I Can't Bear Saints...

"I can't bear saints.  Just be a simple, honest, respectable boy, and we'll never desert you." ~ Little Women, Chap. 14

The relationship between Laurie and Jo perplexes me!  I cannot decide which behaves stranger than the other - is it the fact that Jo is so obsessed with boyish qualities or is it the fact that Laurie spends all of his time with a group of girls?  In the mindset of a young girl who wants to belive in love, I want the two to find out they're destined for each other and live happily ever after.  However, this sounds too perfect; this would be to simple.  I want to know what drives them apart.  I caught a glimpse of this separation centered around the Meg's lost glove.  When Laurie confesses the secret location of the glove to Jo; she is mortified at the fact that her sister may be leaving - leading us to understand that they are not always within the same mind.  Following this, Laurie disgraces Meg at a cruel joke.  This act is selfish and shows Laurie's naivity in the world of both women and love.  He has no idea of the emotional strain that he has placed Meg under, and may never understand it.  I believe this is where Jo begins to see him differently - even if only slightly.  Jo starts

I cannot help but feel that I am being preached to as I read the novel.  I enjoy reading it, but I feel that the focus on goodness and virtuous living is sometimes a little too much.  I want to know why there is the necessity for so much preaching.  Is it merely because of the time we live in that this seems over the top? Or was this amount of preaching a lot for even Alcott's time? In turn, I question the believabilty of the novel.  It seems fake; too perfect.  Even when things go wrong, they turn out okay.  At least up to this point, this is how I have perceived it.  Even Beth's illness seems to be too happy.  She gets seriously ill, everyone is worried, and begin questioning their own moral goals and lessons, but she is cured and lives happily ever after.  I think this spouts from the Christian idea of forgiveness. Each time there is a new problem in the family, the girls use it as a way to remind them to fulfill their "Pilgrim's Progress" story; and each time, they act more wholesome and faithful.  As a sign of their faith and them making the right choices, they are forgiven through the outcome of each terrible ordeal.  When Jo almost kills Amy on the frozen lake; when father is suddenly struck horribly ill; when Beth becomes sick and the young neighbor child dies; each of these events are in response to recently commited deadly sin (pride, sloth, etc.).  I guess, the "evil side" in me wants to know - how much does it take for someone to die in this story? What horrible deed does someone have to commit before something ends without a happy ending?

Oh, I must mention my confusion concerning poor Beth and her new found religion.  Up until now, I believed that the Marches believed in Christianity; however, I had never thought closer into it.  While at her aunt's, the maid introduces Amy to the Catholic religion.  Amy seems interested in the rosary and the picture of Mary holding the baby Jesus - she finds comfort in it.  I am interested to see how this plays out throughtout the novel.  Marmee seems to acknoweldge the desire to have a concreate, visual, object and place to pray to, but I cannot help but feel she was afraid of losing her child to a new religion.  Growing up in a very religious household, I found this very unsettling and I am unsure how my mother would have handled the idea that someone was pushing a different religion on to me.