Banned Books: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

                Jo is the wild child of the March family. She spends most of her time gallivanting around, totally unconcerned of others opinions of her, writing stories and being content with her family life. Meg, as the oldest, is more concerned with her future than childish fancy, even though she always makes time for play with her sisters. Beth is happy with her life at home. Known as a very gentle and shy creature, she finds solace is simply helping others and being around her family. Amy, the youngest in the family, has dreams of an artistic, elegant and rich future. She wants nothing more than to become a woman and marry well to escape the poverty the March family has been familiar. It is the time of the Civil War and Mr. March is away with the other men. The time passes and the little women experience the many trials and tribulations that life has to offer.

                I remember picking this book up as a teenager and putting it right back down, bored out of my mind. I couldn’t finish. I could barely start it, which really shocked me because I loved the movie. Fast forward a decade to me picking up this book again and giving it a second shot and being so enthralled in these young girls story that I laughed at the ignorance of my youth. This book was great. Here is a story of four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. These four girls couldn’t be more different from each other but the one thing that joins them together, besides blood, is their love for one another. They genuinely love and care for one another and want each other to be happy. They each go through trials and tribulations and come out better for it. Mrs. March, their mother, allowed them to experience life through hard lessons, realizing that the only way her children would grow is if they experienced life and made mistakes. Everything was a learning experience and an opportunity to be better. I found myself laughing at the decisiveness of Mrs. March who knew what the outcome would undoubtedly be and sat content watching and waiting for the wounded to come home with learned lesson in hand.

                Little Women had everything necessary to make a successful and moving coming of age story, which is precisely what this novel is. It has everything from faith, love, loss, trust, war and romance. Speaking of romance, I can’t write this view without gushing about Laurie, who I found to be an extremely amazing and honest male character. He probably had some of the most heartbreaking moments in the novel and though all the characters were thoroughly developed there was something about Laurie that spoke to me. I won’t lie, part of me wishes this story had went a slightly different route but that’s just the romantic in me. How this novel ended has no bearing on my appreciation and dare I say admiration for this novel.

                With all of that being said let’s get to the matter at hand: this book, though never banned has been frequently challenged. When this novel was first published in 1868, there was controversy because the women depicted were free to make their own choices and do as they pleased. Now it is challenged because some people believe that the roles of the females didn’t push hard enough and plays into gender traditional roles. My, how times have changed! Well, yes and no. People have still found a reason to challenge the right of others to read a great book that discusses the changes women encounter in life. What boggles my mind is the fact that these four sisters, were completely different from each other and exhibited the different things that life can have in store. What is there to ban when there is such an array of personalities to choose from? This might be one of the most ridiculous cases of challenging I have come across and shows itself to the be the epitome of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

“Banned Book Awareness: Little Women” Baldassarro, R. Wolf http://bannedbooks.world.edu/2012/01/08/banned-books-awareness-women/