I feel like I've got a "bajillion" (my daughter assures me that it is a standard unit of measurement) things to say about Little Women and yet I have no idea where to start. I suppose I could start with the easiest revelation, which is that I'm pretty much in love with this book.
It was no surprise to me when I learned that Little Women is drawn from the experiences of the author's own life. Each of the characters is completely believable and almost bowls you over with their authenticity. It's been a common theme here on the 100BYSRBYD blog that these books stand the test of time because you actually know someone who isn't just kinda like Jo but is Jo.
Much like with To Kill a Mockingbird, this novel taps into the "Main Street USA" feels in my brain. It makes me nostalgic for a time that I never was a part of. Granted it takes place during a terrible time in our history, the Civil War, but it feels like it was a much simpler time. Of course that's a trick of distance in time. Each decade had its own complications and it's own longing for a simpler time. Still I can't help but feel that I'd give up my cell phone and Twitter/Facebook accounts for floor scrubbing and field work and think it a fair trade.
You can't read Little Women and not have a favorite "little woman". The book naturally skews one towards Jo, but there is a case to be made for Meg or Beth. Amy...well, let me tell you about Amy.
As I mentioned in the WIKA, I barely remember the movie I once watched long ago. Throughout the book so far I've been getting flashbacks to the movie. Winona Ryder was Jo, Claire Danes was Beth, I don't remember who played Meg, and Kirsten Dunst played Amy. I have always wondered why I have such a loathing for every character Kirsten Dunst has played. I mean, she was tolerable as Mary Jane in Spiderman, but other than that every time I see here in a movie I've had this low level hostility towards any character she plays. It genuinely borders on that questionable "want to punch them in the throat" level deep in my gut. I'll never forget watching Mona Lisa Smile and realizing that every time her character was on screen I had to leave the room. It was such a strange response that I spent a lot of time trying to understand. I mean, yes, her character in that movie was written to irritate the viewer with here...well, there's no easy way to say it...outright bitchiness. So, overall I couldn't understand my reaction...until I started having the flashbacks to the movie based on Little Women.
I hated Amy in the movie so much that the hatred transferred over onto the very actress who played her. I'm getting ahead of myself here, but Amy, as with Blanche from Jane Eyre, is everything repulsive to me that a woman can be. Cruel, conniving, poisonous, cold, soul shredding, selfish, pompous, and then tries to turn it all around with a little angelic smile and a sorry. Just thinking about how she burns Jo's book as recompense for Jo and Meg going to a party with Laurie that Amy wasn't even invited to makes my blood pressure skyrocket.
Now before people claim that I am clearly sexist because I attribute the above adjectives to women let me say (by way of a disclaimer that I shouldn't even have to make) that I understand men can be cruel, conniving, poisonous, etc. I will defend myself in saying that women do it so much differently than men. There are those women who have chosen the above as a normal way of living life and interacting with humans and they scare the crap out of me. I avoid them the way I avoid toxic nuclear waste...I avoid them by going miles around them.
So, for now enough about Amy. I have my heart condition to think of and until she commits another "sin" in the book I'll table my loathing for her to write of better things here.
I will get to the quotes and thing that struck me the most in a bit, however I can't continue without pontificating on the single greatest aspect of this first quarter of the book. I'm not exactly sure how to put it in the most "entertaining" way possibles. As a result I'll just jump right in.
Virtue. I know, that's almost a dirty word in today's culture, but in this novel it is ever present. I'm not even talking about the points where it extols virtues, the very gift of a copy of Pilgrim's Progress is emphasis enough to be sure, I'm talking about how virtue is an active part of each person's life. Most shocking to me, in a good way, is the manner in which each character is aware of their faults and failings to live up to an ideal (aside from Amy...blergh..) and is actively working to remedy their lack. Jo knows that her fuse is short and is prone to flying into a rage. Meg is fully aware that she craves finer things that amount to little in this world and only serve to enhance her prideful streak. Even their mother looks around for lessons to apply to her own virtues.
It's at this point I wonder why this book is solidly in the top 100BYSRBD given that it's very substance is antithetical to our current society. The entire American propensity towards self indulgence can hardly abide this. If someone has a propensity towards anger, gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, pride, lust, etc. what do we say of them? Or, rather, what do they say of themselves? "It's just how I am. Accept it. I'll never change." We didn't always believe so and this novel is evidence of that fact. We have a near fatalist view of virtues and vices. You have what you have and you'll never get any better. We medicate ourselves into numbness (self or prescription) rather than go through the hard work of doing a objective self-assessment let alone striving through the hard slog of bettering ourselves. And why should we be surprised, if indeed we are at all? A relativistic society is not now and could never be a virtuous society. Where once we followed "Know Thyself" with "Better Thyself" we now blithely mutter "Yeah, well that's fine for you but not for me". When oneself is the measure of virtue then it's no wonder things are falling apart at the seems and reason is a bizarre way of looking at the world. Facts become variables and feelings become laws.
Already this book has changed me in that regard and changed my parenting style. If I don't encourage self analysis in my children, model it for them, or establish the virtues as goal posts then how dare I be surprised or even disappointed when they eventually grow up and miss the mark? While people are content with their children getting participation trophies, receiving scouting badges they didn't earn, and sliding by in society I find myself rejecting that thinking more and more for my children. My daughter was in Girl Scouts for about three months before the Summer break. To my shock she was given a number of badges that the other girls had earned so she wouldn't feel left out. For the sake of politeness I allowed it, but am wondering now if I should have made a bit of a stand. My daughter and I have since had a talk about how different it is when you actually earn something yourself. She and I are in agreement now that no one is to give her a badge or an award she didn't earn with the hard work of meeting every requirement. We throw away standards at our own peril. If other parents don't understand, I'm fine with that. All of the books on the list so far have taught me one thing above all else. "In a world of insanity, stand for sanity."
Now that I've gotten all that out into the open (for good or ill) let us move on to my favorite bits and bobs, quotes and such.
In reference to Pilgrim's Progress it is stated of Jo that "She knew it very well, for it was that beautiful story of the best life ever lived, and Jo felt that it was a true guidebook for any pilgrim going the long journey". The Bunyan novel has gotten diminished as of late in the eyes of many Christians. I'm not sure that we as a group afford it the honor that it is actually do. Allegory seems the province of nursery rhymes to our "modern" sensibilities. It's not on the 100 list, but I'm pretty sure I'll need to read it soon.
I love Beth to pieces. She is such a pure and gentle soul. Her affection and care of cast off dolls is such a delight to me. She's the kind of person you want to be around if for no other reason than to stand between her and the wide world that is lying in wait to abuse and destroy her gentleness and innocence. If Jane Eyre has taught me anything it is that in literature that's a signal that she is going to die before the book is done. Unfortunately there's a big blank in my memory of the film in this regard so...here's hoping I'm wrong.
"There are many Beths in the world, shy and quiet, sitting in corners till needed, and living for others so cheerfully that no one sees the sacrifices till the little cricket on the hearth stops chirping and the sweet, sunshiny presence vanishes, leaving silence and shadow behind."
These types of characters make me feel ashamed; ashamed of my cynicism, skepticism and suspicious nature. I've met a good many of them and they seem so alien to this world, to be honest.
I LOVE the elder Mr. Laurence. The way he takes to little Beth and his reaction to her reaction to being given a piano is simply priceless. In my movie of this book he would be played by Sir John Hurt. A perfect match if ever there was one. Mrs. March would be played by Jennifer Ehle of Possession fame.
"Watch and pray, dear, never get tired of trying and never think it impossible to conquer a fault." See previous diatribe on this point. I could repeat it all over again here, but I'll spare you.
Mrs. March proves her quality again and again throughout the book. Particularly in the section after Meg "'fess"es after her trip to "Vanity Fair". I could write out the two pages of text where she reveals her "plans" for her daughters...but I won't It's well worth the read and shames my heart (in an ultimately constructive way) as a parent. It can be distilled in the following quotes.
"I want my daughters to be beautiful, accomplished, and good; to be admired, loved, and respected..."
"I'd rather see you poor men's wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones without self-respect and peace."
"...better happy old maids than unhappy wives, or unmaidenly girls, running about to find husbands...
Next we'll have a goodly "Vocab" post. I'm very glad to be back to finding words that I don't know the meaning of.
Pax,
W
