Why Jo and Laurie Don´t End Up Together
Niina Niskanen / Little Women Podcast
Summary:
The ever-old question. The novel answers why Jo rejected Laurie, but the filmmakers
never show us Laurie´s growth process, or why Jo travelled to New York in the first
place.
There are sentences in her book collection that Louisa May Alcott has highlighted.
For example, in Louisa's copy of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister Louisa has highlighted
scenes that all indicate Wilhelm's growth when he moves on from Marianne to
Natalia.
In Little Women what indicates growth is when Laurie moves on from Jo to Amy and
Jo grows the same, when she moves on from Laurie to Friedrich, but this growth that
both Jo and Laurie go through is not present in the majority of Little Women
adaptations.
Laurie is partially based on Louisa's ex Laddie Wisniewski, and Friedrich Bhaer to
philosopher Henry David Thoreau, who she wanted to marry. These two men appear
in literal disguise in all of her books.
You can Listen the Podcast here https://tinyurl.com/3vzyb4uz
Hello, all the Little Women fans.
Today´s comment I came across on Tumblr and it reminded me of Little Women.
@curiooftheheart says
"Full offence but sometimes fandom just totally make up the characterization of a
character and then complain when that isn't the canon"
@pasi-fisticuss
"Lol, people who do this always talk about how interpretation is a form of art in itself
and insist that they are improving on canon, but 90% of the time they are just taking
complex, interesting characters and reducing them to the same five or six generic
tropes over and over again".
These generic tropes or the lack of them 100% apply to Laurie in Little Women films.
The answer to why Jo rejects Laurie is in the novel, but the films never give you an
,answer, because they always erase Laurie´s character arc. Not too long ago I had a
discussion with someone who said that they always start as Jo and Laurie shippers
when they watch the films and then they end up cheering Jo and Friedrich, but they
never understand why Jo rejects Laurie and that there must be something that the
films intentionally leave out.
When you erase Laurie´s erase character arc, at the same you actually end up
erasing Jo´s arch, Amy´s arc and Friedrich´s arc, because they are all intertwined. If
you want to find the roots of the TeamBhaer versus TeamLaurie debate the answer is
Laurie´s missing character arc. In the 19th century when Little Women appeared,
Laurie was an extremely popular character. I noticed after the #metoo campaign in
the literary blogs that I visited that there began to be more nuanced conversations
about Laurie and the way he treated Jo and how different it was from the way he
treated Amy. It is sad that it is only now after over 100 years of the publication of
Little Women, people are finally waking up to discuss Laurie and the leeway his
character has been given in the past. Louisa always included educational messages
in her works. She wrote Laurie to be an example of a character who can turn their
life around. Back in the day Little Women was not only read by young women but
young men as well and Louisa wanted to have a positive influence on them. In
Louisa´s novels, there are similar characters like Laurie who are always looking for
female guidance. Some of them, like Charlie in Rose in Bloom, expect the woman to
do the work and save them from themselves. When this does not happen and the
woman refuses they surrender themselves to their own demons. When Laurie wants
to be with Jo, he is on that same path, but it is actually Jo´s rejection and desire to
have Amy´s approval that forces him to either choose to man up or go down with
the toxic self-centeredness.
This is Small umbrella in the rain The Little Women Podcast - Why Jo and Laurie don
´t end up together (what the films leave out).
The Book Laurie
The most distressing part in the adaptations from 1933 to 2019 is the complete lack
of Laurie´s character arc and not showing him as a full person. In the book before
Laurie moves to Concord, he has been tossed around in Europe from one boarding
school to another and then he moves to live with his grandfather and they have to
build their relationship from the scratch. Older Mr Lawrence had rejected the
marriage of Laurie´s parents so since the beginning Laurie feels unwanted and this
, is why he becomes so attached to the Marches. He even calls Marmee his mother
and that is why he is clinging on to Jo so much. Because of Jo´s idealization towards
the masculine Laurie thought he could do anything and she would always forgive
him. Hannah describes Laurie as a weathercock. He is a character with constant
mood changes. He can be sensitive but he also has a high temper. Which has never
been shown in films. He can be very inconsiderate towards other people´s feelings
(the same way as Jo) like during the time when he forged those letters and hurt Meg.
Times, when Laurie is sweet and caring, are the times when he puts other people
before himself. Like during Beth´s illness and when he went to cheer up Amy when
she was staying at Aunt March.
There are times when Laurie is vain like a peacock. He likes nice clothes and keeping
up a good appearance which is something that Jo at times makes fun of. He can be
funny but also very immature. He wants to break free from his grandfather´s obey
dance but he is afraid to do that. Laurie is an orphan. His relationship with his
grandfather is complicated. For older Mr Lawrence Laurie resembles both of the
children he lost and this is why he doesn´t want to hear the music because of the
painful memories and I suppose self-blame. It is only with his encounters with Beth
these wounds start to heal. Laurie doesn´t like school. He wants to go to Italy and be
a composer and reconnect with his roots, this is an aspect of him that is hardly ever
included in the adaptations. Laurie´s Italian roots are connected to his love for
music, his temper and his brown skin.
Laurie the composer
The only adaptations where Laurie actually plays the piano are series from the 70s
and the 2017 mini-series. When it comes to the movies it is Mr Bhaer who is actually
much more musical and Fritz does sing and plays music in the books. But it is
strange that there are only a couple of adaptations where Laurie actually plays the
piano and after all Laurie is a composer. So far all film versions have had their focus
on romanticizing Jo and Laurie instead of giving him a full personality. They follow
the Hollywood narrative that the only reason why Laurie exists is to be pretty and to
be in love with Jo and he doesn´t have any other aspirations or inspirations outside
that. The plot of the novel is unconventional because it flips the conventional
romance trope, but when the adaptations try to do this while erasing Laurie´s arc
they actually follow the conventional romance trope and not the unconventional
story that Louisa wrote.
Laurie the prankster
Niina Niskanen / Little Women Podcast
Summary:
The ever-old question. The novel answers why Jo rejected Laurie, but the filmmakers
never show us Laurie´s growth process, or why Jo travelled to New York in the first
place.
There are sentences in her book collection that Louisa May Alcott has highlighted.
For example, in Louisa's copy of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister Louisa has highlighted
scenes that all indicate Wilhelm's growth when he moves on from Marianne to
Natalia.
In Little Women what indicates growth is when Laurie moves on from Jo to Amy and
Jo grows the same, when she moves on from Laurie to Friedrich, but this growth that
both Jo and Laurie go through is not present in the majority of Little Women
adaptations.
Laurie is partially based on Louisa's ex Laddie Wisniewski, and Friedrich Bhaer to
philosopher Henry David Thoreau, who she wanted to marry. These two men appear
in literal disguise in all of her books.
You can Listen the Podcast here https://tinyurl.com/3vzyb4uz
Hello, all the Little Women fans.
Today´s comment I came across on Tumblr and it reminded me of Little Women.
@curiooftheheart says
"Full offence but sometimes fandom just totally make up the characterization of a
character and then complain when that isn't the canon"
@pasi-fisticuss
"Lol, people who do this always talk about how interpretation is a form of art in itself
and insist that they are improving on canon, but 90% of the time they are just taking
complex, interesting characters and reducing them to the same five or six generic
tropes over and over again".
These generic tropes or the lack of them 100% apply to Laurie in Little Women films.
The answer to why Jo rejects Laurie is in the novel, but the films never give you an
,answer, because they always erase Laurie´s character arc. Not too long ago I had a
discussion with someone who said that they always start as Jo and Laurie shippers
when they watch the films and then they end up cheering Jo and Friedrich, but they
never understand why Jo rejects Laurie and that there must be something that the
films intentionally leave out.
When you erase Laurie´s erase character arc, at the same you actually end up
erasing Jo´s arch, Amy´s arc and Friedrich´s arc, because they are all intertwined. If
you want to find the roots of the TeamBhaer versus TeamLaurie debate the answer is
Laurie´s missing character arc. In the 19th century when Little Women appeared,
Laurie was an extremely popular character. I noticed after the #metoo campaign in
the literary blogs that I visited that there began to be more nuanced conversations
about Laurie and the way he treated Jo and how different it was from the way he
treated Amy. It is sad that it is only now after over 100 years of the publication of
Little Women, people are finally waking up to discuss Laurie and the leeway his
character has been given in the past. Louisa always included educational messages
in her works. She wrote Laurie to be an example of a character who can turn their
life around. Back in the day Little Women was not only read by young women but
young men as well and Louisa wanted to have a positive influence on them. In
Louisa´s novels, there are similar characters like Laurie who are always looking for
female guidance. Some of them, like Charlie in Rose in Bloom, expect the woman to
do the work and save them from themselves. When this does not happen and the
woman refuses they surrender themselves to their own demons. When Laurie wants
to be with Jo, he is on that same path, but it is actually Jo´s rejection and desire to
have Amy´s approval that forces him to either choose to man up or go down with
the toxic self-centeredness.
This is Small umbrella in the rain The Little Women Podcast - Why Jo and Laurie don
´t end up together (what the films leave out).
The Book Laurie
The most distressing part in the adaptations from 1933 to 2019 is the complete lack
of Laurie´s character arc and not showing him as a full person. In the book before
Laurie moves to Concord, he has been tossed around in Europe from one boarding
school to another and then he moves to live with his grandfather and they have to
build their relationship from the scratch. Older Mr Lawrence had rejected the
marriage of Laurie´s parents so since the beginning Laurie feels unwanted and this
, is why he becomes so attached to the Marches. He even calls Marmee his mother
and that is why he is clinging on to Jo so much. Because of Jo´s idealization towards
the masculine Laurie thought he could do anything and she would always forgive
him. Hannah describes Laurie as a weathercock. He is a character with constant
mood changes. He can be sensitive but he also has a high temper. Which has never
been shown in films. He can be very inconsiderate towards other people´s feelings
(the same way as Jo) like during the time when he forged those letters and hurt Meg.
Times, when Laurie is sweet and caring, are the times when he puts other people
before himself. Like during Beth´s illness and when he went to cheer up Amy when
she was staying at Aunt March.
There are times when Laurie is vain like a peacock. He likes nice clothes and keeping
up a good appearance which is something that Jo at times makes fun of. He can be
funny but also very immature. He wants to break free from his grandfather´s obey
dance but he is afraid to do that. Laurie is an orphan. His relationship with his
grandfather is complicated. For older Mr Lawrence Laurie resembles both of the
children he lost and this is why he doesn´t want to hear the music because of the
painful memories and I suppose self-blame. It is only with his encounters with Beth
these wounds start to heal. Laurie doesn´t like school. He wants to go to Italy and be
a composer and reconnect with his roots, this is an aspect of him that is hardly ever
included in the adaptations. Laurie´s Italian roots are connected to his love for
music, his temper and his brown skin.
Laurie the composer
The only adaptations where Laurie actually plays the piano are series from the 70s
and the 2017 mini-series. When it comes to the movies it is Mr Bhaer who is actually
much more musical and Fritz does sing and plays music in the books. But it is
strange that there are only a couple of adaptations where Laurie actually plays the
piano and after all Laurie is a composer. So far all film versions have had their focus
on romanticizing Jo and Laurie instead of giving him a full personality. They follow
the Hollywood narrative that the only reason why Laurie exists is to be pretty and to
be in love with Jo and he doesn´t have any other aspirations or inspirations outside
that. The plot of the novel is unconventional because it flips the conventional
romance trope, but when the adaptations try to do this while erasing Laurie´s arc
they actually follow the conventional romance trope and not the unconventional
story that Louisa wrote.
Laurie the prankster
