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.