Little Women

I finally read Little Women, and it was amazing. I love this book, I love the characters, I love how I felt like I was right in the midst of everything. One way to put this book is that it is about four sisters, their characters, dreams, path to marriage, and the “castles in the air” that they wish to build.

This book is filled with so many memorable moments, characters, and scenes. Alcott does a fantastic job at building each character, telling their story, and ultimately make you feel like you are a fly on the wall observing the March family.

Little Women is about the March family, during the US Civil War. The father is at war, and mom (Marmee) and the 4 daughters (Meg, Jo, Amy, Beth) are at home living day by day. Meg is the beautiful one, who attends balls and can act. Jo is tomboyish, plans to carve her own destiny and wants to be a famous writer. Amy is the spoiled and snobby one, she wants to marry rich and be a famous artist. Beth is the angel, and is musically talented. With the inclusion of their rich dear neighbor Laurie, they grow and learn from each other into their womanhood.

The love stories in this book are unlike others. Laurie and Jo, Jo and Laurie… theirs (or lack thereof) stinged me the most, the book builds them up as friends but with the undertone that they will love each other. I really felt it when feelings aren’t returned. Then there is the constant battle between the Aunt and the girls as it relates to their marital prospects. She insists on advising them to marry wealthy, but the girls know better, they know to marry for reasons other than money. It’s pretty central to each character to find their reasons to love. Laurie’s grandfathers love is something that was of quite importance to Beth’s character, which I thought was a sweet different take. He had a love for a lost daughter that he found again in Beth, and that was quite a beautiful thing to read.

Another big part of the book is pursuing your dreams and passions, and balancing that with your family, responsibility and duty. Jo is very much the embodiment of that, she relentlessly holds up her desire to be a famous writer, works deliberately and very hard. I think everyone loves Jo because for the most part because she is very much an independent mind, and does not fall for the ‘trappings’ of love and domestication. She does become a writer, and she does sell her writings and is able to make money for her and her family; however, she eventually finds herself valuing familial and domestic duties. The rest of the sisters have ambition too, but in the end a lot of their ambition changes or gets disrupted by familial responsibilities.

This book is still relevant today, which is a sign of an amazing piece of literature. Everything from the themes of hard work, morality, marriage, love, duty, family, etc.. still resonate. Then there is the added topics around pursuing dreams, independence, feminism, gender roles etc… which are changing and becoming more and more important for us to think about today.

Little Women will stay with me for a very long time, I could not recommend it enough. I should probably thank Lindsey and Amanda for putting this in my head ~15 years ago in a video rental store. They mentioned it being their favorite movie, I never watched it, but decided to finally read it. Thank you!

Words I learned:

Blithe: Showing a casual and carefree indifference considered to be callous or improper

Capacious: Having a lot of space inside

Some phrases I loved:

“smell thunder” - I never quite understood that, but also completely understand it

“castle in the air” - alluding to our dreams which we wish to pursue