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Within the nineteenth century, as America was but an adolescent in political, social, and economic development, Louisa May Alcott was woman with a passionate grasp on the necessity for reform; with a voice dedicated to the advancement of the American people as a cohesive society. Her platform for reform was seeded in an expansive array of social topics, some of which included domestic reform, alternative medicine and health, and the progression of the roles of women in society. Alcott’s stance on the things she was so proactive about was, although often revolutionary, well defined, supported with factual information, and was conducive to upholding the values of a country defined by liberty, freedom, and the ambition to improve the quality of life for its people. These are the aspects that made her voice heard and made her propositions for reform so effective. Powered by the strength of her family values and the love she personally shared for her own family, Alcott was extremely interested in the well-being of the people she was close to. The roles she saw as important to fulfill in a household formed the basis for her beliefs that influenced her ideas about domestic reform. She valued the importance of maintaining a healthy and comfortable lifestyle and illustrated this in her reform proposals for “food, drink, and dress”. She says, “The person who decides what shall be the food and drink of a family, and the modes of its preparation, is the one who decides, to a greater or less extent, what shall be the health of the family,” (p. 21). She takes great responsibility in how a family is fed and, in doing so, her proposals are that much more credible. Alcott stresses the importance of what and how to eat and supports her ideas by detailing the process in which the body digests and uses the fuel it is fed.
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