Be A Little Women

After Reading Little Women 

       I finished reading 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. And I am going to talk about my true feelings about this book in this passage. 

       Before making personal comments, let’s first learn some relative background knowledge. 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 since her 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 schools' 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 at first. 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 her writings eagerly, crazily 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 lovers. But in the chapters afterwards, when Jo refused Laurie’s proposal, I really 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!” and “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 do not like these opinions.) Laurie, who has had a keen observation on Jo for a long time, pointed out at once that Jo must be in love with a professor. “I will never forget you, Jo! Never!” he shouted, who left Jo by a small boat in despair. All the plots and dialogue above are all directly from my memory. So maybe they’re not accurate enough.

       But after all these years, I can finally 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 experiences. Anyone who finishes reading this book 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 exactly the little women in our daily life. So after all, this is a book about growing up. 

       Recently, there are two news about Little Women. One is the release of the film with the same name (Again. of course). And another one, surprisingly, is about J.K. Rowling. Several days ago, I occasionally watched one of her short interviews on the Internet. When talking about female characters in the 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, like Jo wanted to be.) I was very surprised to learn this. It is another proof of the great influence of Little Woman, isn’t it?  

       After reading Little Women, I think it is really a wonderful book about growing up, including family, love, virtues and choices.

2020-06-14

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