In 1868, at the age of 36, Louisa, in order to earn money to supplement her family, promised the newspaper editor to write a story about the girl's growth.
She named the novel "Little Women" and sent it out when she was finished. But for months, there was not a single echo.
Just as she was deciding to return to the manuscript, a dramatic scene appeared.
The editor looked at her and said excitedly, "Now, you're the most famous female writer in the United States!" ”
Americans met at the time, and the greeting was: "Have you watched Little Women?" ”
150 years later, the popularity of "Little Women" has not decreased, and it has been adapted into movies, stage plays, and musicals many times, ranking at the top of the "world famous works".
The novel tells the story of the four sisters of the March family, Meg, Joe, Beth and Amy.
The girls have very different personalities and different destinations. But in the process of growing up, they learned to love and be strong, and bravely chose the path they wanted to take and lived a happy life.
If you are also confused about growing up, confused about ideals, and at a loss in the life of a chicken feather, you may wish to check out their stories.
People who know how to give are more likely to feel happy
The March family, who live in New England, are not wealthy.
Mr. March went to the front line of the Civil War as a military chaplain, and the family's livelihood fell on Mrs. March alone, and she had to get up early and go out to work in the dark.
Yet this poor home is full of love and care.
At a young age, daughters know to be considerate of their parents and care for others.
In the afterglow of dusk, as soon as the mother arrives home, the daughters will always gather around, show their skills, and arrange everything comfortably and pleasantly.
Meg would warm her mother's slippers in advance, Joe would fiddle with the tea table, Beth would shuttle back and forth between the living room and the kitchen, busy and quietly bringing her mother a cup of hot coffee, and the youngest daughter, Amy, would throw herself into her mother's arms and offer a big smile.
Watching her mother dissolve the tiredness of the day under her own service, the daughters were satisfied.
Every night at nine o'clock, Beth would play the old piano at home on time, and Mrs. March and her daughters would gently hum a song, say goodnight to each other, and go to sleep.
This lullaby is sung for each other, and the family never tires of listening to it.
Girls are not only willing to give love and care for their families. To poor strangers, he never hesitated to express kindness.
This Christmas, when the girls heard that in a broken house not far away lay a wandering woman and her newborn baby, they went hungry and sent hot meals, a few futons, and a bundle of firewood.
The rescued women affectionately called them little angels. The girls were very useful and in a very comfortable mood.
Zhou Guoping wrote in Love and Loneliness: "The essence of love is a kind of giving, and the happiness of love is in this giving. ”
Giving is happier than taking, and giving is happier than receiving.
Because of giving, we feel the happiness of being needed, and every time we give, our hearts can get a kind of satisfaction.
When we cook a delicious meal for our family with our own hands, and watch our lovers and children eat it, is it not a kind of happiness?
When we sincerely help colleagues solve a problem at work, watching colleagues breathe a sigh of relief, is it not a kind of satisfaction?
When we do what we can for strangers in distress and look at their grateful smiles, is it not an achievement?
Those who give are more blessed than receiving, and those who know how to give are more likely to feel happy.
Optimistic people are more likely to find the light in life
As the saying goes, life is not satisfactory, nine times out of ten. Although girls grow up in a loving environment, they also have their own troubles.
The eldest sister, Meg, has just turned sixteen years old, loves beauty, loves to make friends, and has the vanity of a flower girl.
She was very proud of her beauty and longed to get out of poverty and live the life of a rich man.
But the reality is that she can only go to Mrs. Kings's house to work as a kindergarten teacher.
What upset her more than a few naughty children was that she watched Mrs. Kings go to celebrity parties every day and live the life of her dreams.
The days are chai rice oil and salt, and the ideal is poetry and far away.
Everyone's growth has been caught in various "unsatisfactory" and distressed.
Meg was like this, and the sisters were not much better.
Joe is a cheerful tomboy who longs for a free life. But she had to go to Aunt March every day, bound by this strange old lady.
Beth loves music but suffers from not having a good piano; and the spoiled little daughter Amy always willfully complains that the old dress does not match her artistic temperament.
It is true that life will not go as it pleases, but this is the truth of life. Who hasn't had a "backfire" in their life?
I want to come to a trip that can be walked away, but I am constrained by time and money; the life goals I set at the beginning of the year are left behind because of my busy work; I want to give my family a better life and a better education for my children, but I can't do it...
Mr. Yang Dai once said: "Everyone will have an unusually difficult time, the pressure of life, the frustration of work, the pressure of study, and panic will not last forever. Survive, life will suddenly open up. ”
In the face of difficulties, only by being strong and using an optimistic heart can we find the light in life.
Like Joe, when the sisters complained about life together, she took the lead in jumping out of her head and shouting, "Stop complaining, let's find something interesting to cheer ourselves up." ”
Later, Joe found a library at Aunt March's house, and for her, who loved to read, she began to look forward to working at her aunt's house every day;
Meg calmed down and exchanged her jealousy of Mrs. Kings for serious observation, which made her talk and demeanor more and more ladylike;
Beth plucked up the courage to become friends with the neighbors Lawrence's family, so that she could go to his house and play the piano;
Amy carried the picture clip on her back, walked into the jungle to sketch, no longer entangled in the current dilemma, and found that the scenery outside the door was so beautiful.
A poet once said, "When life is as brisk and smooth as a song, it is easy to smile, and those who can smile when everything is not good are truly optimistic." ”
Truly optimistic people, even if life is not satisfactory everywhere, can find themselves a source of happiness.
People who have experienced difficulties are more likely to feel life
The world of Little Women, like our real life, has all sorts of accidents.
On a gloomy afternoon, Mrs. March received a telegram from the Washington Hospital saying that Mr. March was terminally ill.
The mother rushed to Washington, thousands of miles away, in a panic, while the girls sighed in a dead silence.
This news made them feel that all the happiness and pillars of life had been taken away at once, and the complaints and complaints they had once had were not worth mentioning compared to the safety of their parents.
When the poor Hermel came to her aid for her sick son, the kind Beth followed her home to help.
Unfortunately, Hermel's son still gasped in Beth's arms.
A heartbroken Beth also fell ill shortly after returning home because she was infected with scarlet fever.
In a hurry, Meg and Joe send Amy to her aunt's house, and the two stay behind to take care of the seriously ill Beth.
The days were bleak and the house was desolate.
Guarding the unconscious Beth, Meg deeply realized that there are some precious things that cannot be bought with money.
She was ashamed of herself, she had been complaining about poverty, but she did not realize that the safe reunion of the family was the most precious.
Joe was also caught up in reflection. Her mother borrowed money everywhere, and Beth couldn't afford a better doctor to face it all. She could only cry impotently.
Life is never easy, there will always be a few moments that will break us down.
But as long as we resist, reflect and sharpen ourselves in the predicament, whether we get out of the predicament or not, we will become a better version of ourselves.
As Hemingway said, "Life always makes us bruised, but later, those wounded places will become our strongest places." ”
The girls, who were suddenly in trouble, accelerated the pace of growth.
Meg changed her view of money and family, no longer admiring vanity and dreaming of some unrealistic wealth, but settling down and living well.
Joe said to himself fiercely: "Use your own mind as a weapon to break a path in a difficult world." "She became more independent and brave.
Amy, who was sent to her aunt's house, curbed her arrogant temper and began to plan for her future.
Someone said, "Heaven gives people a difficulty, but also gives a wisdom." ”
This wisdom, which comes from self-stimulation in difficult situations, is something that is difficult to understand in good times.
Whose growth will not be smooth sailing, there will always be a time of big waves.
People who are not afraid of difficulties will always accelerate their growth in perception, recognize themselves in thinking, and become stronger in highlighting the siege.
People who know what they want are more likely to be happy
As the girls grew up, the tone of life became realistic and calm.
They began to seriously consider their future.
Just when everyone thought that Meg would marry into the rich, she chose Brooke, a governess.
Brooke's family is thin, the income is not high, there is no humor and humor of the nobleman, and the mood of life is not worth mentioning.
Many close friends persuaded Meg that a lady of good character should marry a rich man and become a high-society wife.
But Meg said: "My dream is different from yours, but it doesn't mean it's not important." ”
Meg chose Brooke because she was acutely aware that:
The life of the nobility is not necessarily happy, and finding the right talent is the key. Brooke is a good man, and she will be rich because she has his love.
With the support of her family, Meg put on the wedding dress sewn by her sisters, did not wear any jewelry, and only pinned a lily around her waist, and walked to the rest of her life.
At the simple wedding, she said loudly: "I am so happy, I can't care what others say and think, I want to live my way!" ”
There are no two identical leaves in the world, and people are different.
Joe's ideals are the opposite of Meg's. In her opinion, in addition to beauty and family, women are more important than ambition and talent.
So she lived an "alternative." Not in love, not married, went to New York to become a writer.
After suffering, she persevered. Not only did he become a writer, but he also opened a school and became acquainted with his confidant, Professor Barr, and lived an ideal life.
For girls, in addition to getting married and having children, or pursuing a career, is there a third choice?
The ideal Amy, somewhere between Meg and Joe, is clearly more ambitious. She wants to marry well and have a successful career.
To that end, she put her mind to it. First, he pleased Aunt March, went on a study tour in Europe under her funding, and later married the noble prince Laurie through continuous improvement of himself.
After marriage, he started a foundation with her husband and embarked on a career path.
There is no uniform standard for life, and happiness cannot be defined. Being a good wife and mother, or a professional woman, there is never a conclusion of success or failure.
Know what you want, bravely pursue, take responsibility for your own life, everyone will reap different happiness.
At the door of the Greek temple of Apollo, there is a sentence engraved: Know yourself.
This oracle reminds us that knowing ourselves is a compulsory lesson in life.
Only by knowing ourselves and knowing what we want, we will not be wavering between "being ourselves" and "being someone else"; we can concentrate our efforts and focus on doing ourselves well, so as to harvest happiness.
The girls of the March family are not princesses in fairy tales and do not eat human fireworks.
They're like most people in real life:
Born ordinary and not rich; in all kinds of "unsatisfactory", there are complaints and fantasies; even if you try to live, you still have to face the impermanence in life.
But the ordinary girls, who did not live as Cinderella, regarded waiting for the appearance of the prince as the only important thing in life.
They are full of love in their hearts, optimistic about life, brave to face challenges, and always sober about what they want.
So they lived happily as "little women."
The story of "Little Women" came to an end, but one generation has a generation of "Little Women".
Times are changing, and what remains unchanged is our desire to pursue happiness.
Whether you're Meg or Joe, may you live a happy life and have a happy life.
Author | Jin Shan Yue
Image | Stills from Little Women