Jo March

The second of the four sister Marches in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, is Jo March. She is tall, swift, and practically unaware of how she looks, since she is more interested in what she is able to do than what she looks doing it. Jo loves stories, reading them and writing them, and she dreams of making a living with what’s in her pen. She is frank and witty, and she says what’s in her mind even when it lands her in hot water.

At home, the motivator is Jo. She works with her mother, quarrels and makes peace with her sisters, and does what’s proper even when passion is running high. Finances are tight with the Marchs, and Jo comes to this realization early; it provides a practical aspect beneath all the emotion. She’s committed and fearless, the type who’ll take on work or sacrifices luxury on behalf of someone cherished.

Jo’s friendship with next-door boy Laurie exhibits her better self: lively, adventurous, and resourceful. With him, she does not risk being deemed unfeminine, more important to her than she frankly admits. However, she does grapple with what the world demands of girls. She resents the narrow box placed before her and resists it, discovering minute escape routes—an hour alone in order to write, a job which brings a few dollars, a choice which is her own and not someone’s else’s.

As a character, Jo embodies an impatient optimism. She does things incorrectly and then tries to set them right. She wants independence but also somewhere to belong. Eventually, she learns to put strong will to good use, not through abandoning it but through putting it to use in labor, in affection, in a life of which she’s proud. For all these reasons, readers remember her: Jo March is familiar, like someone who walks past you, always going forward with ink-stained fingers and a good heart.