Growing

I have read Little Women when I was a little girl. Among the big number of classical novels I read during my early years, to be frank, it wasn’t my favorite one. I will talk about my feelings about this book in this passage. Before making personal comments, let’s first learn the relative background knowledge a little more. Little Woman is written by American female writer Louisa May Alcott. Louisa, like the girls in her book, was also born in poor family. She was greatly affected by her father, who was a writer and teacher. She had been fond of writing from an early age. Little Women was published when Louisa was at the age of 36, and it absolutely turned out to be a great success. Later, it was even ranked first in the school's required reading list by the American Book Association and the American Educational Association. In fact, the whole book is a kind of memory reproduction. Louisa created the 4 sisters in March family according to her own sisters. When it comes to Laurie, the fascinating “boy next door”, Louisa shaped his image based on her former lover, a young musician she met during a trip to Europe. But it seems that the fruitless love experience between Louisa and her nameless lover also signs the fruitless ending of Jo and Laurie in the book. Frankly, the breakup between Jo and Laurie is exactly the reason why this book doesn’t have a strong appeal to me. I really appreciate the passion between Jo and Laurie in the early chapters. I still remember some of the plots. At one time, Laurie occasionally met Jo in the town and then they both rushed down a slope with great pleasure. And at another time, when Jo firstly published one of her writings on the newspaper, Laurie, who wanted to read the newspaper eagerly, ran after Jo in the garden and finally caught her under the flower shelf, and so on. Every time when I reading about these details, I always thought that they’re destined to be in love. But in the chapters afterwards, when Jo refused Laurie’s proposal, besides Laurie, I also felt heartbroken. I always remember what Laurie said to Jo at that time :“I fell in love with you the first time I met you, Jo!” “I can’t fall in love with anyone else! Jo!” When Jo refused him, she said, “We are both impatient person, Mama said we’re not suitable for each other. We won’t be happy if we get married!”(I hate these sentences…) Laurie, who has had a keen observation on Jo for a long time, pointed out that Jo must be in love with the professor(I don’t like that man!). “I will never forget you, Jo! Never!” he shouted, who left Jo by a small boat in despair.(ps. All the plots and dialogue above are all directly from my memory. So maybe they’re not accurate enough.) Yes, yes. After all these years, I can understand what the writer wanted to show, or say, to teach. And I can also understand why The American Educational Association as well as the American Books Association has always preferred it to be some kind of teaching material. Because they hope the readers, especially young readers, will learn the virtues from the main images. The plot is simple but touching. Undoubtly that is because the inspiration of this book origins from Louisa’s personal experience. Anyone who finishes reading can feel the genuine warmth and moving love between relatives and lovers. And I believe that the girls in Little Women, like May, Jo ,Amy and Beth, who have different characters, but are unexceptionally be nice to family members, be kind to the poor, be brave in love and in life, do set very good examples for generations of readers. Every young female reader is the real little women in our daily life. After all, this is a book about growing up. Recently, there are 2 things about Little Women. One is the release of the film (Again. of course). And another one, is about J.K. Rowling. Several days ago, I occasionally watched one of her short interviews. When talking about female characters in novels, she admitted that the image of Jo March in Little Woman was the kind of woman she admired when she was a young girl.(And she finally becomes a successful female writer. In fact, TOO successful.) I am very surprised to hear this. It is another proof of the great influence of Little Woman, isn’t it?  It isn’t my favorite one, but it is a book about growing, including family, love, virtues and choices.