Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: A Thoughtful Review... by a christian

 

What a great book to finish a whole year of readings!

I loved this book; it has something that these kinds of period novels have, it is just like you learn a lot from them. I am the kind of person who (unfortunately) watches movie adaptations before reading the book, so as expected, I was waiting for things that happened in the movie (2019 adaptation) to happen in the book, and actually… The book was 10,000 times better (as usual).

I learned a lot about Christian life, family, love, being grateful, pride, modesty, and marriage. Initially, I intended to focus on Jo's perception of herself throughout the book, but in the end, I gained valuable insights from each sister's self-perception. I cried rivers! And enjoyed it a lot. 

So here are the things that I learned and that I loved from Little Women! (with spoilers):

1. I loved the Pilgrim's Progress reference and also the recognition of God.

The Pilgrim's Progress is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan about a character named Christian. Essentially, the book narrates the various challenges he endures on his journey to heaven. It serves as an allegory for our lives as Christians and pilgrims in this world.

From the beginning, there are references to this, and we see how each daughter has their own little pilgrim's book and throughout this book (Little Women) we see them recalling it and learning from it while going through their little troubles and temptations of life. It's beautiful how Mrs. March taught her daughters to love God above all. 

''My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning and may be many, but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father as you do that of your earthly one. The more you love and trust Him, the nearer you will feel to Him, and the less you will depend on human power and wisdom. His love and care never tire or change, can never be taken from you, but may become the source of lifelong peace, happiness, and strength. Believe this heartily, and go to God with all your little cares, and hopes, and sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as you come to your mother." 

2. I learned to be grateful.

I learned, along with them, to be grateful regardless of the economic situation.

''When you feel discontented, think over your blessings, and be grateful.'' 

''For love casts out fear, and gratitude can conquer pride''

3. Heavy burdens need to be shared.

One of the most beautiful parts of the book occurs when Jo opens up to her mother, seeking help with her strong character. That was so beautiful, especially how Jo felt lighter after expressing herself. 

''The knowledge that her mother had a fault like hers, and tried to mend it, made her own easier to bear and strengthened her resolution to cure it, though forty years seemed rather a long time to watch and pray to a girl of fifteen.''

4. The importance of little Beths in this world.

Here is where I cried the most, it was so sorrowful. 

''There are many Beths in the world, shy and quiet, sitting in corners till needed, and living for others so cheerfully that no one sees the sacrifices till the little cricket on the hearth stops chirping, and the sweet, sunshiny presence vanishes, leaving silence and shadow behind.''

5. The character growth.

THIS. It was incredibly beautiful to see how each one of the sisters grew in their character, I learned a lot personally from it. 

6. Laurie and Jo.

The most controversial topic about this book is Laurie and Jo. I believe the lack of information provided by the movie about Amy and Laurie is the reason why people were too shocked at how everything ended.

So first, allow me to say this: Laurie and Jo weren't meant to be together. They were just very good friends, something that Laurie misunderstood (I don't blame him, though). This is what Mrs. March said about them and that is what I exactly think of them: 

"Because, dear, I don't think you are suited to one another. As friends, you are very happy, and your frequent quarrels soon blow over, but I fear you would both rebel if you were mated for life. You are too much alike and too fond of freedom, not to mention hot tempers and strong wills, to get on happily together, in a relation which needs infinite patience and forbearance, as well as love." 

It was merely a boyish passion. Laurie was literally begging her to love him, displaying his immaturity, youthfulness, selfishness, and childlike impatience. This is how Jo describes it:

"I've done my best, but you won't be reasonable, and it's selfish of you to keep teasing for what I can't give. I shall always be fond of you, very fond indeed, as a friend, but I'll never marry you, and the sooner you believe it the better for both of us—so now!" 

Now, at one point in the movie, Jo regrets her decision, but she didn't do that in the book (thank goodness!) she said this:

''But you are right in one thing (talking to her mother). I am lonely, and perhaps if Teddy (Laurence) had tried again, I might have said 'Yes', not because I love him anymore, but because I care more to be loved than when he went away." 

7. Amy and Laurie 

Yes, I loved this. Everything feels just right here. They were very good friends since childhood, whereas in the movie, their relationship felt so sudden and cold. Amy learned to be graceful instead of prideful, and she grew beautifully in sweetness of character and manner (I admire her so much). They had so much in common and it felt just right how everything ended. 

"It is so beautiful to be loved as Laurie loves me. He isn't sentimental, doesn't say much about it, but I see and feel it in all he says and does, and it makes me so happy and so humble that I don't seem to be the same girl I was. I never knew how good and generous and tender he was till now, for he lets me read his heart, and I find it full of noble impulses and hopes and purposes, and I am so proud to know it's mine… Oh, Mother, I never knew how much like heaven this world could be, when two people love and live for one another!" 

8. Marriage 

I learned a lot from Meg's marriage and it was so enlightening. It shows us the roles of both, the man and the woman in a home, how to be a wise wife and a mother, how we need to humble ourselves, how sinful we are, and that not everything is rosy. Forgiveness, oh yes… forgiveness, and to NEVER settle for less. 

"Watch yourself, be the first to ask pardon if you both err, and guard against the little piques…"

I learned a lot more things, but these are the main ones. I loved this book.
5/5 stars.

Here is the direct link of the Kindle edition of Little Women FREE!

Fun fact: This is how Louisa May Alcott physically describes Laurie in the book:

 “Curly black hair, black eyes and brown skin”

Did you know that? I will read your comments bellow!

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

This book has taught me a lot of things. I was expecting more a "romantic" kind of a prince and princess-like book, but this book was profound, more than that.

I could see how Jane Austen perceived life, moral and love, and I always appreciate that in the books that I read (eventhough I don't always agree with everything). I would like to break down some of the things that I noticed and how I feel with them in my Christian perspective.

1-We prejudiced the book and the characters.

I don't know if it was because I have seen the movie, but I am the person who's always going to prefer the book than the movie because I find that it's more accurate to the feeling that the original author wanted to impart to the story, but I need to admit that I myself prejudiced the book, thinking that I was going to find something more "romantic" than it really was. I also prejudiced the characters as long as I was reading, often finding myself agreeing with one or each of them and in the end I found that most of the time the pride and prejudice were the ones shining within them.

I love when authors deceive the readers. I love when they make us think something of someone and in the end we were just looking at a glimpse of the truth. And I found this ALL the time, though I realized it really far away in my reading.

2-The love of a mother.

Mrs. Bennet... oh, Mrs. Bennet!, I admit that I couldn't stand her most of the time, but at some point I understood that all that she wanted was good for her daughters (and sometimes a little pride for herself). That showed me the way that mothers care about her children. I do not agree with her exasperation and lots of things that she did, but sometimes she made me think of the love of a mother.

3- Acknowledging our pride and prejudice brings pain but also freedom.

I loved the moment when some of the characters admitted that they were proud and prejudiced. This reminded me of how the bible tells us to do the same but not staying like that but changing for better. And even though it's painful, it brings freedom.

4- What we instruct and how we instruct children/youth REALLY matters.

Proverbs 22:6 in the Christian Standard Bible, goes like this: "Start a youth out on his way; even when he grows old, he will not depart from it."

Lydia, I suffered a lot from what she did, and we see the importance of instructing the youth.

Quoting:

"She has been allowed to dispose of her time in the most idle and frivolous manner, and to adopt any opinions that came in her way."

That's TOO dangerous and we could see the consequences of it.

5- Things done in the way that they should be bring happiness instead of shame.

Nothing else to add.

6- Forgiveness

I didn't like how the parents (the bennets) acted with the Lydia's thing, in the way that I didn't feel that they talked to her about the matter as they should, correcting her more. But I would like to stand out the forgiveness part. Quoting from a person that was a clergyman:

"'You ought certainly to forgive them, as a Christian, but never to admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing.' That is his notion of Christian forgiveness!"

We can see how Mr. Bennet added to his "advise" that this was not how a christian should act. We should forgive BUT after correcting, which I think that they didn't do the correcting part so much.

7-The sinful nature of the humankind

We can see how people are blind and can't see how bad their actions are that, even after receiving a lot of help more that we deserve; we don't care about the weight and the wrong in our actions. That reminded me also of what the bible says about how people who do not know God are blind in their own pride and sins and can't recognize their condition, not even recognize God himself as their God.

8-The importance of marriage

It was refreshing to see (that's why I love this kind of books) That even though they didn't literally say that the marriage was something biblical, you could see that it was really important in those days. And that can make people nowadays change their perspective about it.

I couldn't stop thinking how for us; Christians, marriage is the representation of Jesus Christ loving his church. After I saw everything that Mr. Darcy did for Elizabeth, his sacrifice, his effort, I found out that It was the kind of love that jesus says that he displayed for his church and still does.

They are a lot of things that impacted me in the same way but that would be too much for me to write.

Overall, I enjoyed a lot this book, couldn't stop reading it and I loved how it made me reflectionate in a "Christian way" even though this is not a "Christian book", in the end: whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

5/5

"If you will thank me," he replied, "let it be for yourself alone. That the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on, I shall not attempt to deny. But your family owe me nothing. Much as I respect them, I believe I thought only of you." 

La última batalla (Las Crónicas de Narnia, #7) - Lewis, C.S.

Como siempre, el mejor libro. Sin palabras. Siempre lloro. 5/5

-¡Por fin estoy en casa! ¡Este es mi auténtico país! Pertenezco a este lugar. Esta es la tierra que he buscado durante toda mi vida, aunque no lo he sabido hasta hoy.

Y mientras hablaba, ya no les pareció un león; pero las cosas que empezaron a suceder después de eso fueron tan magníficas y hermosas que no puedo escribirlas. (re-lectura)

Anne's House of Dreams (Anne of Green Gables, #5) Montgomery, L.M

Despite this book being the next after the most boring book of all the series, this one... surprised me!. It was a really good one, I enjoyed the book most of the time, and others I found it a little too boring. Sometimes things were really predictable (really predictable). We see more religion topics again (which is not something that bothers me, some comments are funny sometimes , BUT because I do understand the real truth behind those non-biblical statements, So as I said in one of these books before, this book can be confusing for non-belivers). We see a little bit of politics (liberals vs conservatives again) and a couple of graphics descriptions of deaths (I wasn't expecting those), topics as the moral value of a person with mental illness, and the moral responsibilities of a doctor. Overall, was a good book. I was going to give it 3 stars when I was reading it, but it's not *that* bad, so 4/5.

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Some of my favorite phrases:

"I've read somewhere that 'our dead are never dead until we have forgotten them.' Matthew will never be dead to me, for I can never forget him."

"Kindred spirit flashed recognition to kindred spirit."

"Ain't it funny how ashamed boys are of tears?"

"I can read sense, and I can read nonsense, but that book is neither the one nor the other."

Gilbert put his arm about them. "Oh you mothers!" he said. "You mothers! God knew what He was about when He made you."

"Yes. The truth has made her free. Gilbert was right when he said that verse was the grandest in the Bible."

Anne of Windy Poplars (Anne of Green Gables, #4) Montgomery, L.M.

The worst book so far of all the series. This book was really boring, at the beginning it was feeling amazing to read the letters written by Anne to Gilbert, like in the other books we were just there seeing the characters having interactions between them but now, we see her talking by herself, she is writing her own story to Gilbert and I really liked the change of the narration, but then it became monotonous. She used to add romantic sentences (not inappropriate btw) out of nowhere and I was like in the air because we did not have context of the development of her romance!! We did not get ONE SIMPLE LETTER OF GILBERT! And that felt just illegal. It was good but it's not worth it the 5 stars.

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Some of my favorite phrases:

"Where there is a will there is always a way."

"I hate to lend a book I love … it never seems quite the same when it comes back to me …don't like reading about martyrs because they always make me feel petty and ashamed … ashamed to admit I hate to get out of bed on frosty mornings and shrink from a visit to the dentist!"

"But, oh, Gilbert, don't let's ever grow too old and wise … no, not too old and silly for fairyland."

"Your Very Anne-est ANNE."

"Nobody is ever too old to dream. And dreams never grow old."

"Never marry a man who drinks, Miss Shirley. Nor one who ain't a good provider."

"Nothing in her life had ever given Marilla so much happiness as the knowledge that Anne was going to marry Gilbert Blythe"

"Married life has its ups and downs, of course. You mustn't expect that everything will always go smoothly. But I can assure you, Anne, that it's a happy life, when you're married to the right man."

Anne of the Island (Anne of Green Gables, #3) Montgomery, L.M.

As far as I know, this the book that bored me the most, they were introducing a lot of new people that I needed to get acquainted with and it went kinda of slow. This book is like this: 📈📉📈📉📈📉📈📉📈📉📈📉 , one chapter is interesting and there's one that I didn't even care about. Some things were quite predictable. My favorite part was the last one, I was thinking to give it 4 stars out of 5 but the end was totally worth it 😭🫶. Anne is not a little girl now, she has grown and also her character.

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Some of my favorite phrases:

"'Oh, hearts that loved in the good old way Have been out o' the fashion this many a day.'"

"Never mind. Thank goodness air and salvation are still free"

"Don't worry over it, Anne. Do your duty by God and your neighbor and yourself, and have a good time. That's my philosophy and it's always worked pretty well."

"I feel as if I had opened a book and found roses of yesterday, sweet and beloved, between its leaves."

"There was nobody else—there never could be anybody else for me but you. I've loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school."

"It's the birthday of our happiness," said Anne softly.

Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables, #2) Montgomery, L.M

What a beautiful story line, Lucy was a great writer, I loved everything of this book, it was pretty interesting (I need to accept that some chapters when introducing new characters were kind of slow). These books were written In a time when you couldn't questionate the beliefs of the people, so I am amazed of the topics that are in this books, religion, faith politics. It's kind of funny sometimes the questions that Davy asks about God and heaven, and also (‼️) can be confusing for non-Christian centered people. Overall 5/5

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Some of my favorite phrases:

"I think the most difficult thing in teaching, as well as the most interesting, is to get the children to tell you their real thoughts about things."

"And every day in heaven will be more beautiful than the one before it, Davy"

"There are a great many people who do not understand things so there is no use in telling them."

"it's one endless Sabbath day, as the hymn says."

"We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us."

"But, Anne, a broken heart in real life isn't half as dreadful as it is in books."

Matthew understood you better." "Matthew understood everything," said Anne softly, as she always spoke of

him.

"Oh, it's delightful to be living in a storybook," she thought gaily.

"She looks just as music sounds, I think,"

"perhaps … love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath."

Gilbert wisely said nothing more; but in his silence he read the history of the next four years in the light of Anne's remembered blush.