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Columnist for International Education at Junior Business School
In the past, "good girls" had a "template" - gentle and virtuous, industrious and kind; if you add white skin and beauty, you are invincible.
But today, these yardsticks, while not "outdated," are not all. Curiosity, independence, etc., increasingly become the character that every girl and her parents attach great importance to.
What should we expect from our daughter's future? Today, let's revisit the movie "Little Women", maybe you can give us some inspiration, recommended to accompany your daughter to watch at home.
This oscar-nominated film is the most famous literary work of the 19th century. It depicts the growth story of the four sisters of the March family, pursuing ideals and love, and inspiring generations of girls.
The Oscar-nominated best director Greta Graeg adapted the film, which has a strong cast and a high-energy plot throughout the film, which gives this 19th-century female growth story a new brilliance, more suitable for contemporary women than the original.
Moreover, many of the new problems we face today have been eliminated.
For example: does a modern girl have to put her career first; if the price of pursuing a career is to end up alone, is it worth it; should she endure poverty for love?
"My dreams are different from yours,
Doesn't mean it's not important."
The new version of "Little Women" did not play cards according to the routine at the beginning.
It did not say that once upon a time, as in the original work, in a beautiful village, there were four sisters who loved each other... but it took a moment and brought the troubles and contradictions in the growth of the four sisters directly to us.
It's like a teacher lecturing, throwing out a few questions first, so that you can listen to the lecture with doubts and thoughts.
The film begins with the second sister Joe meeting a publisher. Joe is a female Wenqing with a story, she has a free personality and loves to wear men's vests.
She makes a living writing, and her fingers are always stained with ink.
Joe struggled alone in New York for seven years, with little success, and can be said to be very capable of fighting. Joe was rushing forward with all her might, and even though a handsome professor in front of her threw an admiring glance at her, she didn't pay much attention to it.
Meanwhile, the third sister, Amy, is in Paris.
Over the years, she accompanied her wealthy aunt on trips in Europe. Her aunt made her an upper-class lady, and she was no longer the country maid.
Amy is learning to draw, but she knows very well that she has mediocre talents and cannot become a painter. So, is it to continue to pursue this hopeless ideal, or to listen to your aunt, be a normal person, and quickly find a good marriage?
Does Amy have a choice in this matter?
The beautiful and gentle big sister Meg lived a little miserable.
Meg marries love, but love cannot be bread. She had just spent $50 to buy herself a piece of green silk clothing.
For a poor teacher's family, $50 is a huge sum, and even if her husband doesn't blame her, the pain in her heart is hard to swallow.
Joe, Amy, and Meg have their own paths, but at this moment, they are all on a sharp turn in life. Amy is confused about the future, Meg doubts life, will Joe give up love again in order to realize himself?
These three women in 19th-century dresses can actually represent different types of women in modern society:
Joe, without a doubt, is a contemporary female elite, the first emotional floating cloud of career;
Amy is more typical, she is like most of us, find it difficult to succeed, not willing to be mediocre, and can not find a way out;
Meg represents a woman who is silently dedicated to her family, seemingly traditional, but in her bones, she is as independent as Joe. In money and love, she obeys her wishes and chooses love.
As she said to Joe: Just because my dreams are different from yours doesn't mean it doesn't matter. I want a home where I will work and struggle, but I am willing to be with John.
All three girls are full-fledged modern women who know exactly what they want and their own destiny.
The film portrays the characters in this way because it wants to make a new era of "Little Women", telling a story about Joe, Amy and Meg in the 21st century, that is, each of us ourselves.
So, why does the film break the original narrative order, pull the timeline to seven years later at the beginning, and show the audience how the sisters' ideals are torn apart by reality when they become adults?
Because, that's where a modern woman, her story, really begins.
Contemporary women can not only choose their own path, but also face the results after the choice, and truly assume the ups and downs of their own lives, sorrow and joy.
For example, Joe, who chose to go to New York to become a writer, went to the ideal, but at the same time lost his innocent first love.
When she looked back and wanted to get back that feeling, the time had passed and could not be recovered.
For the path he chose, Joe endured loneliness;
Amy chooses the one she loves instead of the one she loves the most, then she has to take emotional risks;
Meg is firmly on the side of love, but suffers from poverty, which is a very cruel reality.
Everyone loves ideals, but they may not be able to withstand the heavy reality. The road to independence is actually full of thorns, and we will inevitably be surrounded by reality when we embark on this road.
Whether contemporary women can bear and grasp life after choosing their own destiny is the core content of the film.
"I also try to be satisfied,
But I'm tired of being poor."
Let's look first at Amy, how she struggles with ideals and reality.
Amy is actually another Joe, she grew up with Joe, because the two are too similar, just as talented and ambitious.
Sister Joe is her role model and a potential contender. However, when Joe became a well-known writer, Amy had to accept the fact that she could not be a painter.
You can imagine how frustrated she was with great pride in her heart. Amy decided to go down the old path and seize the life-saving straw of marriage.
So, when Laurie asked her why she was marrying Money, Amy replied to him: I'm a loser, I can't be like Joe, and marriage is an economic proposition for me.
It's not hard to choose your own path, but when it doesn't work, you'll have ten thousand reasons to give it up.
What was Amy's choice in the end?
After some struggle, although her career was frustrated, in love, she obeyed her wishes and chose Laurie.
Although she knows that Laurie loves her sister Joe the most, and instead of getting Joe, she develops feelings for her, which is not so pure, but Amy still chooses the person she loves the most.
The metaphor is deep.
Amy didn't get her sister's career highlights, and her pursuit of ideals wasn't as persistent as Joe's, but in love, she was braver than Joe, and eventually she got what her sister lacked.
All along, Amy is another Joe, and she became Joe in love.
Speaking of Meg, she also had the opportunity to find a rich man, but she still married love without hesitation. However, the price of getting love is cruel.
As Joe reaps the joy of success in New York, Amy weaves through the lavish Parisian ballroom while she sits in front of a run-down mansion and grieves over the $50 she just spent.
Her husband blamed her, and Meg said bitterly: "It was because I saw Sally buy everything she wanted and sympathized with me because I didn't." I also tried to be satisfied, but it was hard, and I was tired of being poor.
After saying this, the two broke up unhappily.
Meg is suffering on the path she has chosen, living without dignity, tired of poverty and tired of marriage, tired of her husband?
Later, the husband figured it out, and he came to Meg and said he wanted her to wear that new dress, as long as you liked. Meg grabbed John and said, Honey, I've sold the lining to someone else.
John was moved and speechless, and the two men hugged each other tightly.
I suddenly understood Meg, why some women love family so much and always put family first, it is because they understand the meaning of home. The world is cold and warm, the world is cold, and only your family will give you a true feeling, and you will not give up when you are in trouble.
In the end, the feelings of the two people withstood the test of reality, and they trusted each other more and cared for each other more, who can say that this is not a wealth.
"Hate to say that women are only suitable for love,
I've had enough."
Joe, the most talented of the three sisters, rejected Laurie for writing because marriage seemed to her to be a bondage.
"I'd rather be a free old maid and paddle my own canoe."
However, the career was frustrated, followed by the death of his sister Beth, which made Joe suddenly feel lonely as never before. She began to miss Laurie and wanted to get back to the feelings she had seven years ago.
Mom knew her well and asked: Do you love Laurie?
Joe said: I want to be loved.
Mom said: This is not love.
Joe thought for a moment and she said, I know. I just think women have a mind, a soul, a righteous heart, ambition, talent and beauty, I hate to say that love is the best for women, I've had enough. But I was lonely.
Joe spent seven years alone in New York, alone, writing for a living, not only to support himself but also to help his family. I deeply understood Joe, admiring both her solitude and her loneliness.
I believe that all the audiences are secretly happy for Joe to see here, and hope that she and Laurie will quickly reunite, after all, she and Laurie are the sweetest CP in our hearts.
However, the yin and yang are wrong, and at this time Laurie and Amy are engaged.
The kind Joe blessed her sister and Laurie, and she walked alone to the bridge disheartened, remembering the intimate relationship with Laurie as a child, tearing off the letter she had written to Laurie, and throwing it into the river along with her feelings for Laurie.
The disillusionment of love strengthened Joe's determination to create, she burned the "not in the flow" of the book manuscript she had written in the past in order to make money, picked up the pen again, and wrote in the attic day and night, and finally wrote the most important book in her life, "Little Women".
We see that a truly strong person, he not only has the strength to move forward, but also the courage to say goodbye.
These three sisters, on the path of life they chose, encountered every intersection, every dangerous beach, hesitated, and retreated, but in the end they did not lose themselves, did not take away their courage by the cold reality, and they became the masters of life again.
The film doesn't end up giving us a happy ending.
Joe is still single, Amy's career is undecided, and Meg and John have not become rich overnight, which means that each of us will be missing a piece in life, and the ability and virtue that modern women should have the most is like these three sisters, who have the ability to get happiness in an imperfect life.
The film's final scene shows Joe standing alone in front of the window with her new book.
Our life is a work.
In the past, women, she was carrying a book, and others had to live according to the way it was in the book.
Modern women, like Joe, should conceive, write, and write their own lives.
No matter which play you are acting in, you can't run the dragon set, you have to invest all your efforts and love, and come up with a real, complete work that belongs only to you.