|| Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. ||
Today’s prompt is: Ten Things I Loved About [Insert Book Title Here] (Pick any book and tell us ten things you loved about it!) (submitted by Cathy @ WhatCathyReadNext)
For this prompt, I chose to write about Little Women, which I read for the first time at the end of last year into this year. I stretched out the reading of this book – savoring it – because I loved it so much. I can’t believe it took me so long to read it. I fell in love with every character and I feel like this is a book I may not read over and over but will read excerpts of each year – probably in the winter like I did this time.
Anyhow, without further ado. . .
Top Ten Things I Loved about Little Women.
1. I love how realistically Louisa Mae Alcott wrote about the roles and lives of women in that time period, but she also didn’t entirely adhere to this historical fact because she also wrote of the girls as rebellious to those strict “standards” for women. The young March women were bold and strong-willed and didn’t let what society said they had to be stop them from being what they wanted to be.
2. I love Marmee. Just everything about her. I loved how she was maternal and brave and cared for others. I loved how she was strong but didn’t mind showing the girls she was scared when her husband was in the military hospital. I loved that she didn’t mind telling Jo that she too had struggled with her tongue and being snappy and hurting people’s feelings, yet didn’t try to tell Jo that Jo needed to change. Alcott’s decision to write about her admittance of her own struggles with temper and her reasons for those struggles was so ahead of its time. Talking about feelings and motivations for why a person acted the way they did wasn’t really something touched on by many books of this time, as far as I’ve seen.
3. I love how the book is not a traditional romance or really a romance at all – yet it is at the same time. Readers may think the story is marching (no pun intended) to a certain conclusion with two certain people ending up together but Alcott turns it all on its head and leaves us pondering what we think about who does end up with our beloved Teddy.
4. Finding a category to place this book in can be very hard at times. There are elements of romance, but then also just sweet stories, and then women’s fiction with Jo’s story and thoughts about what it means to become a young woman and a writer and what love means to her. I love that the book can’t be easily categorized. It makes it even more endearing.
5. I love the faith of the characters and how even though they have faith, they also aren’t afraid to question it and admit when God seems so far away.
“Yes, it is. She doesn’t know us, she doesn’t even talk about the flocks of green doves, as she calls the vine leaves on the wall. She doesn’t look like my Beth, and there’s nobody to help us bear it. Mother and Father both gone, and God seems so far away I can’t find Him.”
As the tears streamed fast down poor Jo’s cheeks, she stretched out her hand in a helpless sort of way, as if groping in the dark, and Laurie took it in his, whispering as well as he could with a lump in his throat, “I’m here. Hold on to me, Jo, dear!”
She could not speak, but she did “hold on,” and the warm grasp of the friendly human hand comforted her sore heart, and seemed to lead her nearer to the Divine arm which alone could uphold her in her trouble.
6. I love how each chapter of the book is like its own story which means I could read a chapter or two a night of the book and stretch out the enjoyment of stepping into that world night after night.
7. I love how Beth was both childlike and deep at the same time. So many of the things she said – much like Jo and Marmee – were amazingly profound and thought-provoking in such a simple, sweet way.
“You must take my place, Jo, and be everything to Father and Mother when I’m gone. They will turn to you, don’t fail them, and if it’s hard to work alone, remember that I don’t forget you, and that you’ll be happier in doing that than writing splendid books or seeing all the world, for love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy.”
8. I love the subtly of the life lessons in this book. Those life lessons come in some of the profound statements that the characters, like Beth, says, but especially through the actions of the characters. How Marmee takes food to others and cares for them when they are at their lowest. How all the girls grasp onto life and hold on tight so they can enjoy as much of it as possible. How Mr. March helps his neighbors. How Beth cares for the young children who are sick, resulting in her own sickness and later her death.
9. I love how we are able to follow the young women from childhood to adulthood. I loved being able to see them grow and progress and stretch along the way.
10. I love Mr. Laurence and his love for Beth, but all the girls and how that love opens up parts of him that he had shut off long ago.
Is there a book that you could list ten things you love about it? If so, which book is it?
