{"id":1320,"date":"2020-01-21T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T13:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/undergrad-students-publishing\/?p=1320"},"modified":"2020-11-09T20:16:39","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T20:16:39","slug":"big-fan-a-review-of-greta-gerwigs-little-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/2020\/01\/21\/big-fan-a-review-of-greta-gerwigs-little-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Fan: A Review of Greta Gerwig’s Little Women<\/i>, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ana Hein \/\/ Blog Writer<\/p>\n

The film is a perfect adaptation of the novel, except in one regard: its ending. The novel ends with Jo subverting reader expectations by marrying a man nearly twenty years her senior who harshly criticizes her work, giving up her writing, and opening a school for boys on Aunt March\u2019s bequeathed property. It\u2019s an ending that undermines much of what Jo stands for and what make her so remarkable as a heroine: her drive, passion, and knowledge of self. It\u2019s an ending that Alcott didn\u2019t even like; she was forced to write it by her publisher. Her original ending had Jo remain a \u201cliterary spinster\u201d like herself.  The movie does still include the romance with Professor Bhaer, but Bhaer is more respectful of Jo and her writing, saying he is only blunt in his criticism because he respects her and her talent so much, and he is considerably younger and more attractive than his book counterpart. As in the book, Bhaer intends to head to California, and at the persistence of Amy and Meg, Jo chases after him in the rain, intent on making her feelings known. Just as Jo exits the carriage with her<\/span><\/p>\n

Saoirse Ronan as Jo March<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

squealing <\/span>sisters inside, the film cuts to Jo sitting in her publisher\u2019s office, defending the ending of her novel, <\/span>Little Women<\/span><\/i>. This is not the first adaptation to credit Jo with the creation of its source material\u2013it makes perfect sense to do so since Alcott famously based the actual novel on her family, but it is the first break in the fourth wall as it does so. The publisher asks who the heroine ends up with, and Jo responds with, \u201cNeither. She doesn\u2019t end up with either of them\u2026 She says throughout the book she doesn\u2019t want to get married.\u201d The publisher prods some more, and Jo relents: \u201cI suppose marriage has always been an economic proposition, even in fiction.\u201d The film then cuts back to that moment at the train station. Jo finds Bhaer and kisses him underneath his umbrella. It\u2019s pouring rain. Orchestral music plays in the background. Declarations are made. Cut back to the publishing office where the publisher declares the scene worthy of printing. The viewer has no idea if the scene actually happened to Jo or if it only happens to her self-insert heroine. It\u2019s an out\u2014not a cop-out\u2014for Gerwig. She keeps the original ending of the book while still acknowledging its problems and the reality of marriage for women at the time and leaves it up to the audience to decide which ending they prefer. <\/span><\/p>\n

But this is only part of the ending, the first half. The last half details Jo fighting for the rights to her novel and watching it be physically published before cutting to her new co-ed school as<\/span><\/p>\n

The March Sisters (2019)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

the camera pans through the set showing off all the major characters teaching. The last shot of the movie says it all: Jo holds her book, freshly bound in red leather, tightly to her chest, quietly joyful and relieved. It ends not with any romance, but with a woman achieving success and her life-long dream. Honestly, I love this ending. It feels, ironically, truer to the book than its own ending does. <\/span><\/p>\n

There is a reason <\/span>Little Women<\/span><\/i> has endured for as long as it has. It\u2019s a story about sisterhood, about coming into your own as a woman. Whatever kind of woman you may be\u2014a Meg, Jo, Beth, or Amy\u2014you are important. Gerwig\u2019s film has this message at its very core, imbued into every aspect of it. And what more could a <\/span>Little Women<\/span><\/i> fanatic ask for? <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ana Hein \/\/ Blog Writer The film is a perfect adaptation of the novel, except in one regard: its ending. The novel ends with Jo subverting reader expectations by marrying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":1446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-generalinformation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1320"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1498,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320\/revisions\/1498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}