Little Women : ORR 1

Title: Little Women

Author: Louisa May Alcott

Genre: Teen fiction (Classic)

Little Women is a classic novel that was published in 1868. This book talks about the life of four sisters, during and after the Civil War. They are extremely poor, and their father is fighting in the army. All of the four sisters have completely different personalities, and they are all very different by nature. I have only read the beginning of the book, yet so much has been revealed. A lot of descriptions were mentioned about the four girls. Meg, or Margaret, is the oldest one, and she is described by the author as the prettiest one. Meg has brown hair, and large eyes. So far, she has been quite responsible, and always tried to reason with Amy and Jo, who seem to get into conflicts quite often. Meg tutors children, and is sixteen. Josephine, or Jo, is fifteen, and is a tomboy. She wishes she was born as a guy, and is constantly complaining about an old lady she takes care as a job. Jo is also very annoyed at the fact she couldn't join her father in the war, and work as a nurse. She is described as a very awkward character, who is very tall and thin, and has long limbs and round shoulders. Elizabeth, commonly called Beth, is a shy, timid girl. Beth rarely speaks, and is the peacemaker in the family. She has brown hair, and seems to always be in her own happy world. It is mentioned that Beth helps her mother by doing regular household chores. The youngest one of the sisters is Amy. She is very self-centered and is always focused on acting like a grown-up lady. Amy has curly, blonde hair and large blue eyes. It seems as though Amy is very discontent about her school, especially with the mean, snotty girls, who make fun of her financial situation, and her old clothes. However, what I found extremely touching in the first pages of the book was the fact that all the girls, despite living in poverty, are very generous. During Christmas, despite having one dollar to spend on themselves, they choose to buy presents for their mother. Ms. March is a very hard-working woman, who is always trying to provide at least a little bit of money, so that her daughters could have a somewhat carefree childhood, which is quite inspiring. I believe that Ms. March is a very tough and strong woman, because despite her husband being gone, and her family living in an old, cold house, she still tries to smile and attempts to find joy in her four daughters.
I really like this book so far, because it is not only a coming-of age story, it also describes the time period it was written and set in quite well. The characters are very-well developed, and many teenage girls could connect to the situations the four sisters face. However, I would not recommend this book to adolescent boys, because (so far) there is not dominant male character that could spark their interest into reading this novel, and to whom they might relate to.