Laurie graduates from college, having put in the effort to do well in his last year with Jo's prompting. Amy is chosen over Jo to go on a European tour with her aunt. Beth's health is weak due to complications from scarlet fever and her spirits are down. While trying to uncover the reason for Beth's sadness, Jo realizes that Laurie has fallen in love. At first she believes it's with Beth, but soon senses it's with herself. Jo confides in Marmee, telling her that she loves Laurie like a brother and that she could not love him in a romantic way. It is after this scene that we see a presentation of Jo’s romantic conclusion from the book – chasing Friedrich to a railway station in the rain. He exclaims he has nothing to give her, that his hands are “empty”. And so, just as in the book, she puts hers in his, they embrace, and the music swells in a self-conscious depiction of a storybook, romantic ending. This ending is redress for Alcott, more than a century and a half later Unlike her genteel sister Meg, Jo pushes against the strictures imposed on women of her time (“I like boys’ games and work and manners”) but also against the heroine’s typical journey – one defined by the pursuit of love and marriage. Jo was not only an outsider (and many readers believe, with good reason, coded queer) but an artist. She’s often the first one many girls encounter in print. But Little Women's final twist is so subtle—and so intertwined with the mythology of Little Women—that it’s easy to overlook. However, Gerwig’s radical meta-twist is precisely what makes her adaptation of Little Women so special. a b Alcott, Louisa May (August 19, 2010) [1868]. "Little Women". ProjectGutenberg . Retrieved April 9, 2015.

verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Shortly after these two devastating events, Jo begins writing her biggest project yet: a novel, semi-autobiographical, that is inspired in part by her childhood and her relationship with her sisters. It will serve as a way to honor her late sister, as well as a way to make peace her with fading childhood. Eventually, Jo sends the beginning of her book to a publisher, who is initially hesitant about the book, but decides to go forward with it when his own children become enchanted by it. Bird, Elizabeth (July 7, 2012). "Top 100 Chapter Book Poll Results". School Library Journal "A Fuse No. 8 Production" blog. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012 . Retrieved August 22, 2012.

Laurie travels to Europe with his grandfather to escape his heartbreak. At home, Beth's health has seriously deteriorated. Jo devotes her time to the care of her dying sister. Laurie encounters Amy in Europe, and he slowly falls in love with her as he begins to see her in a new light. She is unimpressed by the aimless, idle, and forlorn attitude he has adopted since being rejected by Jo, and inspires him to find his purpose and do something worthwhile with his life. With the news of Beth's death, they meet for consolation and their romance grows. Amy's aunt will not allow Amy to return unchaperoned with Laurie and his grandfather, so they marry before returning home from Europe.The principal character, Jo, 15 years old at the beginning of the book, is a strong and willful young woman, struggling to subdue her fiery temper and stubborn personality. [16] [17] Margaret & John Laurence Brooke ("Daisy" and "Demijohn/Demi") – Meg's twin son and daughter. Daisy is named after both Meg and Marmee, while Demi is named for John and the Laurence family. A dramatized version, produced by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre, [72] was released on September 4, 2012. Fred Vaughan – A Harvard friend of Laurie's who, in Europe, courts Amy. Rivalry with the much richer Fred for Amy's love inspires the dissipated Laurie to pull himself together and become more worthy of her. Amy will eventually reject Fred, knowing she does not love him and deciding not to marry out of ambition. [29] In the book, Jo and the Professor do open their school, but it's a school for boys (that later includes some girls, including family members and orphans). Greta Gerwig's adaptation of Little Women focuses much more on modern-day views of feminism and the school opened in the movie is meant to help girls to get a better education -- one that won't include corporal punishment, as Amy is subjected to earlier in the movie.

Seppänen, Mirva (2009). Uudelleenkääntämishypoteesi ja lasten- ja nuortenkirjallisuus: Tarkastelussa Louisa M. Alcottin Little Women -teoksen neljä eri suomennosversiota[ Retranslation Hypothesis and Literature for Children and Young Adults: A Study of Four Finnish Versions of Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women] (M.A. thesis) (in Finnish). Tampere University. pp.23–24. (includes English abstract) Alcott, Louisa May (1880). Little Women: or, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: John Wilson and Son . Retrieved May 31, 2010.I wanted to give Louisa May Alcott an ending she might have liked," Gerwig explained to OprahMag.com. In their own ways, each of the March sisters corresponds with an Alcott. Jo, the second oldest sister, is a fictionalization of Alcott at the height of her childhood imagination, when she would spend days lost in stories.