Respecting her elders?

Reading Blog Assignment Post - March 16^th, 2011

In my own opinion, Chapter 33 of last nights reading, the chapter made up entirely of Jo’s journal entries while she was working as a seamstress and teacher at Mrs Kirke’s boardinghouse in New York, was one of the most interesting Little Women chapters we have read so far. I think that part of the reason I found the chapter so interesting was that reader’s were hearing about Jo’s experiences with the new family and the work from her own perspective.

I also found the way Jo so positively reported her time with Kittie and Minnie, who she seemed quite fond of despite their spoiled tendencies, and in the Kirke household. Jo’s general openness about her intrigue for Professor Bhaer surprised me. For example, I found Jo’s honesty regarding her intention to spy on Mr. Bhaer rather unexpected. She wrote, “there is a glass door between it (the parlor) and the nursery, and I mean to peep at him, and the I’ll tell you how he looks. He’s most forty, so it’s no harm Marmee” (321). Later in the chapter, Jo writes about her experience at dinner. “There was the usual assortment of young men, absorbed in themselves; young couples absorbed in each other; married ladies in their babies; and old gentlemen in politics” (323). This passage got me thinking about Jo’s reserves and concerns regarding age and it’s relation to maturity and whether or not she accepts or rejects an individual.

As I have never read Little Women before like most of the members of our class, I am interested to see how Jo’s relationship with the professor develops and whether the pair will cross a romantic boundary. I am also eager to look into Jo’s possible age based bias. The possibility of age-fixation or preference could actually explain several of Jo’s social and societal tendencies.