Adapted into an Oscar Award winning movie in 2019, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is considered one of the greatest literary classics of all time. Similar to beloved author Jane Austen, Alcott wrote her stories with an air of modernity that was rare during her time, and yet the risk paid off because—over a century and a half later—Little Women has continued to inspire and captivate to this day.
The book tells a tale set in the 1860s of four sisters with minds full of dreams and hearts full of passions as they navigate the obstacles of growing up in poverty. This novel isn’t like typical books when it comes to plot. There isn’t a straightforward story line. There’s no avenging-my-mother’s-death or saving-the-world-from-a-bad-guy. The book simply goes through moments of a family’s life and has a relatively soft plot line. This was actually one of the hesitations I had going into the novel—that I would be bored while reading. Ironically, it turned out to be the aspect I loved most.
I loved how the reader got to watch the four girls transition from childhood to adulthood. Alcott did a phenomenal job capturing the ups and downs of life. How the journey to maturity is not always a linear process. Alcott brings to life the fact that a person does grow, but sometimes, they also fall. Yet it is through those moments of external and internal defeat, that a person will become closer to their own self-identity. The characters reflected these lessons, and through the story, the reader learned them as well.
The March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are completely different, but just like puzzle pieces, their personalities fit together. They share such a sisterly bond, which I can personally relate to with my own sister. The author successfully portrayed what it is like to have siblings: the bickering, the anger, the laughs, and the cries. All of the sisters are unique in their own beliefs and often clashed with each other, but those moments showed the realistic side to having siblings.
Jo, the main character and the second oldest, is written to be unconventional, strong-headed, and independent. She steps up as the “man of the house” when their father is deployed in the war. It is easy to connect with her character as she deeply cares about those she loves. She doesn’t care about society, often shunning the invisible rules of the world around her. Yet despite being our main girl, Alcott clearly reiterates the fact that Jo is not perfect. She is stubborn and hard-hearted. The novel does a wonderful job at highlighting the moral ambiguity of all of the characters which further emphasizes their character development by the end of the book.
Amy is the baby of the family and is Jo’s opposite in every way. She cares about etiquette and “polite society”. In the beginning of the novel, Jo and Amy have a level of resentment towards one another as both wish they were a little bit more like the other. In fact, one of my favorite plot lines was watching their relationship grow from jealousy to admiration by the end of the book.
Meg, the oldest March sister, is very much the oldest. She is motherly toward the other sisters even though she is only a year older than Jo. She’s the most mature but struggles the most with envy and their state of poverty. However, by the end, she learns to appreciate the things she has and learns that there are more important things in life than materialistic items.
Lastly, Beth is the “angel” of the family. She is always doing things for her family, comforting her mother, and being kind to everyone. She is shy, but becomes the peacemaker of the family.
The romances in this book are written so wonderfully too. Almost every sister finds her true love which takes the reader on multiple journeys that were packed with yearning and hardship. Theodore Laurence, the reader learns, is the March’s wealthy neighbor and is the same age as Jo. Jo immediately takes “Laurie” into the family, and the two of them become incredibly close. Reading about their silly pranks and comical conversations was really enjoyable. He even becomes like a son to Mrs. and Mr. March and like a brother to the sisters.
If I hadn’t watched the movie before reading this, I probably would have thought that Jo and Laurie would be endgame—especially when he declares his love for her. But shocker alert, he actually ends up with Amy (I know, kind of weird).
There’s a little debate over whether Laurie should have married Jo instead. Personally, I think Amy was the correct choice. After getting over the fact that he basically watched Amy grow up (she was twelve and he was sixteen when they met), I think their personalities meshed well together once they both got older. Jo is too similar to Laurie, and their relationship would never have lasted. Laurie needed Amy to settle and love him truly.
After the death of one of the sisters, Jo is left to grapple with the uncertainty of life and come to terms with the fruitlessness of her innermost desires. The plot point was emotional since I had connected with the sister that died, but it set off Jo’s final arc of character development in the last quarter of the book. She had always been known to be independent, but she began to yearn for somebody to love her. She no longer wanted to be lonely anymore which is such a beautiful lesson: that a person can want independence and companionship at the same time. That those two ideas are not mutually exclusive.
One of the things I hate most of all in modern movies is the idea that a “strong woman” has to be a lonely one too. Society has gotten it into their heads that a princess that can save herself can’t have a prince at the same time. Alcott defied this idea by saying that a woman can have all of those qualities and have her fairy-tale love too.
I have always been partial when it comes to period works of literature. From Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen to Bridgerton by Julia Quinn, I am utterly obsessed with the Victorian Era. Yet I am not being biased when I say that Little Women is a timeless novel. Reading through the pages, I found something that does not fade with time: womanhood.
Alcott perfectly captured the essence of being a woman. It’s hard sometimes to visualize the life of someone who lived so long ago. Sometimes we can only imagine the differences. Although we have cars and phones now, there are just some things that never change. The ineffable idea of “womanhood” is weaved throughout all of time and in all places. The sisters growing up, helping each other get ready for dances, having passions that go beyond words—all of it portrayed the feeling of being a girl.
In conclusion, the book as a whole was beautifully written. I thought the storytelling was great, and it was too easy to fall in love with every single character. I had high hopes for this book when I started to read its pages, and somehow, it still managed to surpass my expectations. Of course it wasn’t perfect, but each and every chapter added to the plot.
And that plot was one of life.