47 pages • 1 hour read
Louisa May AlcottEight Cousins
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1874A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 5-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary: “A Belt and a Box”
The next morning, Uncle Alec teaches Rose how to milk a cow and then encourages her to go for a run around the garden. When Rose comes back after running, he tells her to loosen her tight belt because it restricts her airways. Rose protests, as she is proud of her slender stature and fancy belt, admitting to Uncle Alec that she cares about how she looks and is happy to hear that he thinks she is pretty. Alec explains that real beauty is linked to good health and that she should aspire to be as healthy as Phebe, who is strong from performing acts of physical labor. This shocks Rose, and she is affronted by the idea of wearing old clothes, being poor, and performing domestic chores. He soothes her by rifling through the clothes and other gifts that he has brought her from India.
While Alec is busy refurbishing an unused room in the house, Rose dresses herself in loose, colorful clothes. Uncle Alec praises her new outfit and orders her to stop wearing black, the color of mourning that she has been wearing since her father’s death. Rose generously offers to share her abundant wardrobe with Phebe, but Aunt Peace advises that her old black dresses would be a more practical gift. Rose is struck with the idea that she wants Phebe to be her sister so that they can share clothes. Rose decides that when she is old enough, she will adopt Phebe. When she tells Phebe her plan, Phebe gratefully accepts.
Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary: “Uncle Alec’s Room”
After dinner that night, Uncle Alec and Rose drive a carriage full of gifts around to Aunt Myra, Clara, Jane, and finally Jessie’s house, where Rose’s cousins are gathered after returning from school. Rose tells Aunt Jessie how happy she is with Uncle Alec and how she loves his gifts, and Aunt Jessie warns her not to let him spoil her. Jamie introduces Rose to his friend, Pokey, a curious four-year-old girl whom he calls his “dolly.” After their visit, the boys escort Rose and Uncle Alec home on horseback, and Rose decides that they are as rowdy and fun as a circus. Uncle Alec tells Rose that he will buy her a pony when her health improves, but Rose says that she will never ride one because she is too afraid.
Uncle Alec reveals that his secret room is designed for her. It has plenty of light and is full of beautiful furnishings from all over the world, and Rose is overwhelmed with gratitude. Uncle Alec explains that part of her wellness plan is to learn from Phebe how to clean and upkeep the space, to which Rose is happy to agree because she is so charmed by her uncle’s gift.
Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary: “A Trip to China”
Uncle Alec surprises a nervous Rose with a new rowboat, which he teaches her to steer because she is not yet strong enough to row it. He promises a trip to China, which turns out to be a trip to an adjacent harbor where Uncle Mac’s ship is moored, having just returned to Boston from Hong Kong. Aboard the ship, Rose is interested in seeing and experiencing the sights and smells of the Chinese imports, though she complains of the ship’s untidiness and cramped space.
Rose is astonished to meet two men from China, Fun See and Mr. Whang Lo. She is intrigued by their way of dressing and speaking and is judgmental of what she views as their “commonplace” pidgin (previously spelled “pigeon”), or simplified, English. She has not been exposed to people from other cultures much before, and Uncle Alec encourages her to be kind. They sit down to share imported tea from China, and Fun See gifts her an ornate fan. Sitting among a group of businessmen for the first time, Rose attempts to practice listening and learning so as not to remain ignorant, a notion she got from Aunt Jane. Mr. Lo gifts her a Chinese umbrella, and Uncle Mac gives her a tea-set that he obtained on his travels. On their boat ride home, Rose thanks Uncle Alec for the practical geography lesson, and he promises to take her overseas with him in the future.
Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary: “And What Came of It”
While reviewing a list of books written by Rose, Uncle Alec criticizes Rose’s poor penmanship and blames the female boarding school for having an impractical curriculum. Hearing that Rose struggles to keep an accurate account of her funds, he offers to tutor her in accounting so that when she comes into her inheritance, she can manage her fortune and property herself and avoid being swindled. He warns her that even guardians cannot always be trusted to not steal from their wards.
After the lesson, he asks Rose to read aloud to him, which is one of her talents. Aunt Jane stops by while she is reading and complains that Alec is shirking his responsibility to provide Rose a good education by “letting her sit up to read trash” (121). Rose comes to her uncle’s defense, cheekily rattling off a series of economic and geographical facts, silencing Aunt Jane and greatly pleasing her uncle.
Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary: “Phebe’s Secret”
Phebe reveals to Rose that she has a secret, which Rose guesses is that her cousins have prepared a surprise firework show for her for the Fourth of July holiday. Phebe is in Rose’s room, supervising while Rose cleans the rugs in her bedroom and hangs them out to dry on the balcony. Rose reflects on all the wonderful changes that have occurred in the past few months: Her plants have grown, her athletic abilities have increased, and she is no longer in physical pain or experiencing fatigue. Uncle Alec suggests that she accompany him for a visit to a nearby island where her cousins are, and she hastily finishes her chores to join him.
When they arrive at the island, Rose’s cousins surprise her by announcing that she will be camping on the island with them for three days and are busy preparing for the arrival of Aunt Jessie. When Aunt Jessie arrives, they fry fish for supper and tell stories by the campfire. Rose, who used to be afraid of boys, has a marvelous time with her cousins. She reflects that she had not had much exposure to men before and wonders if they are “unusually nice ones” (137). She stays up late that night wishing that Phebe were on the island with them. Uncle Alec comes to bring her in from the cold, and she discusses with him the nature of sacrifice.
Part 2, Chapter 10 Summary: “Rose’s Sacrifice”
Rose has another excellent day on the island with her cousins involving swimming, exploration, delicious clam chowder, and child’s play. Rose makes plans with her eldest cousin, Archie, to return with him by boat the next morning to fetch food and supplies for the festivities. Secretly, Rose switches places with Phebe, sending Phebe back with Archie to the island with a note for Uncle Alec explaining her plan to stay at Aunt Hill and work so Phebe can enjoy the day off. She stays true to her plan and spends a quiet day doing chores until that evening, when Uncle Mac demands that she accompany him to his boat to watch a special firework display prepared for her. Afterward, Rose goes back to Aunt Hill, satisfied that she did the right thing by giving up her joy for Phebe’s happiness.
Part 2, Chapters 5-10 Analysis
This part of the novel establishes Uncle Alec’s unusual parenting methodology and his vision of shaping Rose into The “Real” Versus “Ideal” Woman. Uncle Alec mocks contemporary women’s education and institutions, satirizing the names of Rose’s boarding schoolteachers as “Madame Prunes and Prisms” (65). He elevates Rose’s physical fitness and health over concerns of beauty and propriety. This is demonstrated by his encouragement of Rose to choose clothes of different colors and unusual styles rather than conform to the social expectation of black mourning clothes. Uncle Alec’s standards of beauty are contrasted with Aunt Myra’s conservative tastes—she believes that Rose is “too pale” to “wear anything brighter than violet” (73). The novel’s comical characterization of Aunt Myra’s morbidity critiques the virtue of restraint and submission of the “ideal” woman, revealing its absurdity.
Another key shift caused by Rose’s unorthodox parenting at Aunt Hill is the shift in her mindset. Rose begins to make decisions for herself, demonstrating her growing autonomy under Uncle Alec’s tutelage. She makes up her own mind to adopt Phebe, talks back to her Aunt Jane, and even defies Uncle Alec by secretly orchestrating her swap with Phebe on the island. Ironically, by taking her uncle’s advice that “[i]t is necessary to do right; it is not necessary to be happy” (142), Rose’s independent actions convey her loyalty to Alec’s teaching rather than resistance and signal The Development of Moral Consciousness. Rose is becoming a devoted and talented student of her new educational regimen.
Part of her educational regimen involves a trip to China, in which Alcott portrays two Chinese men as a metonym for China itself. This suggests that the men are not rounded, but rather stereotyped, characters. Alcott uses Orientalist tropes by portraying the men among the paraphernalia of a fan, a “dragon,” and the image of an unidentified “god” which Rose describes as “queer” in Chapter 8. These Orientalist images present Rose’s whiteness and American perspective as the “norm” and the men as alluring curiosities, reinforced by the fact that they are part of a “geography lesson”—both Rose and Uncle Alec use the men as a learning tool. Later, this learning becomes part of Rose’s cultural capital when she rattles off facts about China to impress her aunt, highlighting her relative power in her interaction with the men from whom she extracts knowledge as well as commodities (the gifted fan and umbrella). Alcott does suggest some development on Rose’s part in terms of her marginalization of the men: At first, she laughs at them and describes them in racist ways, but later the hegemony of her own perspective is destabilized when she looks at her feet through the eyes of the men, seeing them with “contempt” as overly “stout” when she learns about the Chinese custom of foot binding. However, her view is based in stereotypes and generalizations that highlight the novel’s participation in racist representations, even while the scene conveys Rose’s development toward becoming a knowledgeable woman with a consciousness that accommodates wider perspectives.
Related Titles
By Louisa May Alcott
