Posted Monday morning, January 6, 2020.
“I am angry nearly every day of my life.”: Laura Dern as Marmee in “Little Women”.
Shivering, dripping, and crying, they got Amy home; and, after 99an exciting time of it, she fell asleep, rolled in blankets, before a hot fire. During the bustle Jo had scarcely spoken; but flown about, looking pale and wild, with her things half off, her dress torn, and her hands cut and bruised by ice and rails, and refractory buckles. When Amy was comfortably asleep, the house quiet, and Mrs. March sitting by the bed, she called Jo to her, and began to bind up the hurt hands.
"Are you sure she is safe?" whispered Jo, looking remorsefully at the golden head, which might have been swept away from her sight forever under the treacherous ice.
"Quite safe, dear; she is not hurt, and won't even take cold, I think, you were so sensible in covering and getting her home quickly," replied her mother cheerfully.
"Laurie did it all; I only let her go. Mother, if she should die, it would be my fault"; and Jo dropped down beside the bed, in a passion of penitent tears, telling all that had happened, bitterly condemning 100her hardness of heart, and sobbing out her gratitude for being spared the heavy punishment which might have come upon her.
"It's my dreadful temper! I try to cure it; I think I have, and then it breaks out worse than ever. O mother, what shall I do? what shall I do?" cried poor Jo, in despair.
"Watch and pray, dear; never get tired of trying; and never think it is impossible to conquer your fault," said Mrs. March, drawing the blowzy head to her shoulder, and kissing the wet cheek so tenderly that Jo cried harder than ever.
"You don't know, you can't guess how bad it is! It seems as if I could do anything when I'm in a passion; I get so savage, I could hurt any one, and enjoy it. I'm afraid I shall do something dreadful some day, and spoil my life, and make everybody hate me. O mother, help me, do help me!"
"I will, my child, I will. Don't cry so bitterly, but remember this day, and resolve, with all your soul, that you will never know another like it. Jo, dear, we all have our temptations, some far greater than yours, and it often takes us all our lives to conquer them. You think your temper is the worst in the world; but mine used to be just like it."
"Yours, mother? Why, you are never angry!" and, for the moment, Jo forgot remorse in surprise.
"I've been trying to cure it for forty years, and have only succeeded in controlling it. I am angry nearly every day of my life, Jo; but I have learned not to show it; and I still hope to learn not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do so."
---from “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott.
Saw Greta Gerwig's “Little Women” yesterday and my question for you is, “Why haven’t you?” I’m hoping to get my review written today, but the way things have been going around here, I’m beginning to think full-fledged movie reviews have become beyond my ability. Still, I intend to try. I already know the upshot though. I just told it to you. Go see it! Soon as you can. But there’s a point I want to make that won’t fit into the review. It’s this: “Little Women” and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” share a theme, and Marmee and Fred Rogers (the character in the movie) have something significant in common. They are both apparently cheerful, self-sacrificing, self-sacrifcing, kind, generous, charitable to a fault, neighborly---they are good neighbors who look on their neighborhoods extending far beyond what would ordinarily be seen as their natural boundaries---and determined to smile their way through life and leave the world a better, kinder, and happier place than they found it, and yet both claim to be seething with anger and to have been angry all their lives. And both, in the course of confessing their anger to someone who doesn’t believe it, say they have to work every day not to let their anger get the better of them and take over their lives.
In “Little Women”, it’s the idealistic Jo who has to learn Marmee’s lesson. In “A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood”, it’s the cynical journalist Lloyd Vogel. Jo needs to learn it in order to grow up into a good adult and to keep her on track in her chosen career of writer. Letting her anger take control of her would keep her from concentrating on her work---there’s the implication that anger fuels her ambition, but Marmee isn’t advising her to give up being angry; she’s advising Jo to maintain her discipline and focus. Lloyd, though, needs more than to just get a grip. His anger is threatening to consume him and destroy his career, his marriage, his family, and himself. Marmee is just trying to set a good example for Jo. Mr Rogers is out to save Lloyd’s life.
So in “Little Women” controlling one’s anger is part of the larger theme of becoming the person you want to be and still being a good human being. In “A Beautiful Day” it’s the theme and the story and the driver of the plot. It’s not surprising, then, that Marmee doesn’t make much of her admission. But Mr Rogers does. It’s important to him that Lloyd understands this about him. And it’s important to the audience that we do. We aren’t told why Marmee is angry. The scene from the book up top and the scene in the movie based on it and which recreates it closely take place after Amy has fallen through the ice on a pond chasing after Jo and Laurie who have gone skating without her. Amy’s still a little girl. Jo is only sixteen. Jo blames herself for almost getting Amy drowned. Marmee is trying to console her. You’re free to read anything into Marmee’s anger. Alcott doesn’t go in for psychobiography. Marmee, as written and as played by Laura Dern, seems to think it’s simply a flaw in her character she wishes wasn’t there. Mr Rogers, on the other hand, lets on that he has reasons for his anger, and at its base it’s not a flaw in his character but a permanent fracture. The problem for Lloyd is how is he to get the better of his anger if Mr Rogers has to fight his own every minute of the day? And the movie reminds us it's our problem too.
What hope do we have of keeping our anger from taking over our lives if saints like Marmee and Mr Rogers have to fight every day to keep it from taking over theirs.
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I haven’t written up my review of “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” yet either. Maybe I’ll be able to finish both it and the review of “Little Women” by the middle of the week and then post them together for the weekend.. Maybe. Meantime, like I said. Go see “Little Women” in a hurry. “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” you can wait until it streams.
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