Modern Women, and Little Women

This is a response to this article demining women and women in movies and such, so i decided to chose the film "Little Women" to disprove the accusations in the article and explain thoroughly what the role in women were and are today




The classic film, Little Women is about the March family of four daughters, with a father off at war, and the mother left alone to raise these four miraculous women into adulthood. Each girl is prepared and determined to set out and make something of themselves in the world where the male gender dominated the land of scholarly pursuits. The eldest, Meg, (Trini Alvarado) the conservative woman, is prepared to marry a man, not for the money, but for the love deep in her heart. She ends up marrying a scholarly tutor Mr. John Brooke (Eric Stoltz), a poor, but perfectly decent man that gives her all the love she will ever want. The second eldest is the main character, Jo (Winona Ryder) is the wild and daring sister, destined to find out what she is put on this earth for, and also her true love. She marries the German Professor she met in New York, Friedrich Bhaer, (Gabriel Byrne) who lets her be the women she set out to find. The third eldest is Beth (Claire Danes), who is the firm foundation of the March family, and sadly dies of her previous scarlet fever several years earlier, from the heart effects. Her innocence brings the family together and recognizes the need of following your hearts desires. The youngest is Amy (played by Kirsten Dunst and Samantha Mathis) who finds herself while traveling in Europe, and marries their childhood friend Laurie (Christian Bale). Laurie is the ‘boy next door’ who brings out the equality between men and women, and enhancing the meaning of friendship. (Little Women, 1994).
This movie was a great inspiration to men and women, friends and families all around. It encouraged the need to always remember your roots, where you came from, and to never forget the family you left home, so the world can be discovered. Also, to follow one’s hearts desires, and not pretend to be someone the public wants a person to be, especially women.
I chose Jo March as the main character to analyze to two different theories in this paper. The first theory she relates too is Vygotsky’s Socio-cognitive theory. This theory explains how children start to communicate with themselves in the same way they do with others. This enhances their thinking ability to control their behavior. (Berk, 2010, p. 179). Jo March is a self starter, and often talks out loud to herself as a young child (early teens). This attribute encouraged her love to write plays and desire to become a writer. In order to develop this talent she had to acquire to this theory. Jo needed to first develop the speech skills in order to create such fantasies in her mind. She would be alone in the attic, dressed up in the character she wanted to write for, and her mind would then explore. Jo needed to develop the skills of language, conquer the challenge of her passion in writing as she got older. The skill is now known as Private Speech, which is children’s self directed speech. In Vygotsky’s argument, children need language to help them think about their mental activities and behavior and select their courses of action. (Berk, 2010, p. 180).
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118034644?refcatid=1682&printerfriendly=true