Why the 1st chapter is called “Playing Pilgrims”
(on ”Little Women” by L.M.Alcott)
The 1st chapter of the book where we meet four girls and their mother is
called “Playing Pilgrims” and we can explain the name in some different ways.
First of all, it’s because of the fact that the girls liked to play Pilgrim’s Progress in
their childhood. They were happy to remember those days when Mrs. March
remained them about it. Every girl said a few words about that play and what she
had liked best in it. And the girls were a little sad because they became older and
didn’t play Pilgrims any more.
The second reason for the name is not so attached to the reality but a little
philosophic. It’s the general idea about pilgrimage; we can read it in Mrs. March’s
short speech in the last pages of the chapter. She spoke to her daughters on their
regrets for the impossibility of playing Pilgrims, “We never are too old for this,
because it is a play we are playing all the time in the one way or another”. She
explained to the girls that the longing for goodness and happiness was the best
guide for them in their life, and it’s to say it’s the best guide for every person.
Mrs. March’s words are the strongest in this chapter, it’s the best passage
in it. Probably the author wanted to attract a reader’s additional attention to
these words and that was the reason why she gave such a name to the chapter.
All of us ‘play pilgrims’ here on the Earth… 