Chapters 7 and 8

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

Background Information/Vocabulary:

•  So.  Pickled limes.  Amy makes them sound so amazing that I have always been desperate to find out what in the heck they are and try them.  After some extensive googling, they seem to be just what they sound like: limes preserved with salt, maybe some vinegar, maybe some garlic and chiles, but as best I can tell Amy's version was more probably just salt.  Some sources say this was started because sailors would get scurvy at sea if they didn't have citrus, so the plentiful salt water helped to keep the limes edible on long voyages.  I don't know.  Here's one version of a recipe that I am determined to try, although I am a bit skeptical about how much I, personally, will enjoy sucking on a salty lime.
  
• As the note in the back of this edition explains, the crack about the little Irish children getting Amy's limes is sort of weird and uncharacteristic for such a progressive family (whether we're talking about the fictional Marches or the real Alcotts.)  I guess that's one we just have to chalk up to "unfortunate product of the times." (p. 72)

• Hmm.  This is an interesting school, where a twelve-year-old girl can get angry at her teacher, gather up all her things and head home, and the teacher doesn't even notice!  (In fact, it seems as though there was a very limited compulsory education law on the books by this time in Massachusetts--the first on in the country--but it gave lots of exceptions and only required twelve weeks' attendance a year anyway.  You can see parts of that law here.)  (p. 73)

• I'm not certain about the note on p. 76 that describes rag money as "a contemptuous term for paper money."  First of all, it seems unlike the Marches to be contemptuous toward any money.  Second of all, when Amy talks about not getting the rag money for a month in the previous chapter, it makes it sound like a specific, recurring source of income (although probably a very small one, if the children received it.)  I always though it was money from selling old fabric scraps (to whom I don't know, but it was a less wasteful time, so I imagine someone may have wanted them).  I wish there was a source included, as a quick Google reveals less-than-trustworthy sources making both arguments, but nothing definitive.)

• "blowzy" (p. 82)--untidy, coarse, red-faced

My Noticings: 

•  Don't think I didn't want to make every kid who walked into my classroom wearing Sillybandz in 2009-2010 throw them right out the window.  So I have sympathy for Mr. Davis up to that point, but I don't go in for corporal punishment. 

• I'm not sure what to think of Marmee's description of her marriage.  On the one hand, it's nice that her husband is such a paragon of virtue: "He never loses patience--never doubts or complains--but always hopes, and works and waits so cheerfully that one is ashamed to do otherwise before him."  But then, the next part makes him sound a little condescending to me: "He helped and comforted me, and showed me that I must try to practice all the virtues I would have my little girls possess, for I was their example." (p. 83)  The introduction of this edition talks about whether or not this book can be considered feminist, for some reasons I won't mention here due to spoilers, but this isn't really a section it discusses.  I don't know how I feel about this perfect Mr. March, or about the way his wife sees him as a role model. 

Final Thoughts:



 Both of these chapters made lasting impressions on me when I was a kid: the former because of the mysterious delicacy of pickled limes, and the latter because I couldn't imagine actually destroying anything important that permanently.  I was definitely conscious of Amy's horrible act whenever I was mad at my mom or sister and never did anything I couldn't undo, no matter how mad I was.  (And I always got really nervous whenever my little sister got sent to our room when she was in trouble, because I was afraid she might do something like that!)  But this time around, it's Jo's conversation with Marmee that's the most interesting to me.

Question for readers:
What's your take on Marmee's temper?  Who is the better person: Mr. March, who apparently doesn't get angry, or Marmee, who has to really work to control her anger?  What are your thoughts on the relationship Marmee describes between her and her husband?