I began writing this blog Tuesday, but thought it didn’t reflect on the reading enough. After our class discussion Wednesday, I couldn’t help but continue it. While reading this book on my own, I mostly thought of the family dynamic in it as something non-relatable for me personally because of several reasons. This is because their family is all and their father is off at war and they as a family seem to be pretty poor. Though I do not consider my family wealthy, I also would not put us in the category of poor.
I always related to Jo because she seems to be a bit of a tomboy and very bold in the sense that she is not afraid to express her opinion. What I had never realized is that this family is quite similar to mine. When we drew the comparison of the four sisters on the board the other day it was very eye opening for me. I have three older siblings, making us a family of four also.
As I looked closer at each sister’s personality traits and downfalls, I began to see similarities. Meg began to remind me a lot of my own sister: motherly, mature, responsible, but also focuses more than necessary on vanity. Jo, though I relate to her most, reminds me of my brother, Jordan: bold, passionate, ambitious, but has a temper. Beth is quite like my other brother, Tory: fragile, shy, and selfless. The only problem is this would mean I am Amy. While I do not deny that I share some of her characteristics, simply because we are both the youngest, I would say I am not quite like her. I believe I am a mix of her and Jo, but mostly Jo. This matches up with real life because my brother Jordan is most similar to me out of all my siblings. Another curious part of this comparison is that the characters match up exactly to my family in age. My sister, like Meg is the older, then Jordan (Jo), then Beth (Tory) and lastly, myself (Amy/Jo).
The part of the story that really got me thinking about this even further is right at the beginning of the chapter “Tender Troubles” where Marmee tells Jo that she is worried about Beth. This first caught my attention because she shows concern, just as all members of a family do but even more so here because in my family Tory is the one we all worry about most. And when we are concerned, we’ll firstly talk to each other about it. It almost feels like talking behind his back, but it is because we care about his well-being. Here Marmee first brings it up with Jo, and in my family my mother firstly would bring it up with my brother Jordan. This similarity is so striking to me.
A difference from the March’s to my family actually also pertains to Jo. Jo and Laurie are seemingly meant to be and have essentially been sweethearts since a young age. My brother began dating a girl at age 17 and it seemed right for all of us. Now they have been together almost 10 years and got married last year, which differs from Jo. It is interesting to me that the fictional book should go against what the general public would want, but in reality the happy ending actually occurred. Usually, the book ends blissfully and life doesn’t always agree with that.
I wonder if Alcott did not marry Jo and Laurie for the reason of going against convention, or because she actually believed they would not be a good match. Either way, the comparison to my family is still unbelievably similar to me and I am now curious to see where I will end up in life as the “Amy” of my family!
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