Little Women

For the record, I wanted Jo to be with Laurie too. That’s one of the main reasons I pushed through the book, because I was really hoping for them to get together. They just had like, chemistry. It’s funny, because I enjoyed our class discussion about the book more than I feel like I really enjoyed the book. Well, I didn’t really want to like the book, because I felt like it was really moralizing, that it wasn’t that different in message than The Wide, Wide World. I mean, Marmee gives Bibles to the girls on Christmas. And pretty much every chapter ends on a happy note. Things felt rather episodic – especially in Part One. I was actually reminded of reading Mama’s Bank Account last semester, because that was made up of little episodes dealing with the home as well.

But I was definitely into the story by Part Two, and I really liked our discussion about the characters. I think one of the reasons why people still like them today is because they’re so defined, because we know them and how they’re going to react in certain situations. It’s like reading Harry Potter; you always know how he’s going to react. You always know Hermione is going to pull out her books. But I think that Beth fails most as an actual character; I don’t know if we discussed this in class. But she felt too perfect to me, even with her flaw of shyness. She’s so good, and she’s so much of what the other characters fail to be. I mean, like you mentioned in class, she’s happy to die. And like you said, her knowing that she was meant to die really did feel more literary than actual. It was sad when she died, though, so it was human in that way. But the pain of it just felt overshadowed by Beth’s peacefulness in death, by the heavy feel of the description: “But a bird sang blithely on a budding bough, close by, the snow-drops blossomed freshly at the window, and the spring sunshine streamed in like a benediction over the placid face upon the pillow—a face so full of painless peace, that those who loved it best smiled through their tears, and thanked God that Beth was well at last” (403). So even though the Introduction says that Alcott chose not to write in that tone (xi), I still felt like it was pretty strong. But maybe I’m biased.