Guo Ting
The title page of Little Women quotes Seventeenth-century British Puritan priest John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress:
So go ahead, my little book, to everything
Show from people who are willing to accept and welcome you
Those things that you hide deep in your heart;
Go, then, my little book, and show to all
That entertain, and bid thee welcome shall,
What thou shalt keep close, shut up from the rest,
And with hope: let you tell them about it
Make them happy forever, make them determined
Be a much better pilgrim than you are than I am.
And wish what thou shalt show them may be blest
To them for good, may make them choose to be
Pilgrims better by far than thee or me.
Translation of "Little Women" book cover. Yilin Publishing House, 1998 edition.
That kind of spirit, the world," is moving. I liked this when I was a kid with jo march, and it's the same now. Looking at the informality of the teenage girl Joe March in the movie, I understand her strengths and weaknesses better, and I understand myself better. I will work hard to cultivate and improve, but I will not change, I will still be stubborn, I will still be black and white; now when I finish writing a paper or review, I have the same mood, hoping that it will fly to a wider place.
Growing up reading The Handmaid's Tale, author Margaret Atwood also mentioned the influence of John Bäryan on her writing style, and listed Bärjan alongside William Blake and Emily Dickinson as the writers who had the greatest influence on her—Blake was an English Romantic artist, including the picture book epic Milton, and Dickinson and Little Women author Alcott were also new Inge women writers. All three were religious mystic speculators, and Atwood believed in what John Bunyan said in The Journey of Heaven that the book would have its own life and would travel on behalf of the author to more distant, perhaps unknown places.
In the 1994 film version, Winora Reid played joe in the novel who had black eyes. In the 2019 film version, the slender, blonde Sioirse Ronan, while not necessarily the way joe we think she looks, also shows her enthusiasm, arrogance and temperament. The film strives to recreate Olcott's real life: as a forward-thinking feminist, she never married, and always supported herself and her family with her writing. The 2019 edition also presents the process of publishing Little Women for fans of the original book. Alcott did get in the way of the publisher's request to change the ending to "Everyone Is Happy" when three pairs of sisters were all married, and indeed, as presented in the film, the chapter where Joe and the Professor were reconciled was called "Umbrella Love" as required by the publisher. The film's adaptations made the plot more dramatic, and it was also clearer that Little Women borrowed from its previous female novels, including the Brontë sisters and Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, such as the young and vigorous girl who bid farewell to her vigorous first love and married an elderly but considerate gentleman. This may not be their own idea, but it is the way romance novels that were popular at the time. As the publisher in the movie says: Romance sells. Little Women was finally published in 1868.
Stills from the 2019 edition of Little Women.
Alcott grew up a century after the American independence movement, her parents were abolitionists, and she was born in New England, usa, more free than Austin, who lived in England a century ago, but her freedom was still limited—although the environment of female writers changed to a new world, the new country still carried the same prejudices, the heroine was still "either married or dead, choose one or the other"; as a woman, she could not find a decent career for herself or a place in society, if she was born ordinary and wanted to change her destiny , then you can only marry. Yes, "democracy", "freedom", "equality", "independence", these concepts were put forward by the "Father of the Nation", which of the American founding revolutionaries were women? Or are there women who are allowed to stay by name and are known and remembered as much as their male counterparts? There is always a gap between historical progress and our imagination, and it is even more true to return to the historical context after tasting and speculating. The concept of "progress" has carried with it privileges since the Age of Enlightenment.
Little Women will always be a moral prophecy in the United States. Olcott's parents were abolitionists, feminists and transcendentalists, and his mother was one of the first professional social workers in the United States. That's why, in addition to its strong religious overtones, Little Women spends a long time detailing visits, funding, and serving poor neighbors and fellow citizens. In the 2019 film version, Mrs. March said: "I have been ashamed of my country all my life", which is also a common attitude of American liberals in the Trump era. In addition to the reflective patriotic feelings of loving the people and the country, the moral sense of "Little Women" is also reflected in the religious spirit and practice. Olcott's father ran an experimental school in Boston and was a member of the Transcendentalist Club along with the famous writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau, who were also living in Boston at the time. The 2019 film version lacks the straightforward religious discourse of the 1994 edition and the original book, but still carries a clear Protestant ethic, which can be seen in the father's letter from the front line and Meg's new marriage declaration: "The time to wait is also the time to work, not to waste time", "I will work hard with him". This Protestant ethic is also very American, not only the ethical significance that Benjamin Franklin gave to economic activity, as cited by Max Weber in the famous The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, but also the philanthropy of individuals and social groups outside of hard work and hard work. State-led public institutions are second.
My generation may have a different view of this. On the day of Meg's wedding, director Greta Gerwig worked hard to join the third wave of feminist rhetoric, emphasizing individual self-selection ("My choice is different from yours, does not mean that my choice is wrong"), but now we all know that to make a choice, there must be environmental support, because rights are a collective, public, composite concept. Without mechanisms, we will be alone forever.
"Joe, can't you really?"
"Teddy, my dear, I wish I could."
"Oh, Jo, can't you?"
"Teddy, dear, I wish I could!"
Many readers are obsessed with this conversation when Joe and Laurie are separated as if they were clinging to youth. Friends recall that Laurie was the representative of a handsome teenager, but it is likely that the memories of his youth beautified him for us. Going back to the original, Joe actually spent a lot of time on his letterhead to his family about the "professor," the scholar from Berlin who wandered to the New World.
Stills from the 2019 edition of Little Women.
"He was an authentic German—quite muscular, with unkempt brown hair, a thick beard, a straight nose, and a kind gaze. Accustomed to the harsh or ambiguous tone of American speech, Professor Barr's voice sounded loud and pleasant. He was dressed in shabby clothes, his hands were very large, and apart from his beautiful teeth, the facial features on his face were really not good.) But I still like him. He was clever and his linen shirt was structured. Although his coat had two buttons off and one shoe had a spike on it, he still looked gentlemanly. He hummed in his mouth, but his expression was very serious. He went to the window, moved the hyacinth ball to the sun, and stroked the kitten, who let him stroke it like an old friend. ”
'I wonder who that strong-willed lady was, who ran so bravely in front of these many carriages, so quickly through the dirt roads.' What are you doing here, my friend? ’
"'I'm shopping.'"
Mr. Barr laughed. His eyes swept from the kimchi mill on one side of the street to the leather wholesaler on the other. But he only said politely: "You don't have an umbrella, can I go with you and help you get something?" ”
"Yes, thank you." Joe's cheeks were as red as her ribbon, and she didn't know what he thought of her, but she didn't care. After a while she found herself and her professor walking arm in arm. She felt as if the sun had broken through the clouds, shone brightly, and the world was back to normal. The woman who was wading through the water was overjoyed.
'What do we buy?' Joe asked. Ignoring the last part of her question, she walked into the store pretending to be happy and smelling the mix of fruit and flowers.
Do they eat oranges and figs? Mr. Barr asked with a fatherly spirit.
'How much to eat and how much to eat.' ’
'Do you like nuts?' ’
'Like a squirrel. ’”
Joe in 1868 found a confidant, and Gerweger in 2019, like us, knew that this was not enough, and that the world needed to be wider and wider than the arms of lovers. Gerweger is credited with a contemporary response to the Little Women classic, including a conversation between Amy and Laurie in the studio about women being eminent artists, the hiring of Emma Watson, known for feminism, to reinterpret the relatively traditional big sister Meg, and the recognition of professor immigration. But the moral prophecies of 2019 are still about return, with the film ending when the sisters all return to their hometowns, along with their husbands and children on the lawn to celebrate their mother's birthday, and we can only find resonance in the immigrant stories of contemporary Chinese-American actor and playwright Ali Wong. In the latter's film "Always Be My Maybe", the two protagonists of Qingmei Bamboo Horse reunite in a foreign land, but they do not return to their hometown together, but embark on a journey together. Because we are the latter, we also understand the courage, gains, and losses in the immigrant narrative. Therefore, the 2019 version of "Little Women" touched us not only the innocent emotions that never fade in the original films and novels, but also the friendship, community, family, and belonging and roots that we could not take away in our journey to become Joe. This is our journey.
Editor-in-Charge: Fan Zhu
Proofreader: Liu Wei