Little Women Character Review: John Brooke

*Warning: This post contains spoilers in regards to the narrative and characters from the book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Read at your own risk if you have not read the book or have seen any of the adaptations.

There is something to be said about a well written, human character. They leap off the page and speak to us as if they were right in front us, as flesh and blood human beings, instead of fictional creations.

In this series of weekly blog posts, I will examine character using the characters from Little Women to explore how writers can create fully dimensional, human characters that audiences and readers can relate to.

Romance is wonderful. It is a magic, it is light, it is hearts and flowers, etc. But behind that romance is commitment and more often than not the commitment is harder than the romance. The commitment requires patience, compromise and the willingness to work on the relationship with your spouse or partner.

In Little Women, Meg March, the eldest of the March daughters is the first to marry. In her time, a young lady in her position was often advised to marry up. A rich man to call husband was the goal. But Meg, despite her quiet and compliant nature, follows her heart. She marries John Brooke, who is introduced to Meg and the audience early in the novel. At this point, he is earning his bread as a tutor. His pupil is Teddy Laurence, the boy who lives next door to the March family.

At first glance, John does not appear to offer much to Meg, especially looking through the lens of the 1860’s. He does not have the money or the connections of other men. He is humble and quiet. Both he and Meg know that when they marry, they will have comfortable, but modest life together.

To sum it up: Sometimes, when a writer is creating a romantic narrative, they may go a little over the top. For a certain type of story, going over the top is fine. But for others, going over the top is unnecessary. The best romances are the ones that reflect reality and the difficulty that often comes with being in love with another person and trying to make a relationship with that person last. The relationship/marriage between John and Meg continues to inspire readers and writers because it is grounded in reality. That reality, regardless of how far out the narrative is, is one of the keys to pulling in an audience/reader and keeping them in that place until the story is done.

The American Immigration Policy Has Become Inhuman

Every nation has the right to protect its borders. And, by extension every nation has the right to ensure that those who want to immigrate to that nation are doing so for the right reasons.

It’s not exactly news that the current American immigration regulations are not exactly welcoming to immigrants, especially those of color.

This morning it was reported that border agents separated an undocumented immigrant from Honduras from her infant daughter while she was breast-feeding her.

This is disgusting, this is inhuman, immoral and for lack of better word, wrong. It’s clear that the administration wants to send a message to certain people who want to come to the United States. There are other ways of broadcasting this heinous message than the current process of separating children from their parents and prosecuting the parents.

I hope you know who sleeps well tonight, those kids separated from their parents may not be sleeping so well.

Throwback Thursday-The Adventures Of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (1959-1964)

For the most part, cartoons are geared to children. These cartoons can be divided into two different categories. The first category contains cartoon that only a child would appreciate and be entertained by. The second category contains cartoons that are appreciated by both children and adults.

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends was originally on the air from 1959-1964. While Bullwinkle has the size, Rocky has the brain. The basic premise of each episode is that the titular characters have to outwit Russian spies Boris Badenov & Natasha Fatale, who refer to their targets as “moose and squirrel”. Between the main act, there were short bumper cartoons such as “Fractured Fairy Tales” and “Aesop and Son”.

While the animation is not the slickest and certain elements are dated, Rocky and Bullwinkle still holds up decades after the show left the air. While much of the content is targeted toward a young audience, there are jokes within that content that only an adult would understand and get a chuckle out of.

I recommend it.