Some Geese and some Cranes fed together in the same field. One day the sportsmen came suddenly down upon them. The Cranes being light of body, flew off in a moment; but the geese, weighted down by their fat, were all taken.
In civil commotions, they fare best who have least to fetter them.
Be a Woman Be a Human
Little Women is an autobiographical novel published in 1868 and written by American author Louisa May Alcott. She wrote from the heart, and wove into the story incidents from the lives of herself and her three sisters at Concord. It was based on author’s own experiences as a child in Concord, Massachusetts with her three sisters. Little Women is the story of the Marches, a family used to hard toil and suffering. Although Father March is away with the Union armies, the sisters Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth keep in high spirits with their mother, affectionately named Marmee.
The novel hasn't got fantastic plot, but the author described the happy family life with the simple language. However, this is the story of their growing maturity and wisdom and the search for the contents of family life. It has become a much loved classic tale and many of the trials of the sisters are all too relevant today as evidenced by its continued following.
One of the prominent themes in Little Women is the coming of age or maturation of the girls. During the course of the novel we see them grow in many ways--physically, intellectually, and especially emotionally. After certain happy times winning over the Laurences, their friendly rich neighbor, dark times arrive as Marmee finds out about her husband's illness. Worse is to come as Beth contracts scarlet fever in her Samaritan efforts for a sick neighbor and becomes more or lean invalid. The novel
tells of their young womanhood with the additional strains of romance, Beth's terminal illness, the pressures of marriage and the outside world.
When I read the book, the comfortable feeling and the sense of growing up both strike me as reasonable. These are some most impressive plots to me.
All of the characters who earlier wish for genius and success—Amy, Jo, and Laurie—now realize that they merely possess talent, not the genius for which they earlier hope. These realizations are the results of growing up and learning to accept small defeats. Even Jo’s writing style changes. She no longer writes tales of adventure and intrigue but, instead, write in simpler style that sounds similar to that Little Women itself. Tough one can argue that this change in writing style reflects a loss of independence for Jo, one can also argue that it demonstrates an ability to adapt her creativity to the world around her.
Another plot appeals to me a lot is the end of the story. In contrast to the stormy, childish encounter between Laurie and Jo, Bhaer’s proposal to Jo is touching and more grown-up. Jo goes out to seek Bhaer, demonstrating that she has some agency in the affair; when he proposes, the rain and mud prevent him from going down on his knee or giving his hand, so they stand literally on an equal footing. Jo, furthermore, looks nothing like a romantic heroine; she is bedraggled with rain and mud, but it makes no difference. This marriage, which begins with equality andprimacy of the heart rather than primacy of appearance, is promising.
There is also some foreshadowing in this book. For instance, when Laurie parents the March sisters with a postbox, the writer hints that love letter will pass through the box in years to come. Laurie promise to kiss Amy before she dies foreshadows their future marriage.
The old story brings me some contemporary thinking. Women’s struggle between familial duty and personal growth; the danger of gender stereotyping; the necessity of work; and the importance to be genuine. No matter what age you are in, you need to keep equality concept in mind. Just as the poem If by Joseph Rudyard Kipling goes:
If you can talk with crows and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings---nor lose the common touch.
Then you’ll be a woman, and be a human. The book teaches me how to be a woman, or rather how to be a human.
make no doubt of it 毫不怀疑
make mince-meat of me 拿我当肉吃
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