My proclivity for uprooting my peace is the bane of my existence, therefore, an essential part of my daily routine is to scrounge for movies and TV shows that leave me thinking and thinking and thinking for hours. One fine day, I came across Little Women. All I can say is that it was a great day, indeed.
I can see myself going back to this gem again and again because the first time I saw it, I was delighted to have my conscience at war with the culture I grew up in. It was a wonderfully unfamiliar experience that I wish I could relive.
When I saw Jo, Beth, Meg and Amy dissolve into their ordinary lifestyles, I felt myself get immersed too. It all rattled something within me. The thing about this movie that had me taken aback was the fact that they created a distinct paradise from mere paraphernalia and made the mundane seem so enthralling. Which is what Jo’s publisher in the movie was skeptical of. He wasn’t sure whether a novel devoid of the cacophony of violence and gore would do well during that time and much to his surprise, it was a wonder.
Without the aforementioned cacophony and the rush of a good fight, how did this movie manage to get the attention it deserved?
Because it talked about the dull ache of someone’s routine. It made a masterpiece out of monotony, it talked about lives lived and lost. It showed grief and anger and malaise. It gave an insight into the subtle complexities of love and turmoil. It made an exhibit of anything and everything human. And it talked about being able to gather bits and pieces of stolen, granted, borrowed and found happiness.
“Women, they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition, and they’ve got talent, as well as just beauty. I’m so sick of people saying that love is all a woman is fit for.” The way Louisa May Alcott wrote this and the way Saoirse Ronan delivered it with perfection, it struck a chord with me. Because it’s just as obvious as it is true but people need to be reminded of it. Again and again and again. As shown in the movie, women are capable of grace and sensitivity but also just as much emotional conflict and ambition and independence.
The most commendable aspect of this movie is the fact that the precipice of ‘womanhood’ is not just shown as women going to debutante balls and waiting for suitable grooms to whisk them away, but also as being able to regret and cherish as well as neglect and nurture and being able to learn, and grow in the midst of it all. The peculiarity of each character was a brilliant way to make the viewer understand that it is not ideal to expect every single person to be a certain way. There were paramount differences in the aims, expectations and personalities of Jo, Amy, Beth and Meg. The range of these differences went from Jo’s yearning to just be, to Beth’s plight from simply being, from Amy’s optimism and mischief to Meg’s simplicity. It provided a excellent example for the fact that there’s not one necessarily definitive characteristic trait that is common amongst all women, they’re all different and equally worthy of respect for whatever they wish to be.
Another facet of this movie that struck me was that it still takes books and movies and other forms of media for people to be able to realize these things. It’s not common sense yet for people to just let women be. Time and time again in the varied forms of media, there need to be societal reminders that make people really think about all that women have gone through and still continue to go through. Even towards the ending of the movie, Jo’s herione had to succumb to the fate that the publisher had decided for her. She was made to marry and settle down when she had no intention of doing so. Jo couldn’t just end her novel the way she wished to. This is testimony to the reality that people need to be nudged and prompted to just let women exist in peace.
In conclusion, Little Women is nothing short of a prize. It’s definitely one of the movies that I’d watch again to tug at my anguished heartstrings. It’s bewildering in a multitude of ways, the most prominent being the fact this movie is not just about what the world chooses to do with women, but also what women choose to do with the world.