My Contraband Summary and Analysis

My Contraband Summary: Introduction

Louisa May Alcott was born in 1832, and she was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. She wrote well-known novels such as Little Women. Hook :Start your analysis by briefly explaining the author and their famous works.This paper focuses on Louisa May Alcott’s short story My Contraband and its similarities to other authors who lived in different centuries. These authors are Rowlands, Franklin, Thoreau, and Douglass.Main focus:Follow with a sentence that clearly explains the main focus and the purpose of your paper. Also, Alcott and Thoreau knew each other, and Alcott’s early education included lessons from the naturalist Henry David Thoreau who inspired her to write Thoreau’s Flute based on her time at Walden Pond (“Foundation”, 2020). More specifically, Alcott was inspired by Thoreau’s ideas and novels during the 19th century.Further detail: Give more insights about the authors you will compare so the readers know some things right off the start.

Body Paragraphs

My Contraband is a short story, and one of the characters in the story is a native American who faces slavery and exclusion by superior white individuals in society. Topic sentence:The first paragraph should start with a sentence that briefly defines the story on hand.However, story-telling character Missis Dane shows him no exclusion during their time in the hospital.Reference:Reference the work by giving a detail from the story, this will help reader connect to the work you analyze. The similarities with Thoreau’s writings are that Alcott manages to tell Robert’s pain and loneliness in the hospital just like Thoreau because Thoreau is good at expressing an individual solitude in society.
Concluding sentence:In the last sentence of the body paragraph, state your comparison briefly and connect all the pieces of the paragraph.

More specifically, Thoreau manages to express the solitude in his book Walden, and he gives ideas about individual’s solitude in the society that an individual wants to go far away from society because the only happiness he can get is to live far from society (Thoreau, 1968). Topic sentence: This sentence explains the main focus and the central argument of the paragraph.Also, Alcott is expressing an individual’s solitude, and pain in her short story, and Robert leaves Missis Dane until they met again at the end of the story. However, Alcott is focusing on Robert’s pain that has caused by his race. After all, both Thoreau and Alcott are expressing solitude and pain in their writings.


Rowlandson lived in the 17th century, and Native Americans captured her during King Phillip’s war in the 16th century.Topic sentence: This sentence once again explains the main focus and the central argument of the paragraph.Rowlandson’s ideas came from her observations in society. More specifically, she focuses on topics like religion, cultural differences, women, and race in her book Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (Rowlandson, 2009). Also, she reveals her female perspective on native Americans, just like Alcott.


The similarity between Alcott and Rowlandson is they both observing native Americans from the female perspective. Topic sentence: This sentence once again explains the main focus and the central argument of the paragraph. In other words, My Contraband’s female perspective about native Americans in observing society through native American character because there are certain ideas claimed in the short story such as native Americans and Afro Americans can not take their own last name, and they are taking their master’s last name. Also, native Americans and Afro Americans are slaves to white individuals until their death, and in Rowlandson’s narrative, she manages to reveal a greater understanding of her society. Rowlandson’s observations reveal the perceptions and social relations with native Americans in their society.


Douglass was born in 1818, and he was a black man who ran from slavery in Maryland. His ideas are focusing on the equality of all people.Topic sentence: This sentence once again explains the main focus and the central argument of the paragraph.In his book My Bondage and My Freedom, he manages to express the slave narrative more sensible than other authors because he was a slave until he escaped. More specifically, Alcott is telling her observation about the native Americans and Afro Americans, but Douglass is telling the things that he faced though in society. In other words, Alcott is emphasizing to native Americans, but Douglass is sharing his own experience. Also, Douglass is embracing slavery problem more deeply because the problem is causing his race exclusion.


On the other hand, Alcott is paying attention to problems that native Americans are living through in society. Topic sentence: This sentence once again explains the main focus and the central argument of the paragraph.In My Bondage and My Freedom, Douglass is expressing his concerns about the institutions of slavery corrupts and dehumanizes not just the slave, but the slaveowner and non-slaveholder who condones the practice. However, My Contraband is sharing observations of native Americans and slavery (Levine, 2017).


Franklin was born in 1707 in Boston. Franklin achieves to share is ideas in the 18th century. More specifically, Franklin was a true man of the Enlightenment, embracing science, reason, natural human rights, free-thinking, and morality (Jarreau, 2012). Topic sentence: This sentence once again explains the main focus and the central argument of the paragraph.He defended his ideas about natural human rights in society. One can infer that Franklin made a difference with his ideas during the 18th century. His ideas also created a background for thinkers who will change the world because, without free-thinking, nobody can change the world. More specifically, Alcott’s My Contraband is a free-thinking work, and Alcott seems to follow her morality when she pays attention to native Americans and slavery problems in society.

Conclusion

In conclusion, in this assignment, My Contraband by Alcott has been analyzed and examined by considering how our major writers would respond to the shorty story. I tried to show an understanding of main concerns and ideas of four major writers.
Restatement: Explain the purpose of this assignment and paper by defining its goal and answering the question “Why?”Alcott wrote my Contraband in the 19th century. The short story was focusing on native Americans and their problems in society.Summary:Briefly define the story you analyzed so the reader remembers the main idea behind it. In this paper, the relations between My Contraband and other author’s books are analyzed. More specifically, Thoreau and Alcott knew each other, and their writings about solitude and pain are similar to each other. Also, both Rowlandson and Alcott observed society and native Americans in their writings. Comparison:Explain what you analyzed and mention the authors you took as subjects to you paper. Also state the reasoning behind your choice of authors. Douglass defended the anti-slavery because he was a slave in the early years of his life. Franklin embraced the Enlightenment that he defended his ideas about free will, free-thinking, human rights, and morality.Concluding sentence:Briefly conclude your analysis and comparison. State the main differences between these authors to give the reader something to remember.

References

Jarreau, P. (2012, September 7). Benjamin Franklin, the Enlightened Scientist. http://fromthelabbench.com/from-the-lab-bench-science-blog/benjamin-franklin-the-enlightened-scientist.

Foundation. (2020, June 25). Louisa May Alcott. Wikipedia.

Rowlandson, M. W., & Hazen, W. (2009). Mary Rowlandson: an illustrated narrative of the captivity and restoration of Mrs. Mary Rolandson. W. Hazen.

Thoreau, H. D. (1968). Walden. AMS Press.

Levine, R. S. (2017). The Norton anthology of American literature. W.W. Norton.