Friday, December 23, 2022

"good strong words"

Rewatching many of my teen favorites, I find myself now identifying more with the parents than the teen protagonist. However, despite my age, whenever I watch any version of this movie I still identify with Jo. Until I discovered these two titles which tell the familiar story from the point of view of the parents.

 March by Geraldine Brooks

Marmee by Sarah Miller

In both, we get a better sense of the toll of the Civil War and the ardent abolitionist beliefs of both the father and mother. In the first we glimpse the horrors of battle and slavery firsthand. In the second, Margaret March’s diary entries tell the familiar stories pierced with a deeper layer of worry, doubt and love of her family. Both Brooks and Miller flesh out the lives of the secondary characters and expand the narrative from the domestic to the economic, social, and moral issues of the day.

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