小妇人

Mary Louisa Alcott and Jane Austen were both women ahead of their time. They were never married. More importantly, they both used their brilliant mind and excellent writing to provide for their families. If Austin’s Elizabeth Bennett or Emma Woodhouse focused on marriage to develop maturity, Alcott’s Jo March focused on independence to show possibility.

In the beginning of Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, I thought her intention was simply to modernize Jo as a 21st century woman. When Alcott said “I can't get over my disappointment in not being a boy” via Jo, she was talking about joining the war like men. When Saoirse Ronan said the same line in the 2019 movie, Greta was referring to Jo’s frustration of not being able to make a living and to support her family. Yes, there were the familiar themes of Jo’s tomboy demeanors and yearning to be taken seriously (like a man or not). What Greta succeeded with the 2019 adaptation went way beyond the typical feministic approach used by any “girlboss” movies of the modern time. Specifically, she used the adult little women to explore the female identities and desires and presented realistic versions of Austen and Alcott heroines after the wedding ceremony.

In the attic scene when Jo was still processing the fact that she would lose Meg after the wedding, Greta had one of the best lines in recent cinematic history: “you will be bored of him in two years and we will be interesting forever”. Unlike the previous movie versions of Jo, who saw marriage as an end to her independence, thus refused Laurie’s proposal; here, Greta’s Jo was worried about losing passion to life’s mundaneness. After Jo walked through her own tumultuous path and came back to see that marriage and family was what Meg wanted despite of counting pennies and not being able to afford a dress, she finally understood Meg and admired her courage and pursuit of happiness.

The animosity between Jo and Amy panned out in a similar fashion in the 2019 film. Greta presented a sympathetic Amy to discuss the economic proposition of a marriage, to show how a smart woman who marries with her brain can use the marriage to improve herself as well as her condition. Amy got a happy ending not because she ended up with Laurie, but because she knew what she wanted. In many ways, Amy was the alternative Jo if ever she could play by the rules of the society. What was so smart about Greta’s subtle change was that Amy was no longer the opposite of Jo, but an example of a different yet equally interesting woman.

Greta truly showed her understanding of the complex nature of being a woman in the attic scene between Jo and Marmee. Here Jo could not reconcile the drive of independence and the fear of loneliness. She was not just missing Laurie, but her sisters and best friends and the time they had together. Jo wanted to make an employment out of writing and to spend time with people she loved. She wanted to be herself and to be loved. Marmee told Jo, and Greta told us, that the price of independence can be many things, but was certainly never isolation. Greta was explicit about her message here-womanhood should not be just about one thing, it should have love, marriage, dream, passion and whatever one wants. The choice of not marrying does not mean no love or sad spinsterhood. The benefit of marriage should go beyond feeling of belonging. Emotional, existential, and financial securities for a woman were equally important and should not come at the prize of one or the other. The 18th century Austin and 19th century Alcott were proof of that.

When I first read Little Women in primary school, I barely understood what Alcott's book was about. In fact I took away this odd notion that girls who looked pretty would never be taken seriously and ended up refusing to wear any dresses or skirts for a long time. When I picked Jo as my English name in middle school, I was living through the hell of my parents’ obsession with having a boy. By picking this name, I wished for Jo's strong mind and independent will to get to where she wanted to go. Now as a 30-year-old mother to be, I realize that Alcott was the way she was thanks to her supportive mother. Greta quoted Alcott’s mother directly and added this line that Marmee told Jo in the movie: “there are natures too noble to curb and too lofty to bend”. Like all these brilliant women before me, I hope that all women can make their own way in the world with passion and love, all mothers can support without gender expectations or sex stereotypes, and all daughters can grow up knowing they can and they will.