Jo is an ambiguous name, and a most certainly fitting one for the main character in Louisa May Alcott's Selection entitled
Little
Women. Many say Jo is a dreamer, with fantasies of a career not suited for a
woman in a century dominated by men. With the patriarch within her own home absent in adistant war, Jo is determined to help her mother and get into creativechaos along the way. The norm breeching within this novel is way beyond Alcott's time. With Laurie (a most feminine name for a young man) and Jo switching gender roles, one may determinethat Alcott's work was not strongly embraced in a time of women subserviance. Oneshould also state the clear similarities between Alcott and Jo. Jo is a writer who scribes under a male pen name, as Alcott did, and she yearns for a freedom and acceptance within her talent, also very similar to popular inferences upon Alcott's personality traits. Alcott's characterization of Jo changes fiercly uponJo's marriage to a most domineering andancient father-figure. It is the opinion of many that Alcott sold Jo's independance for publication; however, regardless of one's viewpoint, Little Women will enthrall, entertain, and most importanlty educate its reader about a time when life as a woman was about as little as the mind and dreams within her heart.