The Emancipation of Slaves
Alcott’s sketches were written during the Civil War; in other words, when slavery was still a matter of conflict between the northern and southern states. They were originally published in a pro-abolitionist Boston newspaper called The Commonwealth. The narrative recounts Tribulation Periwinkle’s experiences as a nurse in a Union hospital during the Civil War. Not just any point during the Civil War, but a quite specific and quite specifically significant period: just a few short months after the arrival of Pres. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Like her creator (and real-life doppelganger) Louisa May Alcott, Tribulation Periwinkle is forthright and uncompromising in her attitude not only towards slavery, but also against racial prejudice in general. Well, perhaps not quite as forthright; the proximity of Washington D.C.—where the hospital was located—to the borderline of Confederacy was not exactly Alcott’s Massachusetts and so Miss Periwinkle admits:
“Having been warned not to be too rampant on the subject of slavery, as secesh principles flourished even under the respectable nose of Father Abraham, I had endeavored to walk discreetly.”
This is the point at which real life creator and semi-fictional creation part ways. Alcott was not exactly renowned for her discretion on the subject of her political beliefs. And yet, this quote is one more indication of the stressful atmosphere caused by the question of slavery back then, for even if slavery was all but declared abolished, black soldiers were still tended to in different hospitals, which housed none but black people; while the white soldiers were taken to similar white hospitals. This racial division is keenly felt in the sketches in order to convey a truthful image of the circumstances back then.
The Emancipation of Women
The collection of sketches starts off with an assertion which was not exactly common among young unmarried women in the middle of the 19th century:
"I WANT something to do."
Naturally, the rest of the Periwinkle clan are quick to offer advice and guidance which includes suggestions that Tribulation write a book, go back to teaching and become an actress. It is her brother Tom’s suggestion to become a nurse that grabs her by the fancy. Notably, it is the suggestion of her sister Joan which seems the unlikeliest of all:
"Take a husband like my Darby, and fulfill your mission.”
The word “mission” recurs just twice more in the narrative. Once when the first-person narrative voice announces the beginning of her mission as a nurse and then, for the last time, when she encapsulates the theme of the emancipation of another put-upon minority (so to speak) in America:
“I had been prepared by the accounts of others, to expect much humiliation…from the surgeons…to be treated…like a door-mat, a worm, or any other meek and lowly article, whose mission it is to be put down and walked upon; nurses being considered as mere servants, receiving the lowest pay, and, it's my private opinion, doing the hardest work of any part of the army, except the mules.”
Clearly, the author’s mission somewhat diverges from Nurse Periwinkle’s, though perhaps only semantically. Tribulation commences upon a mission to heal wounds resulting from a short-lived literal War Between the States while Alcott is on a mission to heal wounds resulting from an millennia-spanning metaphorical War Between the Sexes.
The Book of Jo
Tribulation Periwinkle is but a thinly veiled autobiographical portrait of the author as a young nurse. In the writing of the story, however, it is almost impossible not to see that there is yet another character working somewhere in the gap between reality and fiction separating creator from her creation. Hospital Sketches did much to establish Alcott’s promise as a literary voice worth following. Five years after its publication that great promise was nobly fulfilled with what still remains one of the defining novels for young women; a statement of feminism and femininity so powerful that Saoirse Ronan, Winona Ryder, June Allyson and Katherine Hepburn have lined up to play the central role who is unambiguously the offspring of Tribulation Periwinkle and Louisa May Alcott. In the fictionalized recounting of her authentic experiences, one theme so overwhelms that anyone even remotely aware of the author’s history will be unable to avoid seeing: the genesis of Jo March, the ferocious heroine of Little Women.
Gender Discrimination
The book is the fruit of a feminist’s toil. Therefore, it houses between its leaves many of the issues caused by gender roles and the injustice of a patriarchal society. One example is the scene where Tribulation is trying desperately to find the man charged with giving free passes for train travel. Although she exerts herself to the utmost, she fails in her task because the passersby would not take her seriously. When her brother-in-law had made his appearance, however, he managed to obtain for her the very location of the man she was seeking in a matter of few minutes. This scene highlights the different treatment of men and women back then. In the eyes of a patriarchal society, unmarried women had very little value and esteem, and were treated accordingly.
Patriotism
Besides being a pamphlet defending women’s rights, Hospital Sketches sets a noble example of patriotism. Tribulation, for one, sacrifices the comfort of her home to serve in a hospital hundreds of miles away. The hygiene and nutrition are in a state of advanced degeneration when she arrives to her new quarters, but all is born for the sake of her country. Similarly, each and every one of the wounded young soldiers, in her charge, are people who had sacrificed all they had to serve their country, and even die for it if necessary. Thus, the book presents a vivid image of patriotism during the Civil War.
