Friday, March 13, 2015

Little Women Read-Along: Amy's Valley of Humiliation (Ch. 7)

Not a favorite chapter for me.  Amy's my least-favorite of the March sisters, and I get annoyed with her wanting so much to "fit in" that she spends money her family can ill afford on something that sounds so gross as pickled limes.  Now, fresh limes -- those are awesome.  But pickled... hmm.  Must be an acquired taste.

And yes, I know we all desire to fit in at some point.  And we all do some dumb things to fit in.  But when she was fussing about not being able to pay back the ones she'd had from her friends, Miss Amy conveniently forgot to mention that limes had been forbidden by her teacher.  So I really don't feel sorry for her for getting into trouble.  

Anyway, I love that they hold "an indignation meeting" (p. 63) when she gets home.  Love the idea of an Indignation Meeting, don't you?

Favorite Lines:

Just before school closed, Jo appeared, wearing a grim expression as she stalked up to the desk, and delivered a letter from her mother, then collected Amy's property, and departed, carefully scraping the mud from her boots on the door mat, as if she shook the dust of the place off her feet (p. 63).

Possible Discussion Questions:

Do you have a least-favorite March sister?  If so, who is it?

12 comments:

  1. Yes...Amy. She's - an interesting little thing, isn't she?

    My least favorite of the March sisters is probably Meg or Amy:-/

    I LOVE how gruffly protective Jo is of her family, and how outraged she is whenever Amy is "wronged"--even though she and Amy get into fights all the time;)

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    1. Jo is endearingly volatile, isn't she? One minute she's ready to punch a teacher to defend Amy, and the next she's annoyed with Amy for wanting to hang out with her, and then she's so angry with Amy she won't acknowledge her presence, and then after that... she just keeps swinging from extreme to extreme, which is endearing to me as a reader, but possibly exhausting to her family members, lol.

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  2. Definitely Amy... because she's annoying. And because her family frequently indulges her behaviour. I suppose though, that this isn't so unusual with the baby of the family. The other girls have their annoying moments, whether it's Meg's stuffiness, or Beth being just too, too good, but Amy takes the cake. Or limes, as the case may be.

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    1. I'm also not a big fan of Meg, mostly because like you said, she's a bit stuffy. And kind of whiny. And boring. Um. Anyway. Yes, the baby of the family is often spoiled, so I find Amy pretty true to life, but annoying.

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  3. Okay, so I'm about to go against every other person here, but Beth is probably my least favorite sister. So Amy's annoying and spoiled and a brat, but she changes (I think) as the book goes on. Beth doesn't really change. She reminds me of an Elsie Dinsmore. As Lynn said, she can be too, too good. She doesn't really stand up for herself, that I remember (And I could be wayy off) I don't know, but she doesn't seem to do anything! And she doesn't really drive the plot at all.... Amy is pretty bad in this chapter though...

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    1. I can see that -- Beth is a bit one-note. I think her character arc is smaller and quieter, basically going from shy and quiet to wise and quiet, IIRC. We'll see more as we go along, I expect.

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  4. Oh goodness! At only twelve, Miss Amy is so intent on being all 'grown up'... And she does use such funny expressions...I think I would also laugh at her remarks, as Jo does, if she were my sister!
    Unfortunately she has been petted far too much and is quite proud, despite her family's lack of finace, etc... Thus, she is not my favourite character either, and I feel Meg shouldn't have indulged her so...it didn't help matters!
    My favourite line is this one:
    ''You have a good many little gifts and virtues, but there is no need of parading them, for conceit spoils the finest genius...''. Ouch! A very good reminder for us as well as young Amy!
    I actually enjoyed this chapter for there was a good deal to take out of it...

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    1. Yes, there are some wise moments in this, aren't there? That line you quoted, for one. And I hadn't thought of it that way, but you're right, Amy is quite proud -- more so than Meg. Interesting!

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  5. It's hard to choose a least favorite sister because I like all of them, but since I have to, I would choose Amy. Even though she brings a lot to the story and always makes (at least me) laugh, I don't like her selfishness, which I guess gets on my nerves because I also tend to be selfish. Like Amy, though, I try hard not to be selfish and hopefully I'll turn out right in the end. :)

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    1. Yes, she's good for a laugh, isn't she? And I think selfishness is something we all struggle with, to some degree. I do like how she has her little moments of unselfishness, like exchanging Marmee's Christmas gift for a bigger one at the beginning of the book. I think it's her vanity that bothers me the most.

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  6. A least favourite sister.....that's a hard choice.
    At this point in the story it is Amy, she is quite annoying at times, but I think she improves later on.

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