Anne E. Beats Little Women

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday! I was thrilled to go with my family to watch Little Women and even dragged along my reluctant little brother! As you can tell by my username, I love Alcott's book and was excited to see Greta Gerwig's adaptation. I left the theater inspired by Saoirse Ronan's performance as Jo and felt Gerwig made some risky departures from the book that paid off. That said, I was greatly disappointed that Little Women lacked diversity and failed to show the abject racism of the time that was so well presented in Anne with An E.

Now before Jossy does another hit-and-run, this opinion is shared in an excellently woke CBC article by Amanda Parris

In Anne with an E, showrunner Moira Walley-Beckett boldly explores aspects of Anne's character and world in a way the book never did. The series often tackles contemporary issues in a period context. Season 1 sets the groundwork by diving into the trauma and violence an orphan like Anne would have experienced at the time. In Season 2, Avonlea's universe is expanded when Gilbert Blythe starts work on a steamship. The series introduces us to Prince Edward Island's historically Black community (The Bog) and illustrates the very real racism that permeates and undergirds our favourite little town of Avonlea. It gives us a peek into a late 19th century artsy community where gender expression is fluid, social circles are diverse and queer love is privately celebrated. It takes us to Trinidad where the characters are introduced to babash (a word I never thought I would hear on television). There, the plot explores how the trauma of slavery persists even after formal freedom has been bestowed. Perhaps most powerfully, Anne with an E introduced us to a charming and charismatic Indigenous character named Ka'kwet who is taken to a residential school.

(Jumping ahead a few paragraphs)

Despite their absence from the page, there have always been Black folks, queer folks, Indigenous folks and differently abled folks populating these worlds. It is a choice to leave them out. Anne with an E has illustrated that a far richer and more expansive story can be told when you keep them in. It would be ridiculous to be retroactively disappointed in the limited worldviews of Lucy Maud Montgomery or Louisa May Alcott. However, I can expect more from the contemporary storytellers who choose to adapt their stories for audiences in 2019.

You could've tried harder, Little Women. Why better representation is needed when adapting classics . Amanda Parris · CBC Arts · Posted: Dec 24, 2019 11:45 AM ET | Last Updated: December 24, 2019

Amen sister. Amanda also wished that Jo could have had a romance with another woman. I wholeheartedly agree. This should have happened in the book but Alcott dropped the ball. Overall a good film that missed major opportunities to becoming a great film by correcting the racism and ignorance in our literary heritage.

I'm happy you liked Little Women. I'll have to see it when it comes to Netflix.