This article was written by Camila Guadalupe of Albert Einstein High School
Little Women, a young adult novel written in 1868 by Louisa May Alcott is an eye-opening book that every woman (and man) should read. This popular novel, like many others, was adapted into a major motion picture. I personally watched the movie before reading the novel and looking back at it now, I can see so many things that I missed and went over my head while watching the film. It’s common for the book version of a story to delve deeper into the story’s themes than the movie version, and Little Women is no exception.
Throughout the book, we follow main characters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March along with neighbor and friend Laurie Laurence as they move through childhood and into adulthood. Alcott explores themes of gender roles, specifically with Jo and Laurie, vanity and selfishness with Amy and Meg, the struggle the March sisters face with their lack of wealth and the absence of their father due to the war, and overall the value of family.
Out of the four sisters, Jo struggles the most with becoming a lady, which in the nineteenth century meant being prim and proper and fulfilling the traditional job of a woman at home. Instead, she is an independent, headstrong and tomboy-ish woman who speaks her mind and is sometimes overcome by her rebelliousness and anger. Just her name tells you a lot about who she is; her full name is Josephine March, but she goes by “Jo” since it sounds more masculine. After Mr. March goes off to war, Jo takes on the role of the father figure in the household because she’s the most masculine out of the sisters. She further eliminates the female stereotype with her interest in becoming a renowned writer. The career of writing in the 1860s was generally a career pursued by men. Interestingly enough, Jo’s character is largely based on Alcott herself. An obvious similarity is her deep interest in writing. This novel, in many ways, was revolutionary for its time. It wasn’t very common for a woman to be writing about women who weren’t being constantly saved by strong and overly masculine men. It fills me with joy to see and read about women who are characters that actually have depth and that I can relate to.
With Laurie, we see a lot of similar ideas shown through different situations. Laurie’s parents died when he was very young, resulting in him being raised by his grandfather, James Laurence. His grandfather is a very old fashioned man who has high expectations for Laurie and opposes his dream of becoming a musician. The career of a musician was a job that most women had at the time, which is quite the opposite of a writing career. Laurie’s name is also an important factor in who he is as a person. His full name is Theodore Laurence but goes by “Laurie” which is a traditionally more feminine name.
In contrast to Jo and Laurie, Meg and Amy show traits of vanity and sometimes selfishness. Close to the beginning of the novel, Meg is invited to stay at Annie Moffat’s house, who’s family is extremely wealthy, for a couple of days. She packs her best dresses for the party that the family is throwing, but since she doesn’t have a lot of money they aren’t very nice in comparison to the rich girls’. The night of the party Meg wears her worn-out dress, but the girls insist on dressing her up, essentially pulling a Pretty Woman on her. They turn Meg into something she’s not: a rich girl. Meg gets to play the role for the night but gets the sense knocked back into her by Laurie, who was also invited to the event, who tells her that she isn’t being herself. Meg is left offended, but has time to reflect. Although what she was doing wasn’t the best, I understand why she did it. There is always a lot of pressure about the infamous feeling of fitting in, and I have been in a situation like Meg’s many times. Out of the four sisters Meg was one of the ones who always valued wealth because it was something important for her. She wanted more than what she had growing up, but she learns from this experience, and in her adulthood she marries a man because she loves him and not for his wealth.
Amy is similar to Meg in that she wants to be wealthy and have luxuries. Of the March sisters, Amy is definitely the one who wants to be a perfect lady the most. She and Jo are polar opposites. In the end, Amy gets what she wants. She’s a popular painter, she gets to go to Europe and she marries Laurie. This is how the stereotypical woman would live her life in the 1860s. Since Amy and Jo are each at the opposite extremes of what it’s like to be a woman, they unintentionally balance each other out. And although they are both living completely different lives, they’re both happy with what they end up with. This teaches us a lesson that the definition of being a woman isn’t a simple one-sentence explanation. What it means to be a woman varies from person to person, and Jo and Amy both represent that beautifully.
The last March sister, Beth, is considered to be the most old-fashioned heroine character of the novel. She is the shyest of the family, and shyness is typically perceived as weak. Beth’s death at the end of the book symbolizes how the representation of females in literature, or in the media in general, is evolving. Alcott is emphasizing the fact that the old-fashioned female characters are dying out and making way for complex female characters.
Overall, the March sisters, although varying immensely in their personalities, always find comfort in each other and stick by each other no matter the circumstances. As women living in a society that was designed to be against them, they need all the support they can get. This novel can be compared to society today because of how women are still being treated. As a woman, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found myself relating to many of the different situations the sisters found themselves in. This is definitely a novel every woman has to read at least once in their lifetime.
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