My All Time Favorite Character

Little Women has many characters that are worthy of praise and recognition. Jo is the main character in the novel; she stands out the most compared to the men in the story and also from her sisters. Miss Jo March is an independent, loving, caring, and creative lady with big plans. Jo, sadly, lives in a time were women do not have the privilege of possessing the same freedoms as men.  Jo gives her best effort to break out from the restrictions and limitations that society has place on women.

            The book Little Women took place in the 19^th century in New England. During the 19^th century women were limited to very few rights. The March family was not a typical family in the 19^th century; they were well ahead of their time. The March girls, Beth, Jo, Meg, and Amy, had the privilege to an education when many girls were still deprived of one. Jo took complete advantage of her education and as a result was quiet a brilliant young lady. Jo March enjoyed writing plays and would encourage her sisters to help act them out for their mother, Marmee.

            Jo was such a gifted writer and knew it. She was not going to allow men to hold her back. Jo fought against the society she knew by going outside of the norm and traveled to New York to pursue her dream of being a writer. She made an attempt at publishing her first novel and failed. Though she failed, Jo is not the type of women to give up after her first failure. She scrapped her first piece and started over. At her second attempt she succeeded and her novel was published.

In the late 1800s many of the men from the young age of twelve to the older age of fifty were drafted into the war. Women were deprived of the right and were not drafted into the Civil War in the late 1800s. Women in the 19^th century had to live through the civil war times, but did not possess the right to fight for their country. Many women that wanted to play a part in the war effort had the ability to be a nurse. Jo March on the other hand would rather not fight at all then tend to the wounded men. Jo wished to fight along side her father in war, and that wish was not fulfilled because of society’s rules. She was negatively affected by this in that her heart was crushed.

Jo March was a remarkable woman, and though the world tried to stop her she followed her dreams. She did not “break” the law, but she did work around it. The world she lived in was not a fictional one, but very true to the past. Jo March is a woman I wish was real and I would be honored to meet. Miss Jo March was negatively affected by the society, but found a positive way to work through it.

Book2Media

Little Women was such a success as a novel that Mervyn LeRoy made it into a movie in 1949. The movie was remade in 1994 and was an instant classic. Many women and little girls really enjoy this novel and love the movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110367/

Jo March

Here is the main character Jo I was talking about. This is a scene from the movie where she branched off on her own to pursue her dream of being a play writer and getting her plays published. I like how they chose to give her darker clothing and a less lady like  style in this scene.

A Family that Plays Together...Stays Together

The March family was known for being extremely caring and generous to others in need. The ladies in the March family were raised to be very lady like, but also independent. The girls make a very lady like and independent choice to give up their Christmas breakfast. This photograph is a scene from the movie that was released in 1994. In the novel the mother, Marmee, told the girls there is a family in need and they should give up their only Christmas breakfast so this family would have food to eat. In the movie of Little Women the girls made to choice themselves.

It's Up to You

1.       “I am angry nearly every day of my life.” Marmee was a very loving mother. She never put her daughters down and always told them that they could accomplish whatever they pleased. I believe that the author made Marmee to be such a strong women because Louisa had such a great mother growing up. Her love for her children could not be compromised.

Jo's My Bro

        Jo is by far my favorite character in Little Women. She symbolically represents the women that were a part of the women’s rights movement. Jo was independent, bold, out spoken, loving, and followed her dreams. She cares about her family dearly and would do anything to keep them together.  Jo would never allow her gender to stop her from being whatever she set her mind to do, which open many windows for her to travel and meet many different types of people. Jo was just like Little Women’s author Louisa May Alcott.

Life Worth Living

1.       “The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”  This quote is pretty essential to the novel in that the March family was not as wealthy as they were at one point. The girls found joy and happiness in the unfortunate and sad times in life. The family found joy in small things like apples and butter, when a one point it would not have fazed them. 

Books are for Boys

1.       “She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.” I find statements like these to be very offensive, yet for the time period they were very common. Jo was not a favored girl in the novel, but she was my personal favorite. Jo did love to read almost as much as she loved to write. Most men in that time period still had the mindset that women should be uneducated, kept out of the work place and in the kitchen.

Louisa May Alcott

     Louisa May Alcott is the author of Little Women. Ms. Alcott was born November 29, 1832 and died March 6, 1888. Louisa's parents were Abigail May and Amos Bronson Alcott. She was raised in New England.  Her family suffered severe financial difficulties and Alcott worked to help support the family from an early age. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Early in her career, she sometimes used the pen name A. M. Barnard.

Louisa May Alcott's Family

 
     Alcott's early education included lessons from the naturalist Henry David Thoreau, but she received most of her schooling from her father, Amos Alcott, who was strict and believed in "the sweetness of self-denial". Only May was able to attend public school. Due to all of the difficulties, writing became an outlet to release her emotions and creativity. Her first book was Flower Fables, published in 1849. In 1860, Alcott began writing for the Atlantic Monthly. Miss Alcott published the first part of Little Women in 1968 through the Roberts Brothers. Little Women was a semi-autobiography of her childhood in Massachusetts. The "March Family Saga" ended in 1886 with the novel Jo's Boys.