Tag Archives: book review

WISDOM from LITTLE WOMEN

By Tess Perko, author of LEARNING TO WHISTLE, a Winner for Women’s Fiction in the 2026 International Book Awards

I just finished rereading LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa M. Alcott. I read this novel when I was a girl, but decided to take another look at it from a woman’s perspective. The story, based on the lives of the March family and their rich neighbors, Mr. Lawrence and Laurie, endures because its characters are flawed, endearing, and memorable. My favorite character is still Jo, one of the four March sisters, the one who writes; I identify with Jo’s yearning for independence, love of language, and passion for story-telling. But, besides its enduring characters, the novel is chock full of advice for life. Here is some of the wisdom I found among its pages as I read it for the second time.

Everyone struggles.

      Each of the eight main characters in LITTLE WOMEN struggle. Mrs. March gets angry and works hard to overcome it. Mr. March struggles with illness and from being separated from his family. Meg wants pretty things, but she is married to a poor man. Jo wants to be an independent woman, but she’s limited by what society allows women to do. Beth suffers from poor health. Amy desires to be sophisticated, but she doesn’t possess a fine vocabulary or wealth. Mr. Laurence pines for his lost son, and his grandson, Laurie, struggles with laziness and lack of purpose.

      Alcott illustrates these personal hardships so vividly that readers soon realize that everyone has difficulties in life even if they don’t talk about them. For example, Jo never realized that her seemingly serene mother had to struggle to control her anger until she revealed it during a private conversation.

      Self-reflection helps individuals overcome hardships and grow.

      The March family is comprised of extremely self-reflective characters. For example, Meg is so self-aware that when she has her own children, her mother helps her to reflect on how she has ignored her relationship with her husband while trying to be the perfect mother. Someone with less reflection would never admit to this personal failing. Once Meg sees the error of her behavior, she invites her husband, John, to participate in parenting and also sets aside time to spend with him alone.

      Travel helps people gain a larger perspective.

      Several of the characters in LITTLE WOMEN travel, including Mr. March and Mr. Lawrence, yet the excursions of Jo, Amy, and Laurie illustrate best how travel helps individuals develop a larger perspective. Jo takes a job in New York as a nanny where she meets Friedrich Bhaer. As she develops a friendship with him, she learns how much she appreciates his scholarship, humility, and the opportunity to be his equal. If she hadn’t gone to New York, she wouldn’t have discovered what type of man suited her.

      Amy travels across Europe with her rich friends, thinking to find a prosperous husband.She meets Fred Vaughn who is wealthy, and, if he proposes, she plans to accept even though she doesn’t love him. Yet, while she is waiting for Fred to propose, travel teaches her that she’d rather be a “lovable woman” than a woman of high society.

      Laurie’s grandfather convinces him to travel to Europe after Jo turns down his proposal of marriage.For the first six months, he spends money on frivolous activities, engages in gossip, and has no purpose. Finally, he meets Amy in Nice, and she scolds him for his wantonness.  They have a heart-to-heart talk about his unrequited love for Jo, and, surprisingly, fall in love with each other. Their love never would have developed without distance from the March family and, especially, from Jo.

      Grief is devastating, but can be healed.

      The saddest part of LITTLE WOMEN is when Beth dies from complications due to Scarlet Fever. For months before her death, Jo cares for her day and night, sleeping in the same room and monitoring each and every need she has. She even takes her to the ocean in the hopes that it will heal her. But, in the end, Beth dies. Jo suffers terribly with her loss. Finally, she confides in her father and together they find comfort in sharing their grief. She also assumes some of Beth’s housekeeping chores. She sings Beth’s songs and adopts Beth’s decorative habits. Over time, these activities bring her a sense of peace.

      Kindness mitigates almost any situation.

      LITTLE WOMEN includes several selfish moments such as when Amy burns Jo’s book in retaliation for Jo’s dismissive behavior toward her one night. Yet, the story also is filled with numerous examples of kindness which result in strengthening the bonds between the characters in the story. On Christmas morning, Mrs. March and her four daughters give away their own breakfast and firewood to a mother and her six starving children down the street which relieves their cold and hunger. When news arrives that Mr. March is ill, Jo sells her long luxurious hair for $25 to send with her mother, which gives Mrs. March peace of mind that she will have enough money to visit her husband and help him heal. Jo also successfully cheers up Laurie when she sees him staring wistfully out his bedroom window; she visits him and tells him stories. Jo’s act of kindness expels Laurie’s loneliness and establishes a basis for a strong friendship between the two of them. LITTLE WOMEN is a tribute to the power of kindness in alleviating hardships and generating positive outcomes.

      The first time I read LITTLE WOMEN, I merely focused on the personalities of the characters, their trials, and their decisions. Like the LITTLE WOMEN in the story, I fixated on the worries of a young woman—the search for an identity, love, and acceptance.  I didn’t have the life perspective to contemplate the larger lessons leaking out from between the pages of the story. This time around, though, I identified not only with the LITTLE WOMEN, but also with Mrs. March, an adult, mother, and wife, burdened with personal flaws and family responsibilities, yet striving to live a purposeful and happy life. I paused often, to consider the messages that Alcott may have consciously or subconsciously intended to convey, and connected those messages to my own life. This time, I discovered LITTLE WOMEN’S wisdom.

      Please share in the comments if you have ever reread a story and come away with a new perspective. What did you learn?

      Also, check out my novel, LEARNING TO WHISTLE, published in 2026 by She Writes Press and distributed by Simon & Schuster, a Winner for Women’s Fiction in the 2026 International Book Awards.

      James: Tom Sawyer’s Literate Companion

      I recently read James, Percival Everett’s story about the runaway slave, Jim, who accompanied Tom Sawyer down the Mississippi River. The story is told from the slave’s perspective which gives Everett many opportunities to reveal the slave’s character.

      The most remarkable thing about this story is how Everett portrays Jim as a well-read and highly literate man, not mentally bound by the psychological chains of slavery. Instead of being illiterate, he is able to effectively communicate ideas, can understand complicated information, and is capable of critical thinking.

      Ability to Read and to Understand Complicated Subjects

      Early on in the story, the reader learns that Jim has taught himself to read by studying the books in Judge Thatcher’s library. In addition to learning how to read, however, he also has developed the ability to think about complicated subjects such as civil liberties and how the morality of religion conflicts with the concept of slavery. He has read the literature of philosophers such as Voltaire who advocated for civil liberties through freedom of speech and freedom of religion and has seen texts by John Stuart Mill who wrote about individual liberties. We also learn that he knows of the works of Rousseau and John Locke, both of whom influenced the French and American Revolutions. Jim proves his literacy and ability to think about complicated subjects by contemplating the differences between being enslaved or possessing individual rights.

      Awareness of the Effects of Various Language Skills

      Before Jim runs away,he teaches his daughter and other slave children the difference in speaking like a slave and speaking like a literate human being. He cautions them to never make eye contact with a white person, never speak first, or ever to broach a subject directly with another slave since these are the behaviors of someone who is confident about their opinions. In fact, he teaches them not to express opinions of any kind and to let the whites identify any problems that come up.

      He coaches them on using poor pronunciation, incorrect spelling. The goal is to make the whites think that blacks are stupid and that they can’t express themselves clearly. This puts the whites in the position of feeling superior and protects the blacks from being blamed for trouble. What is made abundantly clear, however, is that Jim and the children he teaches are capable of distinguishing between the language that keeps a person subservient and a language that empowers them.

      Ability to Write

      At one point in the story, Jim asks a slave to get him a pencil so he can write. Young George steals a pencil from his owner, gives it to James, and eventually loses his life because of his “crime.”  However, James keeps the pencil in his pocket, the safest place he can find to avoid losing it. The pencil represents his ability to write down his own ideas, one of the most empowering aspects of being a literate person.

      Use of Literacy to Make Better Decisions

      Jim’s literacy allows him to make better decisions about how to survive. At one point, since he knows he’s being searched for under the name of “Jim,” he tells a white man, Norman, to call him February, but to say that he was born in June. If he hadn’t been able to read, he’d not have known the order of the months or how to manipulate them to help save his own life. When he returns to Judge Thatcher’s library, he forces Thatcher to show him how to use the map to find the farm where his wife and daughter are living.

      Jim wouldn’t have been successful at escaping slavery without his literate skills. His literacy allows him to communicate with people he meets, analyze his predicaments, and form judgments about how to survive. In the end, when the sheriff asks him if he is Nigger Jim, he elevates his name to the more formal version, James. After all, he is no longer the slave that was once given the name of Jim.