings worked many jobs to help make ends meet. The story hits close to home for Alcott, who grew up one of four sisters in a home that had many ups and downs brought on by her father’s well intentioned but often naive idealism. Though it is not mentioned in the book, Alcott’s father was an abolitionist, transcendentalist, and a pioneer of progressive education who often risked his job and financial security for his ideals . Alcott writes her mother, Marmee, as warm, loving, and always willing to listen. In her journals, Alcott wrote that even though she portrayed her mother so highly in the book that “ Mrs. March is all true , only not half good enough.”