Features
22nd Jun 2010
Jo March from Little Women
Like everyone else who read Louisa May Alcott‘s 1868 children’s classic Little Women when they were younger, Jo March was by far and away my favourite. Based on Louisa May herself, Jo is a fiercely independent tomboy with a passion for reading and writing. At a time when women were tied to the hearth and home and every aspect of women’s lives, from their career and relationship options to what clothes they wore, where they went and how they behaved were restricted by rigid social structures and convention, a young woman like Jo was a revelation.
Even before I’d done any reading around what an extensive legacy Jo has had, I was completely besotted with how brave, impulsive and outspoken she was. An inspiration and reaffirmation for creative, loyal, loudmouth dames all over the world, numerous autobiographies by my most-loved literary heroines have cited Jo as a favourite childhood character during their formative years. In Simone de Beauvoir‘s Memoirs of Dutiful Daughter, and in Patti Smith‘s most recent book, Just Kids, both wondrous women repeatedly reference what an impression it made on them in their early teens to find a character so similar to themselves in such a much-loved children’s classic. And since Patti and Simone are my absolute idols when it comes to wordsmithery, female ferocity and general fangirling all over the show, I’m pleased with the company I’m keeping in my adoration of Jo March.
Jo, with her hot temper, taste for men’s clothes and androgyny, her close friendship with her childhood sweetheart Laurie, and her internal battle between her devotion to her family and her desperate desire to adventure around the world, is a brave but conflicted woman trying to find her way forward, a situation most creative ladies today can still empathise with more than a century later. And, like a lot of women today, sometimes all she wants to do is ignore the real world for a while and sit up a tree with a good book and a bag of apples. But as Marmee March tells her: “When you have so many extraordinary gifts; how can you expect to lead an ordinary life? Go, and embrace your liberty. And see what wonderful things come of it.”
If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be? Tell us in the comments, and we might use your suggestions for future posts!
(Image from the 1995 film adaptation of Little Women, with Winona Ryder in the role of Jo)
Post by Jane Bradley
I still haven’t read Little Women yet! Must amend that…
But in terms of fave fictional characters, I’ve always had a soft spot for Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With The Wind. Yes, she was a spoilt stubborn brat but she was also very strong and determined.
You must read Little Women, it’s a classic!
Little Women is my all-time favourite book, and Jo March is my all-time favourite heroine. I must have read this book about a hundred times. So if I could be any fictional character it would have to be Jo.
One of my newer favourite literary characters is Elphaba Thropp, from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire(she’s fairly different to the musical Elphaba!). If you haven’t read Wicked, I highly recommend it… it’s radically different to the musical, very much a modern political fairytale.
I’ve never read or seen it, but have heard many rave reviews so may have to add it to the old Amazon wishlist…
Soooooo many. Scout, Jane Eyre, Kate Croy, Atticus Finch, the Very Hungry Caterpillar…
You want to be the Very Hungry Caterpillar? Takes all sorts to make a world….
Jo is my all time favourite literary heroine. I just identified with her so much growing up, especially her struggle to control a quick temper! She’s closely followed by Lizzie Bennet and Scarlett O’Hara. Like Alex said, yes Scarlett is a spoil brat, but she has such determination. I doubt her family and Melly would have survived the post-civil war period without her.
Thanks for the comment, Lindsay!
All this article has made me want to do is go and re-read the whole
Little Women series.
This may sound weird, but i kind of admired Katy from What Katy Did. She was a bit wet at times, but learning lessons in the face of adversity really inspired me as a kid.
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