Why Jo March Will Always Be My Favorite Fictional Character

Having read both the novel and seen the film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women — one thing really struck me. In the book, Alcott draws on her own life experience to describe how a family of four different women explore the various joys and sorrows of domestic life, growing up together, their career pursuits and ultimately their life choices. Similarly, as readers of popular culture ourselves, how do we evaluate our own decisions?

Set against the background of the Civil War, the journey for her to finally live comfortably in her own skin is my main takeaway. In the film version, Greta Gerwig introduces viewers to these characters in a style variably different from its literary counterpart. At once familiar to me is the edginess and nonconformist values Jo comes to take on, whether this is the result of the death of her elder sister Beth, the rejection of Laurie’s proposal, or her struggle to maintain her sanity despite frequent setbacks thwarting her road to literary success.

Yet the main difference between the creator of Jo and our protagonist herself is perfectly encapsulated in the paths they choose. Whereas the author Alcott writes about Jo in the story as a married woman who continues to remain close to her family circle, the real-life writer does not. Alcott, until the day of her death, remained a successful and independent writer.

“Perhaps the best part of the story, for me, is …

After all that she had been through, the courage to write once again.”