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sowingseedsandshootinghoops · 6 years

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Little Wars: Moral Struggles in “Little Women”

Note on the text: I used Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women as published in 1994 by Barnes and Noble Inc

This is a wonderful little book. Written in the Victorian tradition this is a morality tale that is wonderfully, and delicately, told. Each of the four March sisters in this book are fighting an internal, moral battle that only she is privy to.

Each of the March sisters (Meg, Josephine, Beth and Amy) are flawed in some way. Meg is proud and wants to be seen as a great lady of high society, Amy is vain and loves pretty things, and Jo has a temper that would put Napoleon to shame. Even sweet, angelic, Beth has her faults: “Yes I have; mine is dishes and dusters, envying girls with nice pianos, and being afraid of people” (24). Even immaculate Beth, who hates doing chores, is jealous of people with nice pianos, and is cripplingly shy, is far from perfect.

The point is that everyone has faults, even if those faults remain hidden from the eyes of others. Or, as often happens, others are not aware of how deeply rooted those faults are in the soul of the individual in question. This makes them unable to recognize the amount of effort which it takes for the individual in question to overcome his or her limitations. Take Amy for example. For others, the fact that she decided to buy an expensive bottle of perfume for her mother instead of herself may be no big deal. But for Amy, it’s a big step in the right direction:

Don’t laugh at me Jo! I didn’t mean [that] anyone should know till the time came. I only meant to change the little bottle for a big one, and I [used] all my money to get it, and i’m truly trying not to be selfish anymore’. As she spoke, Amy showed the handsome flask which replaced the cheap one. [She] looked so earnest and humble in her attempt to forget herself (28).

To the other sisters it was just a simple gift, but to Amy it was so much more. It was a first step on the road to becoming a better person. But they didn’t get it, not at first anyways. Jo drives this point home, in a sense, when Amy talks to her about why she tries so hard to be polite to others. It’s because she wants to practice putting other people ahead of herself:

You laugh at me when I say I want to be a lady, but I mean [to be] a true gentlewoman in mind and manners, and I try to do it as far as I know how. I can’t explain it exactly, but I want to be above the little meanness and follies and faults that spoil so many women. I’m far from it now but I do my best, and hope in time to be what mother is’ Amy said earnestly. Jo said, with a cordial hug- ‘I understand now what you mean and I’ll never make fun of you again. You are getting on faster than you think and I’ll take lessons from you in true politeness, for you’ve learned the secret I believe. Try away dearie; you’ll get your reward someday and no one shall be more delighted [on that day] than I (343-344).

When Laurie, Fred and their friends come to play with the girls, they inadvertently give them, especially Jo and Beth, an opportunity to practice certain virtues, although again in hidden ways. For Beth, the simple act of joining the others in the game is nothing short of heroic enough for the painfully shy girl. Although it’s doubtful that any other than Jo noticed the amount of courage it took for Beth to come out of her shell: That’s my good girl; you do try to fight off your shyness and I love you for it. Fighting faults isn’t easy [as I know all to well]” (145). Think about this for a moment: if Beth was a real person and she was coming to your party, would you think twice of how much courage it took for her to come out? Or would you simply not notice or even make fun of her for being “weird”? But that’s the point, everyone is fighting a internal, secret struggle, and what may not be a big deal for most people is a huge deal for Beth and a sign of the fact that she is growing as a person. In that sense, Fred presents Jo with a similar opportunity to practice controlling her temper. When she catches Fred cheating in their game she gets really angry. But instead of simply unleashing all that anger out on poor Fred, she decides to take a short break to give herself the opportunity to catch her breath and cool down before she loses her temper. Again, imagine if you were present at that party and someone ran away to retrieve a fly ball. Would you notice that she were angry? And if you did, would you understand what she was trying to do or would you do something like chastise her for getting so upset over nothing or even call her a coward for not facing Fred directly? Here the point is again that Jo is trying to take a small step in building up her moral character by trying to learn to control her temper, even if others might not understand what she is doing: “Don’t praise me Meg, for I could [still] box his ears this [very] minute! I should certainly have boiled over if I hadn’t stayed among the nettles till I got my rage under control enough to hold my tongue. It’s simmering now so I hope he’ll keep out of my way” (149). She’s trying to learn to control her temper, and the only way she could do that at that moment was to stay away from Fred.

People think it’s easy to be good but it isn’t. It never is. People think that “good people” just do good things because it is who they are and they can’t help it, but that’s not true. Good people struggle to do the right thing just as much as others do. The difference is that you can’t see the struggle as easily as you can with others, so it makes you take the “goodness” of that person for granted. Beth is one such person. Everyone assumes that she is just this perfect angel and that it all comes to her so easily, but it’s only cause they can’t see the moral obstacles she is struggling against. Even when she is dying, it takes Jo a while to realize what is going on and that her sister needs help accepting the fact that she’s going to die. You never notice quite how much light these people are fighting to bring into the world until they’re gone or until you are at least able to see shadows that live in the background of that person’s life: “There are many Beths in the world, shy and quiet, sitting in the corners till needed, and living for others so cheerfully that no one sees the sacrifices till the little cricket on the hearth stops chirping and the sweet sunshiny presence vanishes, leaving silence and shadows behind” (56).

Everyone is fighting a struggle that only they know about. Everyone. We each have our faults, and each of us, often in small unassuming ways, are looking for ways to combat those faults. I remember being a little boy and deciding that I would not go buy high brand things even though my family could afford them so that I wouldn’t become puffed up with pride or too dependent on money for my happiness. I made a decision to be satisfied with the simpler things in life. Did anyone notice? No not really. Even when I told my friends years they were surprised. They thought it was just my taste and had no idea of the war against pride that I was waging. As I reflect on it now it makes me think of the secret wars that other people are fighting: what’s your secret war?

#pride #vanity #shy #littlewomen #louisamayalcott #virtue #anger #victorian

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