A Critical Study of Topographies and Thematic Concerns in Alcott’s Little Women and Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables

Abstract

This study aims to highlight topographies and thematic concerns of Young Adult literature – Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1871) and Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (1908) fulfilling social responsibility while exploring into its origin as a literary genre. For this, the article argues that Young Adult fiction through the topographies, settings, stylistic concerns, and thematic constructions thoughtfully fulfil the overarching idea of social responsibility of bringing reforms in a society. Berman’s scholarship on Social Responsibility, Nodding’s views on Caring, and Greene’s idea of Social Imagination, Social Problems, and Social Justice serve as a theoretical lens to analyse the novels. The article concludes that the selected classics of the genre assume the social responsibility to educate Young Adults through their subtle storyline, plot, and thematic constructions, as highlighted by the given theorists.