AP Lit Post #7: Now Where Have I Seen Her Before? Little Women Vs. March

        Well, it looks like it's time for one final blog post. Having finished reading both Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, and March by Geraldine Brooks, I can now see two slightly different interpretations of just who the members of the March family really are. The retelling (March) definitely changed my perception of Little Women. While reading the original, I came to know the March women much more. Namely, I associated Mrs. March as a kind, willful spirit - a mother who always knows how to handle tough situations and keep a cool head. In March, however, she is described as a slightly more "expressive" character, who can sometimes be a tad stubborn and on occasion will break into sudden outbursts when annoyed by someone or something. Mr. March himself is the most changed from his original perspective. In Little Women, though he is not mentioned much, he is viewed as a humble, kind father who leads a life full of high spirits, encouragement, and love. In March however, he is construed as a conflicted man who wants desperately to further the anti-slavery cause. In fact, March appears as a rather weakened man - especially after the incident at the cotton plantation - and wants nothing much to do with his family once it gets down to it. In the last scene of the book, he returns to his home in Concord, MA. You would think he would be ecstatic about seeing his family after so long without them, but no - everything about his children's features remind him of the tragedies he has seen happen to others, and he soaks in his own regret and pain during their entire reunion rather than just rejoicing in the fact that his children are still alive.
        Therefore - as you can probably guess - I appreciated Little Women much more than its retelling. While March focuses on the tragedies of slavery and is indeed interesting, it skews the reader's original perception of March and his family. Rather than seeing the sensible father the March daughters all look up to, we see a man who has trouble controlling his own feelings and can't seem to let go of his past. That was his main problem. Yes, March faced great challenges. Yes, he deserves the ability to morn the past. But that does not give him the right to give up on the future. He had a willing, humble family standing right before him, yet all he could do was wallow in the agonies seen from his eyes. Why remain stuck in the past when you have others who rely on you for guidance? Sometimes we need to let go of our wandering emotions just long enough to help those people who still need our help. I also admire Little Women for the wonderful character development within it. The audience got to know all of the girls one on one, discovering that all of them were unique in their own way. While filled with a few tear-filled moments, the novel was a beautiful piece of writing that showed how a poor family of four daughters was able to form ties of friendship and love that would bond them together forever, even in death. It was heartfelt and very easy to get to know the characters.
        March establishes its own story line through the father of the March family. In Little Women, March is absent for about half of the novel and when he returns, he is not mentioned very much. Therefore, through March, we are able to see just what the father of the March family was doing all of that time. Because of my "curious self" and need for explanation in situations like that, I welcomed March into my hands, thrilled to finally discover the secret life of Mr. March. Now that I have actually read it, I can say that it wasn't perfect, but overall, I rather enjoyed this addition to the original story line. I do believe it has literary merit, as it was created in order to fill in the gaping holes that March left from his absence within Little Women. I appreciated the fact that Brooks took a small hole within one classic plot line and expanded her own ideas into it and allowed the new, run-off story to enrich the feel of the original. Throughout the two books, there are objects and scenes that come together on common ground while at the same time, two completely different stories were being woven together into one. Although both have contrasting flows, I accept them as almost one, unified story line. The events within them explain the gaps that one author or the other left to our imaginations. The story of the four daughters somehow intertwines with the story of the father to form a solid plot line, and that's something that is hard for two completely different authors to do with two very different books.

       I really did enjoy these two books throughout the summer. Each of them is unique in its own way, and their stories flowed along with such interesting events that I just had to keep on reading. I really do love those books - the ones that you can't seem to put down. They just prove that reading is truly a gift in this world, and without it, we would probably be bored out of our minds! Little Women and March were a perfect choice for my reading homework, and I'm so glad  that I decided to try them out. Well, that concludes my blog posts for the summer! To be continued once school starts back up! :)