Review of Little Women

This article was written by Arkert, L.M. from America. It mainly told us family emotion and love.

There’re four sisters in the March’s. They were Meg, the eldest who was pretty, Jony who was like a boy, Beth who was so gentle and shy that she was afraid of talking to people, Amy who was also pretty and wanted to marry a rich husband. Their father was away with the Army helping to take care of the sick. And their neighbor Mr. Laurence always helped them because of their poverty. His grandson Laurie, who often helped was their friend. They always enjoyed themselves. However, there was news that their father was very ill. Mr. March and Laurie’s teacher John Brooke went there to see Mr. March. But at home Beth had scarlet fever and was dying because she went to the Hummels instead of Meg. She recovered from her illness and Mr. March became healthy later. And their father came back home on Christmas Day. They got together again. Mr. Broke who loved Meg all the time showed his love to Meg, and then Meg agreed and married him, having two babies. At that time, Laurie also showed his love to Jo, but Jo who also loved him very much left him away because she knew her sister Beth loved him too. At last Beth died. Jo went to Mrs. Kirke’s to teach her children, and she met Mr. Bhaer who was almost forty. Later, they fell in love with each other. Laurie and Amy got married at an American church in Paris. That’s the final reunion.

It is interesting to examine the last half of Chapter 20, “Confidential.” Jo addresses the maturation issue as she speaks with Marmee of the situation between Meg and Mr. Brooke. The possible love between these two represents one of the very important aspects in coming of age for a teenage girl. Jo treats this natural process as if it were some sort of disease, however. Jo cannot understand why Meg would want to stop behaving “like a sensible creature”, and refers to love as “such nonsense.”