Leaving the theater after seeing the current version of Little Women, my daughter-in-law and I discussed the perennial question of which character we identified with, and she brought up an interesting point. She said now that she was a mother, she found herself identifying with Marmee. In an email exchange with my sister Beth the next week, she pointed out that though I was right in many ways to always identify with Jo and her “scribblings,” there was much of Meg in me as the oldest sister of four, and that she would have been more likely to have the tomboyish element in Jo. She thoughtfully didn’t mention that I would have laid claim to Jo’s temper.
My review is not of the movie, but I will say I enjoyed it even as I wondered as I watched them switch with little transition from one time period to another whether those who had not memorized the book, as I had, could have followed the thread. Apparently, from subsequent conversations and reviews, that is possible.
I came home with the desire to return to this longtime favorite, read at least once a year growing up and many times as an adult. Reading through the lens of a scribbler with a lifetime of experience brought a different assessment. Though Louisa Mae Alcott could have been considered a feminist for her time, the limitations for women and the need to “marry well” disturbed me. I found the class distinctions unsettling and felt thankful that we are past that until I began to think about it. Are we really? In this reading, I found frequent didacticism and long descriptions that probably would not get published in today’s market. Yet, remembering that Alcott wrote of a time past about a family based on her own, she gives reality with true emotions of people who try to do right, sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing, characters enough like us that we can see ourselves.
But becoming Jo again, I related to her response to those who critiqued her writing by changing to suit each one and coming out with a finished work that suited nobody, including herself. I have a story that I once wrote and loved, changed to fit every critique until it reads like it was written by committee, now relegated to my drawer. I hope to return to it one day and restore it to at least one that I can love.
Since I saw the movie, I have run into two longtime well-read librarians who never read the book. For them and for you if you have not read it, I would say to get a copy and get started. If you have read it before, I recommend rereading and revisiting. Writing a review is up to you.