Little Women

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Little Women is the story of four girls that were growing up during the American Civil War. Each of the girls, all sisters, has different personality traits and characteristics that are developed throughout the book. Meg, the oldest, is the sensible sister, while Jo is tomboyish and independent. Beth is musical and shy and finally, Amy, the youngest, is the most materialistic of the four. The girls grew up in a very close family and strived to support each other in their dreams. Throughout the book, the girls love for each other is strong, as they face the different challenges and joys of growing up.

Jo March finds the restrictions of being a woman in her time almost unbearable. She is a feminist who wants to dress like a boy, to have the freedom that men do, and to think for herself.

Even though Jo, as a woman, has talents and abilities and is more than a person that must be trained to be a wife and mother, she is convinced (by society) that only men have the freedom to decide what they become in their adulthood. Jo believes this because throughout much of the history of Western civilization, deep-rooted cultural beliefs allow women only limited roles in society. Many people believed that women's natural roles were as mothers and wives. These people considered women to be better as mothers and wives rather than as anything else. Widespread belief that women were intellectually inferior to men led most societies to limit women's education to learning domestic skills. In contrast to what her other sisters (and most women of the time) think about womanhood, Jo does not want to grow up to be a mother devoted to her husband and children like every woman in that time is expected to be. She has dreams about becoming a writer and the thought of not being able to be so because of her sexuality is terrifying to her "I hate to think I've got to grow up and be Miss March, and wear long gowns, and look as prim as a China aster"(4).

Jo also considers that being a girl is a waste of time because she can't do anything that is really important. The only things that she can do are chores, which she sees as boring. She complains about not being a boy and not being able to go to war and help her father "I can't get over my disappointment on not being a boy, and it's worse than ever now, for I'm dying to go and fight with Papa, and I can only stay home and knit, like a poky old women" (4).

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"As she spoke, Jo took off her bonnet, and a general outcry arose, for all her abundant hair was cut short" (174), Jo cut her one beauty and sold it to a wig maker to make money for her family when their father was ill. She is proud of her manly qualities that her other sisters detest. She believes that the absence of their father at home is a problem that she might somehow be able to control if she could only be a boy. And even though she is not a boy, she feels responsible and tries to take the roll of the male in the March family. Jo states this when arguing with her sisters on who should buy their mother's Christmas present "I'm the man of the family now Papa is away" (6). This statement shows Jo's personality as tomboyish, responsible, and proud.

Without a man to contradict her, Jo is able to fully explore her imagination. She writes dramatic stories, which she sells to make a living. And as long as she manages to keep the Weekly Volcano away from the males in her life, she makes an honest living out of it. However, Professor Bhaers disapproval makes her hard-earned money lay rather heavily on her conscience.

In spite of the obstacles placed in her writing path, Jo still manages to be the most intellectually satisfied of the four sisters. Jo probably would have hated a life like Meg's, whose life is measured as somebody¹s wife and mother after she marries Mr. Brooke and seems all lost in motherhood and wifedom.

Jo wants to have her choices as a woman to be more than just getting married; she wanted those choices to be made freely and to reflect other options. Jo says over and over again that she wants to be a man because that means she can have more choices in life. At one point she says she wants to marry Meg herself so that Meg need not do what our culture demands of her.

Jo wanted to be a boy and be head of the March household so that she herself need never take up the feminine position in a patriarchal household. In lamenting Megs relationship with John Brooke, Jo exclaims, "Oh deary me! Why werent we all boys? Then there wouldnt be any bother" (5).

Jo hates the idea that after marriage women depend on their husband for support. She sees no difference between a woman who marries and lives with a man because he can provide for her wants, and the woman who is not married, but who is provided for at the same price. She wants to prove herself that she does not depend on a man and that is why she refused to marry Laurie, the young, wealthy, talented, and loving neighbor and friend "Nothing more, except that I don't believe I shall ever marry. I'm happy as I am and love my liberty too well to be in any hurry to give it up for any mortal man" (8). But this didn't last long; she ended up instead with that old foreigner, Professor Bhaer. Jos choice is an interesting one. Jo should have married Laurie. All the rules of romance require that marriage. But Jo chose against romance because of her need for independence. The reason she gave for refusing Laurie was that they were too much alike. This reason makes no sense.

In the end, Jo's fate, as a woman and as a writer, is a negotiation and a compromise. She gives up her writing life to motherhood, as she cares for her own children and acting as surrogate mother to the boys whom her husband teaches. Her writing career is modified into the conformist mode "Jo was a very happy woman there . . . She enjoyed it heartily, and found the applause of her boys more satisfying than any praise of the world; for now she told no stories except to her flock of enthusiastic believers and admirers" (5). In fact she exclaims, in the final pages of the book, "The life I wanted then seems selfish, lonely, and cold to me now. I havent given up the hope that I may write a good book yet, but I can wait, and Im sure it will be all the better for such experiences and illustrations as these" (54).

Even if Jo end up marrying and giving up her writing career, she marries an intellectual partner who seems to nourish her mind as well as her heart, and she enters a marriage in which both male and female are equal,

"I may be strong-minded, but no one can say Im out of my sphere now, for womans special mission is supposed to be drying tears and bearing burdens. Im to carry my share, Friedrich, and help to earn the home. Make up your mind to that, or Ill never go" (5).

In the end, Jo does not entirely succeed because she gave up her writing career, although she did succeed in becoming an independent woman. Jo becomes a self-reliant and a self-supporting individual. At the end of the book Jo's inner conflict isn't totally resolved and the author gives another chance for Jo March Bhaer to write a good book yet" (54).

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