Oftentimes, I would catch myself smiling each time I see a little girl walking alongside her family. I would watch them eat ice cream perhaps from afar, watch them smile and laugh and joke and giggle. Perhaps I would be sitting in a bench in the park, reading a book – but always, a scene of such humanity and innocence like those can always pull me away from my fictitious world and into the present.
Innocence. It was one of those things that truly enraptures me. One day, perhaps I will have a son and daughter of my own – and only then could I truly view my life as complete.
Perhaps this is why the novel, ‘Little Women’ captured me so.
There is something so absolutely pure about Louisa Alcott’s writing, that it just reaches out to the soul. Not with force, but by a gentle tug – perhaps like a caring mother, urging you to take your first steps with her. I was tantalized ever since I read that first page, that first chapter… all the way til the end.
‘Life is not so dark.’ I can almost hear the author say this, as she shows us page by page of innocence and maturity, of light and darkness, of happiness and tragedy — but always alive and very very human. Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy – those four March sisters have truly caught my imagination and made it their own. It is inevitable that the reader smile each time they move about their episodic antics, their thoughts and wishes which were so alive and real. Jo, escaping to tomboyish outlook and her novels, plays and pages – Meg, with a distant hope for the teenager’s dream of dances and parties – Beth, whose wish is so silent and simple and pure that it just makes us ache at her devotion – and Amy, so like a child in everyway, so very innocent and… well, funny.
They all make me smile.
My first encounter with Little Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth were in a japanime called ‘Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari.’ And to date, it is one of the best adaptations out there. Despite the dated animation, it manages to make us love these four sisters. In standard Japanese style however, the characters were tweaked to maintain eastern interest in them. Jo was much much more of a tomboy in this version than in any other (which was actually refreshing) – though Laurie was too boyish, and I inwardly wished that they would show his more prankster-like attitude. Meg was presented as the ‘ideal woman’ prim, proper, and always ladylike. But what I loved best in it was the two youngest sisters which just leaps out the screen – Beth was the adorable shy child, and Amy the hopeless runt of a girl.
I suppose my renewed love of the book is pushing me to watch the award-winning movie of the same name. I have heard such great stuff about it… but unfortunately, it still evades me. I visit every video VCD or DVD store I encounter and still I find no copies.
I’ll update once I finally watch it. But I had heard Winona Ryder gave new depths to jo’s character, of which I dearly want to see.
Now, Little Women was one of those novels I had known the plot beforehand… yet still the simplicity of the writing style still managed to pique my interest. It started with a pique, and before I knew it, i couldn’t put the book down.
And not only that, it had revitalized my need to read the classics once again.
Which leads us to the next classic I had read… The Secret Garden. But that is for another time.
Nonsensical Rant:
This is one of the more fruitful books I’ve read in my life. Little Women is about love, family, and eventually change. It talks about the christioan way of life, of helping each other and painting a smile in your faces despite the hardships in life. It is also so sweet, that you just can’t help but smile after reading it. Solid example that sometimes fiction holds the greater truth .
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