![]() ![]() ![]() Little Women, though, is a story of rebellion beyond Jo. Jo has an outward freedom that none of the other women in the family hold. Of all the March women, Jo is the boldest she writes and uses slang she splays her body in topsy turvy ways, and talks of all the things she would do if she were a boy. Simone de Beauvoir claimed to have “caught a glimpse” of her “future self” through Jo. Generations of women and girls have identified Little Women as a story of liberation, namely through the character of Jo March. In many ways, Little Women rebels against these ideals. The March sisters flourish within the confines of their home, they talk of courtship and marriage, they cook, they clean, and they try their best to be very good. In many ways, Little Women enforces the ideals of 1860s feminine domesticity. To read Little Women is to sit around a fireplace with the March sisters and Marmee, listening to stories and knowing that no pain is experienced in solitude. ![]() A world in which every day may be an adventure and all of life’s woes may be healed by unfaltering sisterly love and domestic bliss. Alcott presents a world of unfaltering sisterhood, ice skating on frozen ponds, traipsing around in costumes, and creating imaginary worlds within the sweetness of the real one. Louisa May Alcott’s story of four young women growing up in 1860s Concord, Massachusetts feels trivial in a time of pandemic, racial violence, and global unrest. Now is a strange time to read Little Women. ![]()
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