Little Women Book Review

The novel little women’s story's background was set in the 19th century. This is the time when people still do not see the importance of gender equality. Women have a lower role in society than men. And the novel talks about the story of the four March sisters Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy's passage from childhood to womanhood.

While Meg and Beth live up to the social expectation and doing the role women should play, Jo and Amy are the ones who want to break free from society’s expectations and pursuing their dreams, and focus on their individual needs. From the storyline, we can see how women are treated back then, and the gender stereotype affected their life choice. Jo wanted to be a writer, and she does not want to be a conventional female. She does not want to be the typical gender expectation. She did a lot of things that can be considered ungraceful during that time. For example, she wears a dress with a burn mark to a party.

Other than that, the novel also teaches us the necessity of work. We should know that work is holy, and we should not see it as a way to get money and fulfill our material needs. There is a quote that I like from the movie I watched a few days ago, "A man's wealth should be earned by the sweat of his brow, and by the strength of his back." We should work hard and, most importantly, seek purpose from it. We can see that when the March girls do not engage in any productive work, they end up guilty and unhappy. And that’ when we see the importance of living a meaningful life and working with a purpose.

I also see the importance of self-acceptance and self-loving after reading a few chapters about the story of the oldest sister, Meg March. One of the most important scenes in the book is “Meg Goes to Vanity Fair." Meg goes to visit her rich and fashionable friends. She gets laced into a corset “so tight she could hardly breathe” and feels like “her ‘fun’ had begun at last, for the mirror had told her that she was a little beauty.'"From these scenes, we can see that she’s willing to be punished by beauty rules and becoming someone she is not. Something like this is typical nowadays. We can see how the beauty standard rules women, and that’s when we forgot who we are. Meg only paying attention to her appearance and forgot about her inner beauty. We should see here that appearance is temporary, it would not last long, but our inner spiritual self will remain forever.

She felt pretty, but she felt insecure about it, and she felt lost at the moment. That’s why I think self-acceptance is so important. We have to see that appearance is shallow, and we should not find comfort from material things. The most important thing is we need to stop comparing ourselves to other people and be comfortable in our skin. “Because he believes in himself, he doesn’t try to convince others. Because he is content with himself, he doesn’t need others’ approval. Because he accepts himself, the whole world accepts him.”These are the words by Lao Tzu. Self-acceptance comes when we act according to our values and what we believe. It comes when everything is aligned with ourselves. Thoughts, feelings, and actions.

The struggle that the characters like Meg are going through is relatable. For example, she quickly got tempted by vanity. It is easy to get lost when we become materialistic and worship money, so I think it's a reminder that we should focus on the inner spiritual self and not material and appearance. Even though the novel was written a long time ago, I still can see how both women and men still suffer from the gender stereotype and social rules of beauty standards. Like it's not easy to find a male ballet dancer, and most politicians are male. So it tells us that we still have a long way to go, and we should fight for gender equality.