A Contemporary Eye on Little Women : the Comparison between Novel and Film
As a renowned novel, Little Women has been adapted into 6 movies. In 2019, the 7th movie directed by Greta Grewig came to the big screen. The story is about the lives of the March sisters－ Jo, Meg, Beth and May, who grew from juveniles to adults and faced their own struggles. Though people are familiar with the story of Little Women, Grewig made many changes to it. There are several different aspects we can compare between the novel and the movie released in 2019.
Firstly, in the novel, the timeline of the story follows the linear order, whereas the movie intertwines the past and the present. In the first scene of the novel, we can see the young March sisters talking about the Christmas present, and then the story develops as they grow up. However, the scenes of the movie jumping back and forth, interweaving the present and the past. For example, the first scene of the movie is that grown-up Jo brings her manuscripts to the publisher, and later the movie jumps back to the Christmas day, the time that the young March sisters give their precious breakfast to the poor Hummel family as Christmas present. The narrative way of the movie enables the viewer to travel in time, comparing the past and the present of the characters. It’s not difficult to tell from the past and the present because the scenes in the past are presented with cool colors, as the scenes in the present are with higher color temperatures. These two different ways of story-telling, linear and non-linear, give audiences different tastes.
Second, while the movie released in 2019 remain the most of the plots, the director made some adjustments to the character such as Jo. In the novel, Jo ends up putting aside her pen, stopping writing and just saying she will write a book one day, whereas in the movie, Jo ends up writing the novel Little Women, and has it published. Thus, it’s not sure whether Jo will write a book or not in the novel, but the director makes it a reality in the movie. The adaption helps to realize Jo’s ambition to become a writer. By the way, there’s one nice touch made by Greta. As we know that the novel Little Women is actually based on the author Louisa May Alcott’s life experiences and the character Jo’s prototype is Louisa herself, that the movie made Jo write down the book Little Women surprisingly combines Jo and Louisa together.
More than 150 years ago, Louisa May Alcott wrote down this story which has become classic literature and has been adapted into movies for 7 times. The newly released one, directed by Greta Grewig, has won positive appraise from the world. She made some changes to the original novel; she combined the past and the present, and made adjustments to the characters. All of these changes add color to the movie. The back and forth changes in time result in the clear contrast of the characters; Jo, who finally publishes her own book in the movie, successfully won the audiences’ heart for her endless effort to become a writer; the change made to Jo also connects Jo and the author, Louisa May Alcott. It’s the 7th edition of the movie, but it’s still worthy of watching.
Sources of the book or the film (copy and paste the links below)
LITTLE WOMEN - Official Trailer (HD)