An Interpretation Of Eden’s Outcasts From The Perspective Of Positive Psychology

Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father is the double biographyof Louisa May Alcott and her father Amos Bronson Alcott. Eden’s Outcasts was awarded thePulitzer Prize for biography and autobiography in2008. It narrates the whole life of LouisaMay Alcott and her father. The author, John Matteson, casts new light on the unusual image ofLouisa whose Little Women is known by the world with insight and erudition. From adaughter of a poor family to a famous female writer, Louisa’s life is not only a legend full ofoptimism, gratitude, persistence and courage, but also an epic of a woman whose success caninspire numerous people to hold fast to their dreams and thrive in their life. As an emergingsubject recent years, positive psychology aims to explore the virtues and goodness of humanbeings instead of the negative feelings. This thesis tries to analyze Eden’s Outcasts from theperspective of positive psychology. The interpretation of Louisa’s success from theperspective of positive psychology may help people, especially women to acquire happiness.This thesis is mainly divided into three parts:The first part is an introduction to John Matteson’s life experience, the book of Eden’sOutcasts with its literature review, theory of positive psychology and significance of the thesisas well.The second part is the main body of the thesis. It consists of three chapters.The first chapter analyzes Louisa from the subjective level with its first sectionconcentrating on Louisa’s positive emotions and sense of wellbeing. Louisa’s positiveemotions consist of three categories: her satisfaction with the past, her flow in the present andher optimism toward the future. The second section analyzes Louisa’s sense of wellbeingincluding subjective wellbeing and psychological wellbeing. The acquiring of wellbeing should start from positive emotions. Positive emotions can help people live their life with apositive attitude.The second chapter analyzes Louisa’s positive personal traits and her acquirement ofthese traits from the individual level. Firstly, this chapter analyzes the positive personal traitsof Louisa which can be subdivided into three categories: self-efficacy and resilience, faith andcourage and love, post-traumatic growth and positive aging. Secondly, the chapter analyzesLouisa’s acquirement of these personal traits from two aspects: improving emotionalintelligence and promoting self-esteem. Positive personal traits can help people acquirepositive strength and find the virtues and goodness of themselves in the end.The third chapter analyzes the civic virtues and positive institutions around Louisa fromthe group level. The first part of this chapter analyzes the civic virtues around Louisa, whichcan be subdivided into two aspects: father’s altruism and mother’s intolerance. The secondpart of this chapter analyzes the positive institutions around Louisa. It is compromised ofthree aspects: positive education, positive community and positive family. Civic virtues andpositive institutions have a significant effect on the acquirement of positive emotions andpositive personal traits.The third part is the conclusion. This thesis attempts to analyze the shining points ofLouisa from the perspective of positive psychology and further discusses the relationshipbetween women’s success and positive psychology. Facing life’s challenges, Louisa choosesto accept them rather than escape from them, improve her self-esteem and learn from herfailure. This thesis aims to probe into the the effect of positive strength on women’s successand provide consideration for the women.