I Loved Meg When I Was Little, Now I’ve Found Jo A Compelling Character
“We’ll be interesting forever!” — Jo March, Little Women (2019)
Though the film is named Little Women, the remaking by Greta Gerwig emphasized strongly on one character — Jo March, the second daughter of the March family.
In my childhood years, I read the Little Women picture book hundreds of times and Meg was my favorite character for her beauty and obedient personality. I didn’t care much about other characters, and didn’t understand quite well, either. But ten more years past, watching the whole story be rearranged and presented delicately on screen, Jo turned out to be the role I love the most. From the first scene to the last one, every aspect of Jo touched my heart and resonated with me strongly. The excitement was beyond description.
The way Greta designed the layers for each character was sophisticated, and how the traits were presented was worthy of discussion, too. For instance, the outfits, the settings or the actions they took could all demonstrate the different aspects of the characters.
Jo, the main character who was the focus of the storyline, was the role I found the most rounded and multi-layered.
It all started with her entering the publisher nervously, submitting the works then earning 20 bucks. The opening scene was important because Jo was cracking into a space where men dominated and occupied, merely no room was opened for females, especially those who tried to counter the social structure of it.
But Jo entered, handing in her writings, and left with victory — the courage and confidence of Jo were then woven into the character.
The intertwined time lines & personality depiction—
How the scenes in Little Women conjuncted together was through the shuttling of time. By traveling back and forth between 1861 and 1868, audiences got to compare and complete the characters clearly.
The first jump of time was when Jo got on bus, rushing back home for Beth but falling asleep on the bus.
The time was then drawn back to 1861 when Jo attended the party with Meg, whereas she was told not to move around because of the burnt hole on the dress. That was the time she first met Laurie, and the time her childhood, young characters showed.
Jo and Laurie decided to dance their own way on the porch of the mansion, where no one could restrict them and pick on their reckless dance moves. Jo was the different kind of girl from Meg, she could not care less about datings, social occasions or upper class parties, therefore she danced weirdly and talked wildly in front of a stranger at the elegant ball.
Jo’s passionate and buoyant characters were seen from lots of other scenes: never behaved like a lady and ran around all the time, hitting and playing with Laurie like boys…but despite the energetic characters, her love and protectiveness toward family were covered thoroughly as well.
Beth, the little sister, was sick twice — once in childhood for scarlet fever, once in adulthood for serious fever and chronic disease. Jo shouldered the responsibility to look after her even when their mother wasn’t home — keeping everyone hopeful, returning from New York city without hesitation, staying by Beth’s side till morning, bringing her beloved sister to the beach and write for her…yet these were not everything she did.
Through the intertwined timeline, the unchanged traits of Jo were presented — passionate, impetuous, loving and family-centered, whereas the surroundings altered with time, bringing the relentlessness of adulthood.
The eyes fixed on words and books —
Jo’s personality was vividly described and built with writing and inks. Not like most of the girls her age, she longed nothing for marriage but knowledge, writing and working on her own.
As Laurie’s eyes never left her in the earlier days, her eyes fixed on the books and couldn’t stop thinking and creating.
One interesting scene transferring was that as Laurie left the March’s house after he escorted the girls home from the party, he left the house and looked at Jo from the front yard. Jo was busily working on her works and did not pay attention to anything else, but Laurie was obsessed with the picture. Then the camera turned as Jo opened her door, the time moved forward to 1868 again, with a pile of books on the floor. Jo found that someone sent her Shakespeare, attaching one note saying “For the writer in the attic: …I’d love to read what you’re writing, if you’ll trust me. I promise honesty and whatever intelligence I can muster. Yours, Friedrich.”
Jo had much of her time spent on literature and composing, but someone always found her, admiring her talent and characters. Her eyes fixed on books, but the two men — Laurie and Friedrich, represented the male roles that supported her and respected her.
Impulsive but strong —
The four sisters in the March’s owned diverse personality, but Jo was definitely not the one who was patient, behave or feminine — she was emotional and impulsive.
“There are some natures too noble to curb, and too lofty to bend.” Marmee (Mrs. March) told Jo as she felt guilty for Amy’s sickness after ice skating and trying to make up with her.
Jo knew too well what she was capable of, therefore she was non-stoppable. As the smartest, most informative girl in the house, Jo often take actions without notice; the actions could be unbelievable, but at the same time courageous.
After Marmee received the telegram that Mr. March was heavily sick, the whole family, as well as the Laurence’s came over to help packing. Jo showed up the last minute handing her mother 25 bucks — by selling her beautiful, long hair. Hair could be incredibly precious, especially for young girls that time, it was part of the impression and styling.
Jo cared her family over her hair, though she sobbed that night for her hair, her bravery was striking.
Love wasn’t everything a woman can have —
“Women. They have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition. And they’ve got talent as well as just beauty. And I’m so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for.” — Jo March, Little Women (2019)
Finding a girl wanting to live and make her own way in the world of 1860s wasn’t easy; even if some girls knew their ambition and dreams, the world did not allow them to fulfill the goals because it was still a male-dominant society which women needed to rely on men. Making a way of a woman’s own was like fairy tales.
But for Jo, realizing the reality for women didn’t stop her from living her way, and the recognition pretty much explained her value formation. She spent most of her childhood and teenage years honing writing skills and developing knowledge, thus she got the potential to thrive independently.
However, love was this complicated, paradoxical concept for Jo, she felt reluctant to any romantic relationship because of her sickness to conventional female expectations, but in the later parts of Little Women, Jo told her mom: “I’m so lonely.”
The expression brought Jo to a new level of deliberation — love and be loved. In the past, she probably would desire to love someone else, or choose who she wanted to love; but after so many years, back to the attic of the March’s again, she told Marmee: “I cared more to be loved,” yet the person who loved her in the past so much changed, and this wasn’t what Jo expected.
Love was complicated — in the past and present.
Jo still believed firmly that love wasn’t the only thing women fit for, whereas it still hit her as being alone in this hasty world. Emotional, resonant and multi-layered, Jo’s struggles through time make her a round and fascinating character.
If you find yourself in Jo, too —
It was innovative that Greta Gerwig chose not to depict Little Women chronologically as the original version, but reorganized the whole story as well as expanding it to a complete play. Some people even said: “Greta finally gives Little Women the ending it deserved.”
Greta pulled Jo out of the four girls and made her the beginning — and the end of the story. The social structure of the time wasn’t denied, and couldn’t be denied, however, Jo managed to build a place of her own and she succeeded.
No matter how energetic and passionate character Jo was, her fragility, loyalty and vulnerability were portrayed explicitly in the film.
In the past, I thought being tamed and fit into the world was the point, hence Meg was the perfect character of all; years past, Meg was still the perfect role, but not for me anymore.
The Jo March created by Greta Gerwig was compelling, not because her life was smooth and easy, but because she lived it uniquely.
2020/02/21, Evelyn Yang
