Little Women

I'm currently reading Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. If you aren't familiar with the book, it’s about four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. They live during the civil war, and they have to fend for themselves, because their father is at war. Their mother is still with them, but Meg and Jo, the oldest, still have to work. Each chapter of the book is essentially a life lesson; each one has some kind of moral. One that caught my attention was about Amy, the youngest.            

Amy is a persistent, materialistic schoolgirl. She is the only sister who goes to school (Beth stays at home and studies by herself), and she has many social issues with her classmates. She strives to please her friends, and so she is willing to do anything to get on their good side. In this chapter, Amy complains to Meg that she feels horrible because she has no money to buy limes. Her friends buy limes all the time and suck on them at recess. If you like someone, you give them a lime, and if you don’t, you eat one right in front of their faces without giving them even a lick. Amy tells Meg that some people are being mean to her because she has no limes. Meg, taking pity on her favorite sister, gives her a quarter. Amy gleefully buys 24 limes, all in one day. When she gets to school, she refuses to give any limes to the girl who was mean to her before. When Amy sneaks her great big bag of limes into her desk, she is tattled on. Her teacher makes her throw all the limes out of the window. After that, he hits her hand with a ruler three times, and makes her stand up by the blackboard until recess, instead of letting her go sit down.

I think that this one caught my attention because there are two sides to the story. Of course, Amy should've spent her money more sparingly, to prevent her from breaking school rules. The thing is, the teacher didn't handle the situation very well at all. I know that the times are different now, and corporal punishment was standard in school, but I would think that even then, having her throw away the limes and have her stand up by the board to wallow in her shame would be enough.

Then there is the tattletale. I believe her name is jenny. This young character Jenny can do nothing but wrong here, can she! This all wouldn’t have happened in the first place is she hadn't tormented Amy about not having any limes! Isn't enough for Amy not to have delicious limes to suck on like everyone else, but then to get ridiculed in front of her friends and peers! Then the tattletale epidemic after that! Why exactly did Jenny do it? I'm going to break it down.

Number one: Why Jenny made fun of Amy in the first place:

a. She was offended that Amy did not give her any limes

b. She wanted attention from the other girls

c. She was hiding the fact that she did not have very many limes

d. She wanted to provoke Amy into buying limes and giving one to her

Number two: Why she tattled on Amy about the limes in her desk:

a. She was angry with Amy for refusing to give her a lime

b. She wanted to get on the teacher's good side

c. She wanted attention from the other girls

d. She wanted to distract the teacher from the fact that she had limes in her desk

Number three: Why tattling was a very bad idea:

a. Everyone will be mad at her

b. Amy will be very mad at her, and Amy is a beast when it comes to revenge. See chapter 8 for proof

c. She will have lost any chances of getting any limes from Amy