Page 117 - Sterling 2k21

A Note to Jo March (from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott)

Dear Jo,

I studied you. I saw you in movies, I read about you in books and I feel a peculiar sense of attachment to
your idiosyncrasies. I won’t be exaggerating when I say, I felt your pain.
You carried everything on those dainty beautiful shoulders of yours, so much burden, so much pain and
ironically you had no one to empathize with. As Amy said, ‘You were never afraid of storms, you were just
learning to sail your ship’.
You took care of Amy, even when she burned your book. Oh! how that must have hurt! After hours and
nights of endless toiling you came up with ideas, stories, musings and whatnot, all that to be sacrificed in
the arms of fire as a petty revenge! You emboldened minds with your tenacity. You weren’t the oldest, but
you took care of Meg and Marmee. You looked after Beth on her deathbed. You sold your precious
priceless musings for a few pennies, just so you could feed your family. I think it’s safe to say, you were
not just my favourite ‘little woman’, but of millions who watched your journey from scratch and saw it
mould into a beautiful inspiration. In the mid-eighteenth patriarchal century, you set out to carve your own
path. You didn’t pull yourself back. I admire you Jo March! Your concepts of liberty and companionship
awed me to the core. You loved your liberty way too much to give it up for a mortal. You believed in young
talented women. You strongly opined that a woman has much more to offer than just beauty. You refused
to give yourself up as a pawn to the society, as someone who would just look after the household chores
and make a good homely wife. You taught us to dream bigger and acquire a coherent explanation for
actions, actions that noone dares to acknowledge.

As a child, you were impulsive and blithe, but your tomboyish attitude never hovered over your emotional
intelligence. Your character withstands the test of time. When you craved your father’s presence, you never
expressed it rather you tried to fill the void of his absence with your playfulness. You lost Laurie, you lost
Beth, you were all alone in the mammoth city of New York craving for companionship. Josephine! How I
wish I was there for you.

You dreamt of castles, unconventional endings and soaring unprecedented heights.
And Alas! How can I forget the ending! The unfortunate ending hidden in plain slight! I knew it wasn’t the
ending you longed for. Your ending was unconventional, where Jo lives happily with her freedom and does
not chase a man to feel complete, something that the publishers of your time found peculiar and refused to
pay you if you didn’t do so. The world deserved to know your ending, Jo.
You embraced modern feminism and are an icon. The epitome of a true woman.
-Nandini Sharma
XB
Illustration by- Khushi Aggarwal,XII-C