The first time I read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott I was eleven and it wasn’t planned. When my fifth-grade self walked out of library time one day I had not planned on leaving with classics in my hands by choice. The way I came to read this book is a matter I now consider to have been an act of God because it completely changed how I viewed the literary world. It also changed the way I viewed myself as a person. I say that finding Little Women was an act of God because I strongly believe I may not have decided to become an English Major if I hadn’t found this book. Before picking up Little Women I had always been a reader but when I open this classic something inside me shifted. It was like the entire world was being shown to me in a new but familiar way.
The Story is so simple but complex and the character development is one of the best that I ever have seen or read. The basic plot line follows the four March sisters during and after the Civil War, as they each journey from childhood into adulthood each with different goals. Meg the eldest longs to marry for love while Jo longs to do more with her life. Beth is simply happy with where she is and Amy wants a different nose and to be an artist.
I felt something with each and every character in the novel for various reasons but Jo was the one that physically changed me for the better. When I read from Jo’s perspective I felt for the first time in my life I was looking at myself. Which, is why I know that the character Jo March didn’t just show me the world in a new way. She was able to touch my soul and I don’t know if she has ever left me. I heard this message at church a couple of weeks back about how God speaks to each of us by using different love languages. Well, I know that one of my love languages is books. And, I am one hundred percent sure that He spoke to me through Jo March.
Here’s the thing about Jo, she is a Writer and she reads books like they are a drug. Words are her medicine and her addiction. I’m pretty sure that if she could have gone to college she would have been an English Major. She is possibly the most stubborn character In the world of books that I have ever known. I fell in love with her passion for life and the way that she thought outside what was considered to be normal for the eighteen hundred. She was daring enough to go where no women had ever gone before and that was exciting. Jo was the first character that showed me what it really meant to ask the important questions and live life with no regrets. She embodied everything I wanted to do and be in my own life. I have since eleven read Little Women at least five times and I can tell you that Jo has had every thought that I have had at least once in all my nineteen years of living. She loved everything I loved and felt everything I felt, which is something that I can rarely say about a single book character. I can honestly say that she was one of the things God used to plant the English Major seeds in my heart. To be completely honest I think He used her to bring the Jo March out of me that previously was hiding away somewhere. So I would like to take a minute to thank her. Thanks, Jo, because Without God or you I don’t know who or where I would be today. I can honestly say I love you.
The book was the first book that ever made me cry and I won’t say why, because, doing so would be a major spoiler and I don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t read it.I will just say that it had an effect on me. It changed everything about how what, and when I read. It was the first classic novel I had ever read.I can now say it’s why I own as many classics as I do and why classic literature is my favorite genre to read. It then makes sense to tell you that Little Women Is one of my favorite books of all time but that is me.
Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women has been turned into every format of entrainment imaginable. It has been everything from a movie to an opera and I have seen a good amount of them.They are all wonderful in their own ways and for the most part faithful to the original. I would recommend any of them. Although, the films are most likely the easiest to come into contact with. I have seen all of the film adaptations and have no complaints, but some are longer than other. Therefore if you don’t wish to sit for more than two hours I would choose a shorter one. My personal favorite is the 1994 version with Winona Ryder.
Little Women Is a beautiful book which I venture is why the book is a Classic. I will promise you that if you give it a chance and read it; the story will be worth it. I know it was and if you’ve read it before I challenge you to read it again and discover what new things there are to discover from an old friend.