Posted on August 23, 2019 at 1:52 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Unpopular opinion time! Writer Jenny Zhang, upon reading Little Women for the first time at age twelve, decided she did not like Jo March.
In fact, everything about the character “repulsed” her.
Zhang fully realizes now just how sacrilegious this statement is.
In an excerpt from her essay shared on Literary Hub, she acknowledges: “Jo March has always been the fan favorite, the little woman everyone thinks herself to be, the clear front man of the four-piece band.”
But as an adult, Zhang can identify what irritated her so much about Jo and how she saw her own family dynamics mirrored in Little Women.
She explains further in her contribution to the anthology March Sisters: On Life, Death, and Little Women, “Does Genius Burn, Jo?”; the book comes out August 27.