Lessons Learned from Literature

Occasionally, as I traverse the wide expanse that is the World Wide Web, I come across beautiful piece of writing that I am compelled to share. This lovely piece of prose is from "Catawampus" Please read on...

I've been reading Neve "Little Women" at bedtime lately, from my very treasured 1947, unabridged edition - the one identical to the one my great-grandmother gave me when I was Neve's age, which I lost many years ago before I moved from Oklahoma. I recently replaced it (thanks be to EBay), and just holding it and reading from it and seeing the words printed in that old, familiar typeface, and the beautiful illustrations, warms the cockles of my sentimental heart.

"Little Women"is one of my favorite books. I read it countless times throughout my childhood, honing my vocabulary and writing skills on the winding prose of Louisa May Alcott. I knew the March girls and their mother so intimately, they felt like family. I feel much the same way about the "Anne of Green Gables"and "Little House on the Prairie"books, which also kept me company throughout my girlhood. But it's only recently, as an adult, that I've come to reflect on just how much those books shaped who I am as a mother and a woman. Reading "Little Women"aloud to Neve, I've been struck by this knowledge even more - that so many of the values I hold dear, so many of the quirks of my nature and personality, so much of the person I've grown to be, is embodied by that well-worn tale. The moral values of this book, I daresay, influenced me at least as much, if not more than, all the religious education I had in Catholic school.

Jo is the character I identified the most with - strong-willed, quick to anger, sharp of tongue, restless and ambitious. Jo is who I was as a young girl, full of passion and prose and literary fire. Tragic Beth is who I strove to be more like - gentle and patient, considerate of others, warm and quiet and loved by all who knew her. Beth's love for her family and her tranquil nature are in me on my better days.

Meg and Amy, who both start out rather vain and complaining and frivolous, but come to love and accept the joys and tribulations of life with a loving husband and dimpled children, represented the domestic side of my ideal. And Marmee, of course, was my ideal of Sacred Motherhood - wise and knowing, loving and patient, respected by her children and her neighbors, busy in her work. I like to think there is much of Marmee in me, in the way I parent my own little brood.

Marmee was safety and comfort, and Marmee always had a lesson to teach her girls - a lesson about burdens, and the value of learning to carry them; a lesson about vanity and pride, and not straying far from your values; a lesson about anger and having a quick temper, and how to overcome that fault to be a better person; a lesson about sloth and idleness, and how busy hands and a balanced life, are better than all play and no work; a lesson about charity, and taking care of others and not just yourself; a lesson about the emptiness of wealth, and valuing the cultivation of a "fine mind and an excellent spirit" above accumulation of material things.

If I look deep inside myself at the values I hold most dear, the things I most strive to teach my own children, I find Marmee there, still imparting lessons to me: cautioning me, when I find my patience wearing thin and my words growing sharp with my children, to always be the gentle and steadfast mother they can count on to help them weather their own storms; reminding me, when I feel jealous of friends who have more material things, of the priceless value of my family and friends; gently prodding me, when I feel bogged down by the endlessness of housework, of the value of all work, and of keeping my mind and hands busy.

Reading this book with Neve is an excellent exercise for me, because this book is a such a guidebook for me on the values I hold, and the way I want to live my life with my family. Reading it with her reminds me of all those things, and reflecting on the impact these books have had on my own life, makes me realize the tremendous impact of the things we expose our children to, and how the things they are exposed to mold and shape their little minds and personalities.

It makes me resolve to be more cautious of the "GIGO" principle - "garbage in, garbage out" - and to put careful thought to what I allow to be put into their impressionable minds. I don't think I need to shield them from all pop culture and cartoons and the like - after all, I survived with values intact in spite of the lure of"Grape Ape" and "Speed Buggy"- but I do restrict their TV viewing to certain shows, and I may start limiting it more because I haven't liked some of the things I've heard them saying lately in imitation of things they've heard."Ed, Edd, and Eddy" is already strictly verboten in our house, and a few other shows may join them.

I don't think a few TV shows are going to drive out all that is good in them, but I do want to make sure they get an equal dosing of good values and influence from books as they grow, and I hope that, as they mature, those good values will stick with them and much of the fluff will drift away and be of lesser importance. For, like Marmee, I wish for my little ones to grow to be useful and intelligent, loving and giving - little men and women who can be proud of who they are and how they live their lives, and a joy and comfort to those around them.

Comments

[usws]

I have only just completed Little Women (I applaud Catawampus for being able to "read it countless times", 'it' being a relatively thick book) and i cannot help but express how much i enjoyed it. Like Catawampus wrote, the characters seem so familiar (although I'm a guy) but yet so different compared to ourselves and the people around us these days.

It saddens me that such values and virtues (along with the etiquettes, gentleman / womanliness etc.) are only fantasies we would only find in books such as this. Sometimes i just wish we could go back to the simple things and entrust everything in God like the Marchs do. I'm not saying we can't, it's just so hard to do in this era.