Chapters 32-33

NOTE: Page numbers refer to the Barnes & Noble Classics paperback edition.

Background Information/Vocabulary:

• "assiduity" (p. 316)--close attention
• If you want to see what Jo's pillow looked like, you can click here to see replicas of Louisa May Alcott's own mood pillow!

• "harum-scarum" (p. 318)--wild, reckless
  
• "coquettish" (p. 327)--flirtatious, playful

• Full text of "The Steadfast Tin Soldier"(p. 333)

My Noticings: 

• Laurie's picture is hanging on Jo's bedroom wall?!?  I mean, it's probably just because he was willing to sit still and model for Amy, but yikes. It's one thing now, when people can put up tons of photos, but it sounds like there is a portrait of Laurie on Jo's wall.  (I feel like when I was in HS, it would have been weird even for me to put up a photo that was just, like, one of my guy friends by himself.  I had tons of group shots up around my room, but I don't think I had any pictures of just one of my friends hanging on my walls.  Thoughts?)
  
• This bit of conversation between Laurie and Jo feels a lot like many, many blog posts and critical essays I've read in the last few years:
  

  "I'm glad you can't flirt. It's really refreshing to see a sensible, straightforward girl, who can be jolly and kind without making a fool of herself. Between ourselves, Jo, some of the girls I know really do go on at such a rate I'm ashamed of them. They don't mean any harm, I'm sure, but if they knew how we fellows talked about them afterward, they'd mend their ways, I fancy."
  "They do the same, and as their tongues are the sharpest, you fellows get the worst of it, for you are as silly as they, every bit. If you behaved properly, they would, but knowing you like their nonsense, they keep it up, and then you blame them."

  Essentially--women are so often criticized for their behavior, whether for being too flirty/dressed too sexy/wearing too much makeup, or for the opposite.  (If I had a dollar for every time one of my students told me I could be pretty if I'd just wear makeup, I could afford a whole lot of makeup--but I'd just spend it on books anyway.)  Jo is calling out that hypocrisy here, noting that the men encourage flirty behavior from women but then blame them and make fun of them for it.
   

Final Thoughts: 

This is getting quite tricky--none of the four March girls are living under the same roof at the moment, so keeping up with all of them requires some creativity on Alcott's part.  I like Jo's letters, though--and I can't help but love Professor Bhaer.  

Question for readers:

Do you think Jo is right about Beth and Laurie?  Why or why not?