What Young Women Need to Know About <em>Little Women</em>
In some quarters, Greta Gerwig’s Little Women—the seventh film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel—was as eagerly anticipated as any gift protruding from under a Christmas tree. I heartily recommend the film, which went into limited release yesterday. I also believe that girls reading the book should receive the kind of disclaimer that the writer Geraldine Brooks said her mother passed down: “Nobody in real life is such a goody-goody as that Marmee.”
For those unfamiliar with the book, Marmee is Mrs. March, mother to Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. has an episodic quality rather than an overarching narrative arc, but if you squint hard enough, there is a discernible pattern: Mrs. March counsels her daughters on their values and behavior; they fall short of her standards; and they turn to her for forgiveness
