Hello, My Name is Josephine March...

When I was younger, the movie versions of Little Women I had seen painted Jo as a tomboy.  Which is why I never really felt that we had much in common besides our loud mouths.  I was never a tomboy... at all.  And then, I actually read the novel, and I was shocked to often find myself looking into a figurative mirror as her character revealed herself more and more through the pages.  Here and there I would dog-ear the pages and shake my head, amazed that over a hundred years ago Miss Alcott had penned a character that would pinpoint my personality so well.  Let me show you what I mean:

"Jo's ambition was to do something very splendid; what it was she had no idea, as yet, but left it for time to tell her...A quick temper, sharp tongue, and restless spirit were always getting her into scrapes, and her life was a series of ups and downs, which were both comic and pathetic."

This particular quote, I am ashamed to say, quite accurately describes my many weaknesses and seems like a character sketch of my childhood.  

 

"'You won't give anyone a chance,' said Laurie...'You won't show the soft side of your character, and if a fellow gets a peep at it by accident, and can't help showing that he likes it, you treat him as Mrs. Gummidge did her sweetheart-- throw cold water over him-- and get so thorny no one dares touch or look at you.'"

I feel like I've heard these words before... perhaps from my sisters?  Or their husbands?  Except of course they never mentioned Mrs. Gummidge, because who in the world knows who that is?

"...With Jo, brain developed earlier than the heart, and she preferred imaginary heroes to real ones, because, when tired of them, the former could be shut up in the tin kitchen-cupboard till called for, and the latter were less manageable."

I have an over-active imagination.  The heroes in my imagination are always preferable to real men.  Which is why I'm probably still single. 

"'I'm glad you can't flirt; it's really refreshing to see a sensible, straightforward girl, who can be jolly and kind without making a fool of herself.  Between ourselves, Jo, some of the girls I know really do go on at such a rate I'm ashamed of them.  They don't mean any harm, I'm sure; but if they knew how we fellows talked about them afterward, they'd mend their ways, I fancy.'"

I've already shared my opinion of foolish flirting-- you know, that hair-flipping, giddy laughing, silly-girl flirting.  I don't know how to do it, I don't want to do it, and I don't do it.  And I hope I'm respected for it... instead of just seen as a cold-hearted woman.

"Poor Jo, these were dark days to her, for something like despair came over her when she thought of spending all her life in that quiet house, devoted to humdrum cares, a few small pleasures, and the duty that never seemed to grow any easier. 'I can't do it.  I wasn't meant for a life like this, and I know I shall break away and do something desperate if somebody doesn't come and help me,' she said to herself when her first efforts failed, and she fell into the moody, miserable state of mind which often comes when strong wills have to yield to the inevitable."

Hmmm, I've felt this on many a night alone in my apartment.  It is no easy task, yielding to the inevitable.

"...Thirty years seems the end of all things to five and twenty; but it's not so bad as it looks, and one can get on quite happily if one has something in one's self to fall back upon.  At twenty-five, girls begin to talk about being old maids, but secretly resolve that they never will be..."

How did Miss Alcott get inside my head on my twenty-fifth birthday?

See what I mean?  So I finished the book, hoping there would also be some lovely parallel between her happy ending and my future happy ending.  But I realized, I'm not so much a fan of marrying a much-older German professor, so...

Instead I prefer something Jo says.  I hope someday, whether I have my own German professor or facsimile thereof, I too will be able to say, "'Well, the winter's gone, and I've written no books, earned no fortune; but I've made a friend worth having and I'll try to keep him all my life.'"  Although I would also like to write books and earn a fortune.  But hey, I'll just take the lifelong friend.

Well, I love Little Women.  No secret there.  I love finding a literary character I can thoroughly relate to, as well.  But don't think Miss Alcott's point has been lost on me.  She creates four very different sisters for the same reason there are four very different women on "Sex and the City," or "Golden Girls:" because every woman can find one of them to which she can relate.  And when we can relate to one of the March sisters, we can learn one of the lessons the heroines learned... like Jo, who learns to be content with her circumstances, serve others, and become vulnerable.  So maybe I can too. :)

What about you?  Have you ever opened the pages of a book, just to find yourself inside?