Little Women Lost
Guest post by Isabel Anders
“What do girls do who haven’t any mothers to help them through their troubles?”
—Jo in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.
I have been fascinated watching the Korean series on Netflix titled Little Women, which is a completely original “take” on the intertwined stories of some very different sisters. “Loosely based on the 1868 novel of the same name,” indeed.
Unlike the Alcott classic, this series features only three sisters—though another sister they once had is said to be deceased. And these really are women, not girls—the youngest, Oh In-hye, is eighteen but is still in school and looks much younger.
They are “little” in the sense that they have no wealth, status, or even a stable home situation—and the greatest difference I see in this adaptation is that all of the adults in their life have let them down. While the March sisters had the loving wisdom of Marmee, the mostly off-stage stability of their devoted father, and a society that still believed in the virtuous life—the Oh sisters have none of this. Corruption, deceit, and even terror stalk their lives, symbolized by a mysterious blue orchid.
Some religious ritual enters into the story by way of funerals and honoring deceased elders. But there is nothing like Marmee’s faith or a father’s inspiring pastoral duties in wartime to provide meaning and sustenance to the younger generation.
Marmee told her girls: “The more you love and trust God, the nearer you will feel to Him, and the less you will depend on human power and wisdom. His love and care never tire or change, can never be taken from you, but may become the source of lifelong peace, happiness, and strength. Believe this heartily, and go to God with all your little cares, and hopes, and sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as you come to your mother.”
But more than giving advice, Marmee in the original Little Women lived this reality while struggling herself in their midst. The mother of the Oh sisters, in stark contrast, steals their long-saved money and cruelly abandons them as they try to provide for Oh In-hye.
These sisters widely out-mother their mother, though they face constant temptations to relax their innate sense of virtue and rightness. They nearly succumb to terrible onslaughts. But their resiliency and beauty as persons—and their accomplishments through the plot’s many riveting twists and turns—are stunning in every sense.
So, consider Little Women—both the classic novel and the modernized tale—and what can be gleaned from two fascinating family sagas of sisters who are learning to pull together and to embody feminine strength in their own times.
Isabel Anders’ latest book is Wisdom From Little Women with Tracy Grant.
https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Little-Women-Louisa-Alcott/dp/B09MYRFW53/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3H9IL0C84EIPA&keywords=Wisdom+From+Little+Women&qid=1665096789&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAwIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&s=books&sprefix=wisdom+from+little+women%2Cstripbooks%2C179&sr=1-1