Kind Cinderella lives luxuriously in a castle after enduring her hardships obediently. Gentle Snow White gets saved by the dashing prince because of her sweet personality. Loving Sleeping Beauty wakes up from her slumber with a single kiss. Characters in these cherished fairy tales we’ve grown up with always end up with their dreams being fulfilled—if they’ve been virtuous. Then what explains what happens to the girls in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott? Little Women documents the growth of four very different sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—from childhood to womanhood. Each sister symbolizes a distinct type of personality, but how they end up in life doesn’t match readers’ initial expectations. By steering us away from our preconceptions, Alcott accurately depicts what life is really like: sometimes unfair and cruel, yet undeniably satisfying. From Alcott, I learned to accept that “happily ever after” doesn’t exist, nor is it ultimately gratifying. My mom had recommended this book to me, but I was hesitant to read it because the story of four girls didn’t initially intrigue me. However, after learning that Alcott’s father, Amos Bronson Alcott, was a friend of Emerson’s and a leader in the transcendentalist movement of the time, I decided to try it. How might Alcott’s feminine perspective of this period add to my understanding? I soon became lost in the intriguing plot which takes place during the Civil War and realized that this novel offers so much more than I had anticipated. The hardship the characters had to endure during this difficult period in American life and the complex moral message for women of all ages have had a lasting impact on me. Though they grew up in the same household, the sisters are all quite different and each is sharply drawn. Meg dreams of ending up in the lap of luxury, but is eventually content with something quite the opposite. Jo, a classic tomboy, learns to balance her literary ambitions with tenderness. Beth, an ever dutiful daughter, willingly resides at her cozy home without any further aspirations, while Amy grows from a pampered little girl to an ardent artist. My two favorite characters are Jo and Amy, despite the fact that they are opposites. Both are ambitious girls, but Amy’s graceful manners are what society valued in a woman at the time, while Jo’s headstrong spirit is often questioned. Even though frivolous Amy almost always winds up better off than Jo, Alcott twists our expectations to ensure that each girl ends up content in her own way. It’s a harsh truth that practicality sometimes wins out over idealism and that being virtuous doesn’t ensure a happy ending. Through this moving story, Alcott steers us away from our childish fairy-tale beliefs to a more mature understanding of joy and suffering. Ultimately, Alcott portrays women as happiest when pursuing their own unique path in life. As Jo explains, we must find “the key to [our] castle in the air” and accept that “whether [we] can unlock the door remains to be seen.” I highly recommend this book to any girl struggling with growing up in a complex world. Little Women offers insight into conventional gender stereotypes and leaves us with important moral issues to think about. This makes it a novel for all readers. In the end, we must ask ourselves: what truly is “happily ever after”? Does it even exist? Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Roberts Brothers, 1968. Buy the book here and help support Stone Soup in the process!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Weekly Creativity #188: Write a Story About the Person in Your Life Who Annoys You the Most and Why.
Write a story about the person in your life who annoys you the most and why.
Saturday Newsletter: January 22, 2022
Town of Bright Holidays (iPhone 8) by Anna Leventopoulos, 11 (Menlo Park, CA), published in Stone Soup January 2022 A note from Sarah Happy weekend! In this newsletter, I want to talk about the brilliant story “Best Friends Forever” by Charlotte Moore from the January 2022 issue of Stone Soup (perfectly paired with the cozy-yet-ominous art piece “Town of Bright Holidays” by Anna Leventopoulos, pictured above). What I like so much about Charlotte’s story is the mixing of genres. Part realistic fiction story on friendship, part ghost story thriller–all of it extremely compelling. My project for you this weekend is to attempt your own genre mash-up story. Maybe you have two very different genres in mind–if so, go ahead and write! But if you need help coming up with the ingredients, I suggest brainstorming a variety of genres, writing them all down, and picking two at random. Once you have your genres, you can come up with a way to combine them into one cohesive story. How might you transition between the two? You can separate the stories into two distinct halves for each genre and create a middle act that transitions from one to the other. Or, you can switch back and forth between them throughout the story. What Charlotte does so well in “Best Friends Forever” is to make the back-and-forth between the genres so seamless that many readers may not even notice any kind of switch at all. I hope this weekend project sparks some creative work. As always, if you’re happy with anything you’ve created, submit it to Stone Soup! All the best, Charlotte Moore, 12 Brooklyn, NY From Stone Soup January 2022 Best Friends Forever By Charlotte Moore, 12 (Brooklyn, NY) The castle loomed large and ominous above me. I heard the tour guide blabber on about some people who had died inside the castle, probably trying to make it appear scarier than it was—something about ghosts and people hearing screams when no one was there. I wasn’t scared; I just didn’t want to be there. All I wanted to do was go home and be with my cat, the only being I felt I could trust. A feeling of loneliness washed over me as I watched the girls in the class huddling up and whispering about how creepy the castle was. The way the girls all had their secrets reminded me of my old best friend, Olivia. We used to be like that, always sharing inside jokes. When we were in fifth grade we began drifting apart, but honestly, she started drifting away. Every time I wanted to hang out with her, she would push me aside. She stopped inviting me over, stopped calling me, and before I knew it, we weren’t even eating lunch together. After that, I felt completely alone. By then everyone else had already formed cliques. The tour guide showed us through the door. As soon as we walked in, I noticed how dim the castle was. Engraved details covered the walls. I watched a mouse scurry from one hole in the wall to another. There were so many different passageways. The group paused to look at a painting of another one of those old rich guys from the 1800s. “Arthur Livingstone.” He was the master of the castle, and he had been the seventh-most wealthy man in America at the time, the tour guide explained. I didn’t care. Continue reading here… Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498. Stone Soup’s advisors: Abby Austin, Mike Axelrod, Annabelle Baird, Jem Burch, Evelyn Chen, Juliet Fraser, Zoe Hall, Montanna Harling, Alicia & Joe Havilland, Lara Katz, Rebecca Kilroy, Christine Leishman, Julie Minnis, Jessica Opolko, Tara Prakash, Denise Prata, Logan Roberts, Emily Tarco, Rebecca Ramos Velasquez, Susan Wilky.
