Little Women
Louisa May Alcott
I recently reread this book, after a long time because it was selected as this month's title for the book club I'm part of. I had forgotten just how important it had been to me during my childhood, all of the characters struck some kind of chord with me, and I remember wishing that I could have a sister like Jo.Jo was always the one that I felt the strongest connection with, being as she was the tomboyish writer. I wasn't ever a girly girl like Meg and Amy were drawn to be, and I definitely wasn't as selfless as Beth, although I was quiet and reserved about my emotions. The section in which Jo leaves home in pursuit of her writing ambitions was something that I wished that I could experience one day, as I sat scribbling short pieces of fiction in my bedroom.
I also related to the stormy relationship that Jo and Amy had throughout the novel, because my relationship with my brother in particular wasn't without it's tensions. Although thankfully he never burnt any of my writing, he did destroy a couple of my toys after I had done something to irritate him.
Alcott manages to create four distinct characters in the four sisters, who share a tight bond without a strong male influence for the majority of the novel. Her own father was absent for at least part of her childhood, not at war but in England trying to gain some financial independence back after a failed attempt to run his own school.
Alcott was evidently a staunch believer in the old adage that writers are supposed to work by namely 'write what you know', incorporating her own mother's ability to run the household without the influence of a man, her desire to write for a living, and the death of her sister Lizzie into the novel.
Lizzie is largely accepted to be the sister that Beth is based on. She was the shy and reserved sister who kept house while the elder Alcott girls were out at work. She contracted scarlet fever, battling it for two years before passing away.
Shortly after the death of Lizzie, another event happened that Alcott placed almost whole into the novel. Her sister Anna announced her engagement, and Alcott reportedly reacted in a similar way to Jo does, when Jo discovers that Meg is to marry John Brooke.
Alcott's ability to create endearing and realistic characters is part of the reason that I still enjoy reading the novel. I like spending time in the largely female dominated world of the March girls, and Alcott was one of the first writers that I read as a child, which showed me that I didn't have to necessarily always rely on a male partner in order to live a fully happy life.
