Jo’s people drowning out the silent Beths

I was wondering about Little Women and its impact on the women who read it.  Based on Dr. Campbell’s reading of some famous female comments on the book, it would seem that the only daughter anyone bothers identifying with is Jo.  I think that might not be true.  Perhaps we only hear from the Jo-people because of course we’d never hear from the Beth-people and the Meg-people are too busy.  It would be difficult to prove, but perhaps Little Women is an important feminist text because it liberates multiple lifestyles, rather than just pushing Jo-feminism on everyone.  Jo’s noise drowns out the silent ones, the Beths and Megs and Amys.  Little Women would then be a moderate feminist text, one that declares each sister viable.  I mean, we all know people who are like Jo and are like Amy and Meg, and I happen to know a Bethlike person.  Not to say that all women fall into one of those categories, but many women have to choose one or some combination of the sisters’ decisions in life.  Therefore, the sort of people who love Jo are going to be writing about Little Women while the ones who love Beth might be just quietly being good and rereading the novel after charity work. 

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.