Out on a Limb

Abstract

read and comforting. But they may not always recognize how the stories are engineered to promote particular values and expectations. Fiction written especially for young adults, from its beginnings in this country with Louisa May Alcott, has always had a strong didactic streak. Books were meant to educate, and books for people making the transition to adulthood needed to educate more than most. Young adults had to learn what roles society expected them to play, what traits would be most valued in the adult world, and how to win acceptance and approval. Boys were handed one set ot values in the stories by Horatio Alger and his imitators: work hard, take advantage of the lucky breaks that come your way, and you will be rewarded by financial success-the crowning achievement of our society. For girls, the story was different. Domestic romance is the apt name given to the genre of literature produced for women and girls. To varying degrees, these books idealized domestic life, glorifying woman's place at the hearthside so that she would want to stay there. In the aftermath of the Civil War when this sort of popular fiction reached a peak, westward expansion, increased immigration, the Industrial Revolution, the growing urbanization of life, and the nascent Women's Suffrage Movement all appeared as threats to the stability of American society. Literature for women-young and old-tried to stave off the