Chapter seven: Little Women

On Christmas, a movie came out called Little Women. I went to see the film on January eleventh with a new friend, following persuasion of some other friends who thought I might like it because the film has a feminine essence to it, and is about young adult women finding their place in the world. My friends were correct; I loved the movie. It's a classic book, so I'm sure you know about it, but I'll give you a refresher of the story:

There are four girls: Meg, Amy, Beth, and Jo. Meg is the oldest, then Jo, Beth, and Amy. In the movie, the girls are all young adults traveling their own ropes of life. Meg is a married school teacher with children of her own who enjoys the delicate, feminine luxuries of life. Jo is a bookworm who spends her days, and nights, continuously writing. Beth is an introverted, timid pianist. Amy is traveling to Paris with her old, stubborn Aunt March to focus on her artistic skills as a painter.

However, in the midst of the Civil War, Beth develops a catastrophic, life-threatening illness that presents itself in sporadic periods. This is the event that brings the sisters together once again, because they all travel back home to care for Beth. While home, Jo reunites with a childhood crush, Laurie. Laurie proposes to Jo, but is rejected because Jo wants more for herself than marriage. So, Laurie and Amy develop a romantic relationship of their own.

The main conflict in the movie is that Jo is just sort of stuck in this point in her life, because she receives more than one rejection letter from a publishing company. She wants her life to be filled with a purpose, unlike most women of that time, but has trouble figuring out what her purpose is. Especially after Beth gives into a second round of scarlet fever and passes away, Jo thinks she should give up her writing because it didn't save her sister. She's beginning to wonder if her life would be happier if she had instead married Laurie. This becomes clear to the viewer in a captivating scene in which Jo says to her mother,

"You know, I just, I just feel- I just feel like women they- they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they've got ambition, and they've got talent, as well as just beauty. And I'm so sick of people saying that- that love is just all a woman is fit for. I'm so sick of it. But I'm- I'm so lonely!"

It took everything in me, and I mean everything, not to stand up in the theater and cry out,

"Me too, girl! Me too!"

Because those sentences really spoke to me. They were so emotion-filled, and yet so elegantly said.

Beth's passing ultimately is what inspires Jo to go up to her attic and write a book called Little Women practically overnight, which isn't much of an exaggeration, because the actual book only took Louisa May Alcott ten weeks to write. The title stems from what Jo's father would call his daughters when he addressed letters to them during the Civil war: his little women.

In the end, Aunt March has passed from old age and the girls turn her house into a school of young children. Jo's book is also published, which she earns lots of money from to provide her and her sisters with a happy, plentiful life. Amy marries Laurie, but never mind about that, and Jo is never married. Although, I think she is just grateful to have written a successful book because the end of the movie does not appear to be somber one.

When the movie had ended, my friend and I went to Dairy Queen where we gabbed about how the movie had spoken volumes to us. I went home afterwards and continued to write for merely the fun of it.

Meryl played the crabby old lady, Aunt March. She played the role quite good because I didn't like her. Jo was by far my favorite character. She was so thoughtful, so strong-willed, she loved to write, and she wanted to suck the bone-marrow from life even if society was telling her she didn't have to.

Though Jo was my favorite character, there is a scene with Amy that I would also like to write in here, because it is also powerful. When Amy and Laurie are discussing what love and marriage mean society, she says,

"As a woman there's no way for me to make my own money. Not enough to earn a living, or to support my family. And if I had my own money, which I don't, that money would belong to my husband the moment we got married. And if we had children, they would be his not mine- they would be his property. So don't sit there and tell me that marriage isn't an economic proposition, because it is. It may not be for you, but it most certainly is for me."

I think it really showcases, and emphasizes, how women were perceived powerless in those times, unless they were married. And, when they were married, they were their husbands property. It's sad, but truthful. I hope we don't go back to a time like that, because we are all equal. We are all human, even if we have a difference in gender. That scene was not actually in the original movie script- it was Meryl's idea to add it in, and Greta Gerwig made the adjustment last minute.

As always, thank you for the entertainment, Meryl.