If people care more for my clothes than they do for me, I don’t wish to see them; for I’d rather be what I am, and speak my mind, and do my work, than sit in silk and be stared at for a doll, when there’s honest living to be earned and honest words to be said.
Jo draws a line between person and performance. The doll image exposes the cost of display. Work and words replace ribbons as values. In plot, Jo is testing adult roles; here she declines a false one. The longer pull makes the ethic explicit. Readers get language for boundaries around self-respect. Plain doesn’t mean small.