Trust & Obey

Last week, I decided to deviate from the typical post and talked about my least favorite character. Today, I’m going a bit more traditional and give you a favorite character post! If you haven’t read last week’s, please check it out!

My favorite character has got to be Josephine March from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. As a little girl, I fell in love with Jo as my mom read this novel to my siblings and I. Jo was everything I wanted to be and – in many ways – already was. She was a playwright, actor, writer, and a bibliophile through and through.

To give you a bit of a back story, Little Women is a story about four sisters and their wild adventures from childhood up until adulthood. Jo is the second child with Meg as the oldest, then Beth, and finally Amy. We are shown in an entertaining way the hardships and joys of life during the Civil War.

Jo is a go-getter, imaginative, and doesn’t fit into any box. Her mom – better known as “Marmee” – teaches her girls that they are worth so much and should be valued for who they are. Jo really takes that idea and runs with it. Marmee’s ideology gives Jo a bold, firecracker personality.

I think the other thing I really enjoy about Jo is that she is so candid and tries her best to be kind yet truthful. Her best friend expresses his ardent love for her, and yet she’s honest about how she doesn’t feel the same. Even though she knows it will crush his heart, she is a future thinker and knows that it will hurt more later if she keeps that to herself.

What is so hard though for Jo, is that she doesn’t feel she has found someone who shares a soul with her. She stands out as a strong woman, and yet she can’t find someone intellectually equal. This pain grows within her and increases as as her other sisters find men and get married. Their lives move on conventionally while she trail-blazes alone.

Jo March is a character I not only feel close to but look up to! She uses what cards she is dealt, and uses them to her advantage. She writes books, lives her dream, and never stops going.

Did you like the movies or the Little Women book more? Fun fact: I liked them pretty much equally! What do you think?