[Book and Series] Little Women
Three sisters get involved in a case that leads them to fight against the richest and most influential family in South Korea.
Oh In-Joo is the oldest sister sister. She grew up in a terribly poor environment and she is still poor. Since she was a young child, she realized that money was the most important thing to protect herself and her family. Her dream is to live an ordinary life like other people. She gets involved in a case that could change her life.
Oh In-Kyung is the middle sister. She is an enthusiastic reporter at a news station. She believes in doing the right things. She also has always been poor, but money doesn't rule life. She now begins to dig into a mysterious case that she first faced when she first became a reporter.
Oh In-Hye is the youngest of the three sisters. She is a student at a prestigious arts high school and she has a natural talent for painting. She often feels her two older sisters’ love for her is too much.
Set in the modern day, it is loosely based on the 1868 novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott.
"(In-Joo) When I was a kid, there was something I really wanted to experience. Blowing out candles on a cake and having my friends sing to me. When I was in the second grade, I made my friends come over. Mom went through the fridge and boiled all the eggs we had. We lit a candle over five eggs and my friends sang to me. Back then, we brushed our teeth with salt because we didn't have toothpaste. That was when I knew for sure that we shouldn't desire the same things that other desire.
(In-kyung) What a relief. We live as well as everyone else now. Well enough to buy our little sister a cake on her birthday.
...
(In-hyee) In our poor family, I was a girl who always received a lot. I was always afraid that I may not be able to pay any of it back. I was afraid I'll end up unworthy of the love you showed me. I remember everything you two gave me. How that made me feel the times when I was happy, the times when I was annoyed, and the times I was in the wrong. The faces I'll remember for the rest of my life. It's those faces I want to paint. Once they pile up and I feel that I've finally put on a different face, I'll return to you.
You loved studying so much that you wanted to die studying, In-kyung. It must have been heartbreaking to give up studying because we didn't have money. You can study all you want now. Once you become a great reporter, we'll meet again someday. Somewhere on this earth.
But In-Joo, I want you to have much more. You gave me your everything, and this was your money to begin with. Make sure you buy an apartment. Not one for our family, but a place to call your own. I hope that one day you'd be able to eat, sleep, and work, all for no one but yourself. That's something that I had always wished for."
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They lived in a new neighborhood (loosely based on Concord) in Massachusetts in genteel poverty. Having lost all his money, their father is serving as a chaplain for the Union Army in the American Civil War, far from home.
The mother, Marmee, and daughters face their first Christmas without him. When Marmee asks her daughters to give their Christmas breakfast away to an impoverished family, the girls and their mother venture into town laden with baskets to feed the hungry children.
When they return, they discover their wealthy, elderly neighbor Mr. Laurence has sent over a decadent surprise dinner to make up for their breakfast. The two families become acquainted following these acts of kindness.
Meg and Jo must work to support the family: Meg tutors a nearby family of four children; Jo assists her aged great-aunt March, a wealthy widow living in a mansion, Plumfield. Beth, too timid for school, is content to stay at home and help with housework; and Amy is still at school.
Meg is beautiful and traditional, Jo is a tomboy who writes, Beth is a peacemaker and a pianist, and Amy is an artist who longs for elegance and fine society. The sisters strive to help their family and improve their characters as Meg is vain, Jo is hotheaded, Beth is cripplingly shy, and Amy is materialistic.
The neighbor boy Laurie, orphaned grandson of Mr. Laurence, becomes close friends with the sisters, particularly the tomboyish Jo.
The girls keep busy as the war goes on. Jo writes a novel that gets published but is frustrated to have to edit it down and can't comprehend the conflicting critical response.
Meg is invited to spend two weeks with rich friends, where there are parties and cotillions for the girls to dance with boys and improve their social skills. Laurie is invited to one of the dances, and Meg's friends incorrectly think she is in love with him. Meg is more interested in John Brooke, Laurie's young tutor.
Word comes that Mr. March is very ill with pneumonia and Marmee is called away to nurse him in Washington. Mr. Laurence offers to accompany her but she declines, knowing travel would be uncomfortable for the old man.
Mr. Laurence instead sends John Brooke to do his business in Washington and help the Marches. While in Washington, Brooke confesses his love for Meg to her parents. They are pleased, but consider Meg too young to marry, so Brooke agrees to wait.
While Marmee is in Washington, Beth contracts scarlet fever after spending time with a poor family where three children die. As a precaution, Amy is sent to live with Aunt March and replaces Jo as her companion and helper.
Jo, who already had scarlet fever, tends to Beth. After many days of illness, the family doctor advises that Marmee be sent for immediately. Beth recovers, but never fully regains her health and energy.
While Brooke waits for Meg to come of age to marry, he joins the military and serves in the war. After he is wounded, he returns to find work so he can buy a house and be ready when he marries Meg. Laurie goes off to college. On Christmas Day, a year after the book's opening, the girls' father returns home.
Three years later, Meg and John marry and learn how to live together. When they have twins, Meg is a devoted mother but John begins to feel neglected and left out. Meg seeks advice from Marmee, who helps her find balance in her married life by making more time for wifely duties and encouraging John to become more involved with child rearing.
Laurie graduates from college, having put in the effort to do well in his last year with Jo's prompting. Amy is chosen over Jo to go on a European tour with her aunt.
Beth's health is weak due to complications from scarlet fever and her spirits are down. While trying to uncover the reason for Beth's sadness, Jo realizes that Laurie has fallen in love. At first she believes it's with Beth, but soon senses it's with herself. Jo confides in Marmee, telling her that she loves Laurie like a brother and that she could not love him in a romantic way.
Jo decides she wants a bit of adventure and to put distance between herself and Laurie, hoping he will forget his feelings. She spends six months with a friend of her mother who runs a boarding house in New York City, serving as governess for her two children.
Jo takes German lessons with another boarder, Professor Bhaer. He has come to America from Berlin to care for the orphaned sons of his sister. For extra money, Jo writes salacious romance stories anonymously for sensational newspapers.
Professor Bhaer suspects her secret and mentions such writing is unprincipled and base. Jo is persuaded to give up that type of writing as her time in New York comes to an end. When she returns to Massachusetts, Laurie proposes marriage and she declines.
Laurie travels to Europe with his grandfather to escape his heartbreak. At home, Beth's health has seriously deteriorated. Jo devotes her time to the care of her dying sister. Laurie encounters Amy in Europe, and he slowly falls in love with her as he begins to see her in a new light.
She is unimpressed by the aimless, idle, and forlorn attitude he has adopted since being rejected by Jo, and inspires him to find his purpose and do something worthwhile with his life. With the news of Beth's death, they meet for consolation and their romance grows. Amy's aunt will not allow Amy to return unchaperoned with Laurie and his grandfather, so they marry before returning home from Europe.
Professor Bhaer is in Massachusetts on business and visits the Marches daily for two weeks. On his last day, he proposes to Jo and the two become engaged. Because the Professor is poor, the wedding must wait while he establishes a good income by going out west to teach.
A year goes by without much success; later Aunt March dies and leaves her large estate Plumfield to Jo. Jo and Bhaer marry and turn the house into a school for boys. They have two sons of their own, and Amy and Laurie have a daughter. At apple-picking time, Marmee celebrates her 60th birthday at Plumfield, with her husband, her three surviving daughters, their husbands, and her five grandchildren.
Characters
Margaret "Meg" March
Meg, the oldest sister, is 16 when the story starts. She is described as a beauty, and manages the household when her mother is absent. She has long brown hair and blue eyes and particularly beautiful hands, and is seen as the prettiest one of the sisters.
Meg fulfils expectations for women of the time; from the start, she is already a nearly perfect "little woman" in the eyes of the world. Before her marriage to John Brooke, while still living at home, she often lectures her younger sisters to ensure they grow to embody the title of "little women".
Meg is employed as a governess for the Kings, a wealthy local family. Because of their father's family's social standing, Meg makes her debut into high society, but is lectured by her friend and neighbor, Theodore "Laurie" Laurence, for behaving like a snob.
Meg marries John Brooke, Laurie's tutor. They have twins, Margaret "Daisy" Brooke and John Laurence "Demi" Brooke. The sequel, Little Men, mentions a baby daughter, Josephine "Josie" Brooke, who is 14 at the beginning of the final book.
According to Sarah Elbert, "democratic domesticity requires maturity, strength, and above all a secure identity that Meg lacks". Others believe Alcott does not intend to belittle Meg for her ordinary life, and writes her with loving detail, suffused with sentimentality.
Josephine "Jo" March
The principal character, Jo, 15 years old at the beginning of the book, is a strong and willful young woman, struggling to subdue her fiery temper and stubborn personality.
Second oldest of the four sisters, Jo is boy-like, the smartest, most creative one in the family; her father has referred to her as his "son Jo," and her best friend and neighbour, Theodore "Laurie" Laurence, sometimes calls her "my dear fellow," while she alone calls him Teddy.
Jo has a "hot" temper that often leads her into trouble. With the help of her own misguided sense of humor, her sister Beth, and her mother, she works on controlling it. It has been said that much of Louisa May Alcott shows through in these characteristics of Jo.
In her essay, "Recollections of My Childhood", Alcott refers to herself as a tomboy who enjoyed boys' activities like running foot-races and climbing trees.
Jo loves literature, both reading and writing. She composes plays for her sisters to perform and writes short stories. She initially rejects the idea of marriage and romance, feeling that it would break up her family and separate her from the sisters whom she adores. While pursuing a literary career in New York City, she meets Friedrich Bhaer, a German professor.
On her return home, Laurie proposes marriage to Jo, which she rejects, thus confirming her independence. Another reason for the rejection is that the love that Laurie has for Jo is more of a sisterly love, rather than romantic love, the difference between which he was unable to understand because he was "just a boy", as said by Alcott in the book.
After Beth dies, Professor Bhaer woos Jo at her home, when "They decide to share life's burdens just as they shared the load of bundles on their shopping expedition." She is 25 years old when she accepts his proposal.
The marriage is deferred until her unexpected inheritance of her Aunt March's home a year later. According to critic Barbara Sicherman, "The crucial first point is that the choice is hers, its quirkiness another sign of her much-prized individuality."
They have two sons, Robert "Rob" Bhaer and Theodore "Ted" Bhaer. Jo also writes the first part of Little Women during the second portion of the novel. According to Elbert, "her narration signals a successfully completed adolescence".
Elizabeth "Beth" March
Beth, 13 when the story starts, is described as kind, gentle, sweet, shy, quiet, honest and musical. She is the shyest March sister and the pianist of the family. Infused with quiet wisdom, she is the peacemaker of the family and gently scolds her sisters when they argue.
As her sisters grow up, they begin to leave home, but Beth has no desire to leave her house or family. She is especially close to Jo: when Beth develops scarlet fever after visiting the Hummels, Jo does most of the nursing and rarely leaves her side. Beth recovers from the acute disease but her health is permanently weakened.
As she grows, Beth begins to realize that her time with her loved ones is coming to an end. Finally, the family accepts that Beth will not live much longer.
They make a special room for her, filled with all the things she loves best: her kittens, her piano, Father's books, Amy's sketches, and her beloved dolls.
She is never idle; she knits and sews things for the children who pass by on their way to and from school. But eventually she puts down her sewing needle, saying it grew "heavy."
Beth's final sickness has a strong effect on her sisters, especially Jo, who resolves to live her life with more consideration and care for everyone.
The main loss during Little Women is the death of beloved Beth. Her "self-sacrifice is ultimately the greatest in the novel. She gives up her life knowing that it has had only private, domestic meaning."
Amy Curtis March
Amy is the youngest sister and baby of the family; she’s 12 when the story begins. Interested in art, she is described as a "regular snow-maiden" with curly golden hair and blue eyes, "pale and slender" and "always carrying herself" like a proper young lady. She is the artist of the family. Often coddled because she is the youngest, Amy can behave in a vain and self-centered way, though she does still love her family. She has the middle name Curtis, and is the only March sister to use her full name rather than a diminutive.
She is chosen by her aunt to travel in Europe with her, where she grows and makes a decision about the level of her artistic talent and how to direct her adult life. She encounters "Laurie" Laurence and his grandfather during the extended visit. Amy is the least inclined of the sisters to sacrifice and self-denial. She behaves well in good society, at ease with herself. Critic Martha Saxton observes the author was never fully at ease with Amy's moral development and her success in life seemed relatively accidental. However, Amy's morality does appear to develop throughout her adolescence and early adulthood, and she is able to confidently and justly put Laurie in his place when she believes he is wasting his life on pleasurable activities. Ultimately, Amy is shown to work very hard to gain what she wants in life and to make the most of her success while she has it.
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