#1038 my favorite character

I couldn't really pin down what to write about tonight, so I went to the NaBloPoMo writing prompts site. The prompt for today is "Who is your favorite character of all time?"

The very first character that popped into my head was Jo March from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. I love that book so much and Jo is far and away my favorite of the sisters. She is such a well-rounded and well-imagined character. To me, she is much more vivid than Meg, Beth or Amy.

I love Jo's imagination. From "The Pickwick Papers" to her plays and the costumes she and her sisters wear when they are young, I admire the way Jo entertains herself. In the time the book was written, there was no TV or internet to take up your brain waves. You had to think for and entertain yourself. I like that and I think Jo is the best at using her creativity and imagination.

I love her loyalty to her family. In the scene where she cuts her hair to get money for the train to get her father - that gets me every time. The way Amy exclaims, "Oh Jo! Your one beauty!" makes me sad for Jo and proud of her at the same time. Even when Amy is a little shit and destroys Jo's diary (oh! my heart breaks a little to think of it) Jo still comes around and is good to Amy eventually. Amy is the worst sister, in my opinion.

I love that Jo loves Laurie but knows herself enough to know that he is not the man for her. I cry every time I read the part where Laurie proposes to Jo and she turns him down, even though I know that Jo gets what she wants in the end. At first, I could never understand why in the world she would turn Laurie down, but it made more sense when I got older. It's still sad, but I understand.

I love that Jo chooses her path and moves to New York to follow her dream of becoming a writer. In a time when women basically were born to get married and have babies, Jo went off to the city to pursue her dream. Not only was she successful (eventually) but she also fell in love during that time.

I was thinking that I read Little Women about every other year, but that's not true; it's been longer than that. I think Little Women is a perfect book to read in the winter and I'm thinking that I will be reading it before the end of the year. Just thinking about the book tonight has made me hungry to spend a little time with my favorite character.