Transcendental Wild Oats: Satire and Gender Dynamics in Alcott

Satirical Critique and Female Agency in Transcendentalist Utopianism. Memoir, Parody, and Gender Protest Although "Transcendental Wild Oats," the pamphlet Louisa May Alcott wrote 10 years before her death, is part memoir, part parody, and other things as well, it is also a strong protest against the situation of women that was so central to the female reform efforts Alcott experienced throughout her life. Of the two primary causes of her day, abolition and women's suffrage, she stated: "After a fifty year acquaintance with the noble men and women of the Anti-slavery cause, and the sight of the glorious end to their faithful work, I should be a traitor to all I most love, honor and desire to imitate, if I did not covet a place among those who are giving their lives to the emancipation of the white slaves of America" (Saxton 406). Hope Lamb, who in "Wild Oats" stands in for Alcott's mother, Abba Alcott, changes from an essentially passive and peripheral figure to a central agent of change. This transformation takes place over the course of a narrative in which Alcott shines an almost lurid light on the men in one of the more radical manifestations of the transcendental movement.

Historical Context of Fruitlands and Allegorical Characterization This story, "the only eyewitness account" of the Fruitlands Community (Petrulionis 71), levels heavy satire on the heady ideals of Bronson Alcott and his partner Charles Lane, while maintaining a loving if amused respect for Abba Alcott, for whom the move to the large farm near Harvard, Massachusetts, was her 10th in 13 years (Petrulionis 75). As Elaine Showalter, Sandra Petrulionis, and others point out, the real-life disastrous experiment—during which the members almost starved and at the end of which Bronson Alcott suffered a nervous breakdown—ended with a fundamental shift in the balance of power within the Alcott family. Abba Alcott's efforts saved them, and from the day they left, poorer than when they went, she was the executive and often even the breadwinner. All of that happened in 1843. Thirty years later, Alcott gave the participants telling sobriquets: Bronson Alcott became Abel Lamb; his wife became Hope Lamb; the evil British partner, Charles Lane, became Dictator Timon Lion; and so on. She surrounded them with a clutch of comic bit parts: a colloquial old Moses, called "Mose"; a man named Absalom, who will help Hope later in the story; and John Pease.

Parodic Critique of Thoreau and Domestic Labor Realities. Subversion of Walden and the Consociate Family At one point, Alcott carefully sketches a parody of Henry David Thoreau's Walden that illuminates the ethereal concerns of the men while underscoring Hope Lamb's role as the practical provider. Drawing especially on Thoreau's advice about diet in the "Higher Laws" section of Walden, she describes the "Consociate Family" trying "to build castles in the air till the fire went out and the symposium [forced serious conversation after dinner] ended in smoke" (Showalter 369). While Lamb and Lion persist in feckless, fruitless plans and conversations, Hope Lamb, the only real worker, labors on with the help of her little daughters by washing, baking, and even harvesting the meager produce. Alcott's wit is merciless, observing that the Brethren "were so busy discussing and defining great duties that they forgot to perform the slow ones" (Showalter 372), and noting further that they "said many wise things and did many foolish ones" (375).

Melancholic Shifts, Sentimentality, and Symbolic Resolution However, when Alcott describes Bronson/Lamb as he "turned his face to the wall, and waited, with pathetic patience for death to cut the knot" (377), the wit turns to sadness. Finally, the mood turns, as in so many Alcott stories, to what might seem an overly sentimental and all too predictable happy ending. As the family leaves, Hope smiles and makes a joke over the perhaps symbolically rotten fallen apples. Metaphorically, in other words, the clouds part and the characters move toward presumptive new beginnings, where the apples of Eden remain unpicked and the world is full of promise.

For Discussion or Writing
1st point: Identify passages in this narrative where Alcott uses irony to reveal the ineptitude of the male characters. What does this story tell us about the relationship between intellectual life and the demands of daily existence?

2nd point: Compare the way Alcott presents women’s roles in this work with Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman’s presentation in "The Revolt of 'Mother.'" In what ways might Alcott’s narrative be read as a milder and more intellectual version of that story?

3rd point: Look closely at the "Higher Laws" section in Walden and identify the ways Alcott parodies Thoreau in this short piece.