摘要
                  
作为美国第一部可以与《傲慢与偏见》媲美的美国女性文学——露易莎•梅•奥尔科特的《小妇人》的一举成名在文坛上引起了巨大的反响。在创作过程中，奥尔科特运用了一些打破常规性的变通手段，以乔拒绝嫁给完美男人洛里结束了整篇小说。在过 去的 30 年里 , 对小说的主题 , 批评家们争论不休 , 而所有的争论不可避免要触及对女权主义和乔的婚姻伤感结局的理解 。
《小妇人》的结局一直被诸多批评家广泛讨论。有人认为这种安排是对桥的叛逆精神的惩罚，也有人认为这种婚姻是一种“屈服”。无论是惩罚还是妥协，这些评论无疑都将这种结局视为悲剧。考虑其成文的特殊时代背景，本文将从清教主义和个人主义去探讨，挖掘这一结局背后隐藏的冲突和融合。基于此，本文将在分析清教主义和个人主义对《小妇人》的影响的前提下，对小说的结局作出新的解释。首先，着重介绍了清教主义和个人主义对美国文学的影响。两种思潮既有是互相吸纳也是互相排斥，这种融合点造成了文学创作者的思想的倾斜程度的不同。其次，本文将结合人物性格的分析，探讨性格形成的原因和背景。正是因为在性格的行程中，受到了清教主义和个人主义的影响，导致了性格中的部分因素的冲突，也导致了结局中出人意料的婚姻选择。通过以上研究，本文最后总结出乔拒绝嫁给洛里的结局是意料之外的，更是情理之中的。这种结局是在清教主义与个人主义的冲突与融合下的最好归宿。

关键词：《小妇人》 清教主义，个人主义，结局 

Abstract

As the first American feminine literature work which can rival Pride and Prejudice, Louisa M.Alcottz’s Little Women hit the big time, producing unexpected repercussion. During the procedure of her creation, Alcott applied some non-routine flexible method, ending the novel with the conclusion that Jo refused the perfect man, Laurie’s proposal. This ending has trigged various disagreements at home and broad. In past thirty years, some critic always keep arguing on the ending, and inevitably, almost all the controversy touch the understanding for feminism and the sad ending of Jo’s marriage.
Great deals of comments have debated upon the novel’s ending. Some people regard this arrangement as the punishment for Jo’s affinity for disobedience, while others consider this marriage as Jo’s compromise to life or fate. As this novel was created during a special time, this paper would concentrate on the combination and conflict behind the ending from the perspective of Puritanism and individualism. Based on this, this paper would focus on the influence of Puritanism and individualism on Little Women .From this analysis; a new explanation for the ending would be generated. First of all, this paper highlights the influence of Puritanism and individualism on the American Literature. These two trends of thoughts absorb each other in some aspects and exclude each other in other aspects. This combination and conflict result in the difference in the writers’ thoughts. That’s to say, the author has been affected by the Puritanism and individualism, which could be found in their writing. Secondly, this paper would combine the analyst of protagonists’ personality to make some probe into the reasons that result from these characters. While they were becoming adults , the protagonists have been influenced by Puritanism and individualism. So the protagonists have conflict in their characters .It’s the conflict in their characters that leads to the unexpected choice in marriage. On the basis of above analysis, the paper draws the conclusion that Jo’s refusal to the proposal is beyond the expectation, but she deserved it . This arrangement is the best for the novel in the conflict and combination of Puritanism and individualism. 

Key words: Little Women Puritanism，individualism，ending