Little Women and How It Helped Me Grow

Little Women — directed by Greta Gerwig has been my favourite film for the past six years.

This film is a remake of the original in 1949. The films are depictions of a novel written by Louisa May Alcott.

The story follows four sisters growing up with their mother while their father is off at war. The war is The Civil War in the USA and Mr. March is fighting for the freedom of those in slavery. Ms March raises her four daughters as a single mother in what I believe is supposed to be a financially difficult time with limited resources.

The four sisters include:

Jo — A fiery and righteous writer who loves her independence and defying the odds.

Meg — A calm, stable, and traditional woman with wise words to share. She is materialistic and loves visual beauty — something she gives up in exchange for love.

Beth — A quiet, calm, and selfless woman who loves her own company and creating music with her piano. Beth suffers from undiagnosed social anxiety and has trouble keeping up with her bold and fearless sisters.

Amy — The youngest and most spoiled of all. She has a fiery temper, loves beauty, and loves attention from others. A typical youngest sibling, in my opinion. Amy struggles the most with her situation, she lives in a remote town and wants to be included in every social activity, her family doesn’t have much money but she pretends otherwise.

My love for this movie comes from the connection I have with Jo. She is a tom-boyish, independent, free-spirited writer. These traits I identify with. She ignores boys and wishes to live outside of other's expectations. She focuses all of her time and attention on her craft and her family.

Something you never, ever, see in film or TV.

Greta Gerwig does a fabulous job with this film, she created Little Women (2019) as a feminist masterpiece. Greta Gerwig makes a beautiful tribute towards the original Author — Louisa May Alcott — by making Jo's storyline reflect closely to Louisa May Alcott's career journey.

The opening scene of the film is Jo fighting for the sale of her book — pretending it was someone else who wrote it and not her. The publisher is brash and brushes her off, essentially telling her her writing is terrible. Jo negotiates and sells her writing — not the book but she sells a short horror story under a pen name.

Jo’s temper gets the better of her when fighting with her sisters. She gets so mad at spoiled Amy that she does not tell her about the thin ice on a lake. Amy, wearing the typical clothing of the time — layers and layers of heavy wool, goes ice skating in the middle of said lake, and falls through the ice. We later hear how Jo was so angry she didn’t care what happened to Amy but after she had some time to come down, she became full of regret.

Later on in the movie, after many scenes with headstrong Jo staying true to her morals and believing in the importance of wearing your heart on your sleeve, we see how Amy has grown into a woman.

Amy has decided to follow her passion and study art in Paris — thanks to the sponsorship of her wealthy Aunt. Amy is being courted by a wealthy man she doesn’t love. She meets her old neighbour who tells her off for being so shallow.

Amy then goes into a long speech about how women own nothing — they did not have their own money, they could not own their own house, and their children were owned by the Father — the Mother had no rights. Amy explains this and asks Laurie, if this is the case, why should she not choose a man for practical reasons. There are only women in her family, and someone has to keep them all afloat.

Meg, growing up wishing for all the things money could buy and dreaming of the day she would enter high society, gives up money and possessions to marry a poor man she loves. She says she doesn’t mind struggling through bills and living in a small home, as long as she can do it with someone she loves.

We do see her struggle through this choice when she buys an expensive silk and we see the aftermath in a conversation with her husband. He is kind and even-tempered; he explains he will not be able to buy the new coat he so desperately needs for winter but does not mind giving this up in exchange for his wife’s happiness.

Meg then sells the silk to pay for a coat for her husband. A sweet romance.

Beth becomes a sickly adult. She becomes ill once and then twice. She needs a lot of care and attention from the family — which she gets in abundance. As the Little Women age, they all go off in their own directions and Beth wishes they could all live under the same roof again as they did as children.

Their mother’s main goal in life is to instill a good nature into her daughters, to do what was right and to love each other unconditionally.

The way these actors, director, and author have managed to capture such realistic characters with the constant push-and-pull between wanting to be a good person and still have their own selfish wants, brings you into the story and makes you feel like you are watching yourself being portrayed on screen.

If you feel as though you too are a tomboy, headstrong female writer with a raging temper that is followed by a deep sense of regret — Jo is the character for you.

Little Women is all about family, unconditional love, and following your passions, even with that pesky gut getting in the way.

You are valued, you are important, no matter who you are.

Little Women says it all.