So often, women are forced into molds that are either black or white, causing their personal layers to become ignored and limited to what society enforces on them.
The ahead-of-its-time novel “Little Women,” written in 1868 by Louisa May Alcott, has defied the odds and endured the ever-changing gender roles of our society by showing that women are more than one-dimensional.
Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March – the March sisters – each show different angles of the female experience, allowing for readers and viewers of the numerous film adaptations to relate themselves to different aspects of each sister.
You do not have to engage with this story and feel caged in to only connecting to one character.
Meg, the soft and sweet oldest daughter, implores a more mundane life where she aspires to be a mother and wife, while Jo is a writer who is the determined second-born who never ceases to give up.
Beth is the quiet and artistic sister who leaves an impact on every character, while Amy is the youngest of them all, who explores her creative side while also insisting on maintaining a life that fits in with society at the time.
The story of “Little Women” was not just bold for the time, but it opened doors for women of all generations to realize they are not just one character type.
The complex and captivating March sisters each have their own lives, but are interconnected through the whimsical feelings of sisterhood and friendship, casting a beautiful light on how you can be whoever you want to be.
Alcott went against the grain of the society standards of the time, and even our time, when Jo March did not seek out any romantic male leads to fill her heart’s desires.
It’s even uncommon now to see an independent female character turn down a chance to get married and settle down, making it that much more shocking that Alcott wrote a 1800s story that can still be applied to life today.
She also challenges the narrative for any woman of any year by saying no.
“No, no, it’s no use Jo, Jo we gotta have it out. I have loved you ever since I’ve known you Jo, I couldn’t help it, and I tried to show you and you wouldn’t let me and I must make you here now and give me an answer because I cannot go on like this any longer,” Theodore Laurence, a male character, said to protagonist Jo March when asking for her hand in marriage in “Little Women.”
Even though they were friends who would make a perfect pair on paper Jo knew this was not the life she wanted and firmly said no, confirming that she would not fit into the molds formed by others.
And yet, spoiler alert, Jo does end up with an older man and becomes a mother and wife, which stemmed from the pressure Alcott felt from her publisher.
While it wasn’t quite the ending Alcott or most audiences saw for Jo, it also adds a dimension of depth to Jo’s character and women in general, proving that you can be a strong, determined woman who still chooses to find romantic love to build a familial foundation on while also pursuing a career for herself.
Over 20 vibrant variations have been created in inspiration from the novel, bringing the characters to life with each director’s special spin.
Although different personal takes have been infused into each adaptation, the joy and beauty of a devastating yet heart-warming story of young women growing up and finding themselves has been the same throughout each variant.
Throughout every harmful fashion, beauty, personality and body standard for young women, one thing always remains the same: women are more than just trends that society imposes on them and have more complexities than the restricted barriers of what people assume of them.
“Little Women” has left a generational impact on girls of all ages and defines the limitations to aspirations, goals and timelines to be endless, not constricted.
