Published 2025-09-25
tag(s): #books #reviews
I have a deployment running and I guess I could do something else than write (and I did, during yesterday's deploy). But here we are :)[1]
I finished Little Women yesterday, and I am sure my literary analysis is what will make or
break this little book's fortunes.
If my review is glowing enough, who knows, maybe there will be some stage and screen
adaptations...
Since I am sharing my thoughts on a very celebrated and famous novel, I will jump straight to LOL OPINIONS M I RITE and skip intros and plot summaries.
The book starts slow. For a while, I managed to read only a chapter on each commute to the
office, before putting it down.
The intro chapters work as a way to get you acquainted with the girls, but have a bit of
preachy tone, and read very much like fables. But not in a good way of "this makes me reflect
on life stuff". But in a Saturday Morning Cartoon lesson kind of way.
Also, and this is completely subjective, Mrs. March gave me vibes of holier than thou.
Specially as a lot of lessons had a "perfect Christian" undertone[2] - be
humble, hard working, quiet and obedient.
Or, at least, that was my interpretation...because of life experiences. I guess.
After the party where Jo meets Laurie, I felt like something happened instead of the book being just slice of life vignettes, and the story picked up some steam. And despite my reservations about the "slow intro", by then I had a clue of the character of each girl, what to expect of them. And then appreciated it more when they grew as characters.
When "Marmee" confides in Jo some of her faults, it helped me let go of the initial preachy impression, and from there on I saw her as more of mythical motherly figure.
In the literary world, she gave me undertones of Úrsula Buendía, from Cien Años de
Soledad.[3] Although no one can match her, in my eyes, as the perfect
representation of the matriarch that holds a family together despite itself.
But you know, understanding that Little Women is a book of less magical inclinations and
presents more mundane problems, I can form a parallel between the two.
Of course, with the religious underpinnings in many of her speeches, she also reminded me of
my own mother. And my grandma, too. Both of them share the distinction, with Mrs. March, of
being the support pillars of their families.
And I say distinction and not "burden" because in all three of them, there's a theme of
sacrifice and seeking the best for their children, and achieving true happiness through them.
Meg's romance plot read as somewhat underdeveloped to me. But that might be because that is usually the part I enjoy the most: romance, some back and forth of dialogue, courtship scenes. And this case, it all happened with little interaction between them, more of a formality.
But hey, at least there was time for the parents to express they wanted their daughter to be happy and loved over having a financially interested marriage. So that's good.
There are none. I went away for a bit to fix my scripts again and lost all impetus for the post 🤣 so I wrote "closing thoughts" and now I don't know what to put in the paragraph.
And I was about to say "it's OK I can update this later" but we all know better.[4]