Send Them My Way

So I was trying to comment on Robyn’s blog and I was hopelessly unsuccessful.  Therefore, before launching into my own post, I’m going to post here what it is I was going to say:

I’m not sure I agree with the idea that no one wants to be like Beth.  She has an incredible strength within her, it just isn’t in the same way as the others.  Even Jo, who is the character we all want to be, gets a lot of her own strength from Beth’s love, supportive, and unfailingly faith in the goodness of others.

As for Amy, I really feel that by the end of the novel she is not the same little girl she was in the beginning.  Sometimes those like Amy who come from such beginnings blossom into likeable characters in their own right.

Now, back to my original train of thought (if I can find it).  I will say shamelessly that I too am absolutely in love with Little Women.   I really have a hard time imagining how different a person I would be had I not been given the novel when I was a child – I think I was nine or ten as well.  However, while our friend Dancing Bread Rolls says this novel is not her scene, it is most definitely mine.  My mother gave me Little Women because while she had a luke warm feelings about it she knew I would absolutely love it.  I think that if Marmee were a single mother with a bad temper and a strong stubborn streak, she could easily be my mother.  Now, I know that makes my own dear mother sound bad, but she did give me Little Women which proves that although it may not have touched her the same way, she knew it would find a special place in my soul.  Actually, my mother says that she grew to appreciate the novel after I read it.  I think it’s because, like Jo, I’ve always wanted to be a writer and I’ve always needed my mother to tell me that it’ll be ok.

Now the next thing I admit may come as a shock:  of course I see so much of myself in Jo but yet there is another character in the book that accounts for a huge part of me as well and that character is Amy.  I know that to many she is obnoxious, self-centered, and perhaps an early example of a gold digger but I think that’s only if you look at the surface.  There’s something sweet about her fear of dying before ever being kissed and her naive belief that she can control who she falls in love with.  I guess I’ve always found myself living somewhere between Jo and Amy.  I find myself typing away long into the night and worrying that I’ll never fit into some mold and then at the same time I’ve realized since coming to college that I’ve embraced a life and a persona that is more like Amy of in Europe.  I feel that perhaps in the end what it’ll come down to is the choice between a Laurie and a Professor Bhaer.  I’ve had so many Laurie type friends, and I think that in that regard I will be Jo til the end.  So, if you know of any Bhaer types, send them my way ok?