The strength of this novel is found in the strength of its main character. Jo March is the pillar of this story, and the center of it. The other characters, however, are not weakened or neglected because of this. They are all individual, and clear. The book was written by Alcott as an honest depiction of her childhood. She did not sugar-coat it, and she did not dramatize it. She simply wrote down her own feelings of what happened to her and her sisters, and gave it to her editor for that “girl story,” he needed. It was a hit because many women were able to admire Jo, and the strength she had to stand up to anything. If Jo was offended, she said so. If someone was a liar, she told them to their face. This kind of blunt honesty was controversial for women in that day. They were to be proper ladies, who were polite and congenial. Jo could be a lady, but she preferred to be herself, and that happened to be someone who was honest no matter what, and that meant being what we now call “politically incorrect.” She was intelligent, and did not depend on, nor look for a man to take care of her. She wanted to do it on her own, which was another taboo. She also chose a career that was looked down on for women, and that was writing. Being a writer in any era is a tough decision to make, because you do not alwyas reap the immediate benefits of other professions. Choosing to be a writer for Jo, and for Alcott, was a strong statement of the convictions and the ambition that she had. The book was indeed a “story for girls,” but probably not for the reasons the editor first intended. It became a girls strength story. Jo became a new kind of role model.
The book is written from a narrative standpoint, and this was common of the era it was written, but the difference is that it does not preach how girls should be behaving, but how they actually
