Which of the "Little Women" are you?

    

Jessie Wilcox Smith

     I doubt there are any readers of Little Women who have not likened themselves to one of the March sisters. Nor do I believe there are any readers of the book who have not wished they were one of the sisters they knew they were not like. I also doubt there has ever been a sentence more convoluted than that last one.

     Of course, I used to think I was most like Jo. Doesn't everyone? And why is that? Is it because she's the most flawed? The most ambitious? The most out of sync with her environment? Or, if she is the March sister we most want to emulate, is it because we admire her ambition and fierce independence? Because she's funny and fun to be around? Because, despite all her flaws, she was able, with the help of her family and friends, to work through her difficulties and accomplish what she set out to do? To be honest, I thought I was most like Jo because I fancied myself to be colorful, interesting, unusual. Like her, I always hated following the crowd.

     Now, through the filter of intervening years during which I hope my self-knowledge has grown more acute, I see I have only two things in common with Jo: her desire to write and her hot temper. At the same time, I see I have much more in common with Amy than I thought. She's persnickety. Pretentious. Selfish. She loves to correct everyone. She has delusions of grandeur. Thankfully, Amy turns out very well in the end. As Marmee says, she finally becomes a gentlewoman in the true sense of the word.

     And what of Meg? Have you ever noticed that she's the one readers seem to forget? And have you ever stopped to think that perhaps the reason for that is because she represents the kind of person most of us really are and know? Think about it. She starts out at sixteen a rather vain, shallow girl who worries about her looks and her clothes. And boys. She dreams about marrying a wealthy man and living in the lap of luxury for the rest of her days, never having to risk harming her beautiful white hands with manual labor. Yet she falls in love with a humble tutor who can only give her a humble home and two beautiful children. And she ends up happier than she ever hoped. Yup. Most of the women I know are Megs.

     Then there's Beth. It distresses me to hear and read disparaging remarks about Beth. "She's too good to be true." "She's boring." "She's a wimp." I think people say those things about her because she makes them uncomfortable. Yes, she's good. What's wrong with that? Isn't that what we're all supposed  to be? The one vocation we all have in common in this world is holiness. Holiness is our true vocation, no matter what career we follow. Boring? Why? Because she loved her family so much that all she wanted to do in life was serve them and make their lives happier and more comfortable? Because she made toys and dropped them out the window to the poor neighborhood children? She realized the greatest earthly ambition a human being could ever aspire to: serving others. It may not have been in a grand, global way, but who would put a measure on true charity? As for being a wimp—look at how she struggled against her social anxiety disorder. She went to that picnic out of respect for Laurie. She pushed aside her painful shyness to talk to a disabled boy because everyone else left him alone with no one to talk to. Look at how she, who loved music so deeply, had to put up with that crappy piano, until Mr Laurence gave her a new one, not because she asked for it, but because she deserved it. Most of all, look at how she faced her own death—yes, she regretted not being there to see her baby niece and nephew grow up; yes, she regretted leaving her family. She even regretted never being in love and not being more "ambitious." But she never railed against her illness. She lived out her life doing everything she loved to do, working for others, until her strength gave out, then she faced the end with a peacefulness and strength that only her deep faith could give. She was eager to reach her true home. If you ask me, Beth is the true heroine of the four. She's the one I choose to emulate.

     But I think, even at this midlife point, I'm still very much the 12-year-old Amy with a smattering of Jo.