A Book Review: Little Women

Little Women was written by Louisa Alcott. The events in this book take place in Massachusetts in a cozy house. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are the four main characters in this book, and they are sisters that live during the Civil War in which their father is fighting.  

The story begins with the four sisters sitting around the fire and wishing life was the way it was before their father left for the war and before they became poor. The girls sit around their Marmee and listen to her read a letter from their father. After hearing the letter, each girl tells her faults. Meg hates to work, Jo has a bad temper, Beth envies after other girls’ pianos, and Amy is selfish. Marmee reminds them about how they used to play pilgrim’s progress when they were younger. She encourages them to not just play it but to live it out in their lives and overcome their faults. The girls wake up on Christmas morning, and each girl finds a present from Marmee under her pillow – a copy of Pilgrim’s Progress to help her on her journey.

The main characters in this book are Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Meg is the oldest and also my favorite character. Meg is proper and beautiful. During this book, Meg meets a young tutor. They fall in love and get married. Jo doesn’t approve at first because she isn’t ready for her sister to leave the home, but, since it happens anyway, Jo learns to adjust. Jo is a strong-willed but kind girl. Jo also has a bad temper. In one of my favorite chapters, Jo is going to a play with Meg and Jo’s friend and neighbor, Laurie. Jo doesn’t let Amy come, so Amy becomes angry and burns Jo’s notebook that contained all of Jo’s stories that the aspiring author had been working on. Jo has to learn to forgive and not let the sun go down on her anger.

Beth is the third sister. Beth is shy and doesn’t leave the house very often. Beth’s story is the saddest. First, she has a very caring heart. When the March girls’ father gets sick, Marmee has to rush to Washington to help him. She leaves the girls with the tasks of cooking, cleaning, and visiting a poor family to bring them food. She tells Beth not to forget about this family while she’s gone. Beth visits the family and catches scarlet fever. Meg and Jo had already had it when they were younger, but they have to send Amy to Aunt March’s house because Amy had never had scarlet fever before. Meg and Jo decide not to send word of Beth’s illness to their mother yet. Beth gets worse, however, and Laurie sends a telegram to Mrs. March, who comes at once. Beth does heal, but never completely gets all the way better. She is still very weak, and, at the end of the book, she dies.

I loved reading this book. It was my favorite of all the books we read this year. This book always made me smile every time I picked it up and even made me cry at times too. The family love and bittersweet moments were so heartwarming. I loved that there was a happy ending and each girl got married. They all had a family of their own, except Beth. However, we knew that she was in a better place. In the end, each girl learned to be a wise woman and a good mother. 

 
– By Jennifer Fuhrman