Running head: ​LITTLE WOMEN ​AND THE GOOD LIFE ​ 0

The Power of Narrative on Conceptions of the Good Life:

What Does the 2019 Film, ​Little Women,​ Have to Say about the Good Life?

Kodie Warnell

Wheaton College
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Abstract

For decades, the phrase “the good life” has produced ideas of success, love, wealth, beauty, and

more while simultaneously fueling longings for ultimate happiness. I argue that these ideas or

images have often come from the screen stories circulating through our society, as the persuasive

and aesthetic power of film narratives expresses how the world operates and what life ​could​ look

like. To find what definitions of the good life are currently being told, I examine the newly

released film ​Little Women,​ in which I find one major definition of the good life from its main

characters. Examining the end of the film, in particular, I discover that the individual stories of

the March sisters conclude in such a way that collectively and exclusively defines the good life

as being married, achieving one’s dreams, and having close family relationships. With these

findings, I argue that more research needs to be done on how the good life is being defined by

the many screen stories in the U.S. today and push for analysis on the implications of these

definitions on life satisfaction, contentment, and even the mental health of Americans.

Keywords​: narrative, screen stories, the good life, ​Little Women

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The Power of Narrative on Conceptions of the Good Life:

What Does the 2019 Film, ​Little Women,​ Have to Say about the Good Life?

Introduction

If we were to type “what is the good life?” into the Google search engine in May of 2020

we would get over eight billion results. Wikipedia, Forbes, the Huffington Post, and more would

all pop up and bring forth their own definitions. Some would hold simple sentences about

friendship, some would give multiple subtitles and paragraphs about financial security and

success, one might have a picture of people walking into the sunset, and another might give a

checklist of vague words like fulfillment, prosperity, happiness, or pleasure. Yet none would say

the same thing. If we turned to the faces in Hollywood or on ESPN, we would see individuals

like Ariana Grande, Kanye West, Tom Brady, or Stephen Curry who seem to have it all: success,

beauty, talent, wealth, etc., making it appear like that is what it means to have the good life. Yet

even within the realm of scholarship, researchers and critics provide altering definitions. Carl

Plantinga (2018), a film studies scholar, believes the good life deals with “human flourishing” (p.

1) whereas a semantic scholar by the name of Steven Luper-Foy ​(1986) ar​gues that the good life

is found in relationships where needs can be fulfilled and thus, where happiness can be achieved.

However, with no agreed-upon definition and yet an understanding that the good life is indeed a

concept that can be achieved, we are left with a multitude of abstract ideas and enticing pictures

of what is or could be good in our lives. The question then becomes, are written platforms the

only places where we are getting clues of what the good life might be? I ​argue no. Building on

the wo​rk of many scholars, I contend that our conception of the good life, among many other
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things, comes from the narratives that we have read, been told, and specifically, that we have

watched​.

In other words,​ researchers and writers have stated that our understanding of the world,

how it operates, and our part within it have largely come from stories. It does not matter if they

are “fictional, mythic, historical or autobiographical” (​p. 99), all stories enable us to envision

different ways of living if we applied them to our own lives and they model possible outcomes of

certain actions (Taylor, 1996). ​Consequently, this means that no matter what kind of narrative we

watch, be it ​This Is Us,​ ​Avengers: Endgame, SpongeBob, o​ r ​Keeping Up With the Kardashians,

we are shown constructions of how the world works, what can be real, and certainly what the

good life is and what it might entail. Therefore, holding to this understanding and applying it to

our current context, I will spend the next several pages expounding on the rhetorical power of

stories to investigate how the recently released film, ​Little Women​, defines the good life through

the lives of its main characters. To do this, I will use narrative criticism as proposed by Walter R.

Fischer in 1984 which views narratives as aesthetic and persuasive modes of communication to

be examined for their portrayals of “the human condition” (p. 6).

How stories have been used

Historically speaking, ​our individual and collective histories are simply a collection of

meaningful stories that we use to make sense of the present (White, 1980). Even beyond mere

sequences of past events, stories are vital aspects of our culture and our personal psyches

(Plantinga, 2018). Plantinga (2018) furthers this idea by stating, “Just as we cultivate habits of

thought and response by the content and manner of our speech and conversation, we also

influence each other, and ‘make culture,’ by the kind of stories we offer and take in, whether
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fictional or nonfictional” (p.1). Simply speaking, the narratives/stories we use in our larger or

smaller contexts create certain ideas of how to live and how to ​be.​ Even further, Aristotle first

referred to narratives as bearing resemblance to a living organism (Aristo​tle & ​Margoliouth​,

1911)​ as they ‘work’ to show us what is valuable (Taylor, 1996), to reveal what is or what could

be real (Schriffin, De Fina, Nylund, 2010) and to create meaning and define the world (Smith,

2005). Take, for example, childhood fables. At a young ag​e, many learned that lying can backfire

because we know what happened to the Little Boy who cried wolf. In other words, we learned

that the world operated in such a way that lying might not be ​good​ in the long run. ​Likewise, at a

young age, girls begin to learn that happy endings (and, subsequently, the good life) are related

to romance and marriage. This conception comes not only through princess stories but also

through more complex classic coming-of-age stories, such as ​Little Women​.​ Though many ideas

can be gathered from narratives such as these, it is clear that stories have the ability to “both

mirror and invent… reflections of the world” (Brock & Strange, 2003, p. 267).

If we look at stories that have wider implications than just the individual, in the ​Winning

of the West​ narrative constructed by Teddy Roosevelt, he defines the history of America as being

built up by certain types of immigrants who proved themselves worthy of such a great land

(Dorsey & Harlow, 2003). This story, then, created an ideology of what it meant to be a “good”

immigrant at the time, consequently instituting an idea of who was ​unworthy​ to be a part of the

nation. More recently, the great storyteller, Walt Disney, took the difficult event of the atomic

bombing during WWII and sought to redefine the idea of atomic power through the story of ​Our

Friend the Atom​, discursively turning what was thought to be an enemy into an ally (Mechling &

Mechling, 1995). In all, it is through stories that we are able to make sense of morals, our
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history, and what our future could look like—all of which contribute to conceptions of the good

life.

What about screen stories?

If it is true that our understandings of the world in which we live come from narratives,

and narratives, by their nature, make claims about how the world operates, then it must certainly

be the case that the stories we watch provide us with different explanations of what the good life

might entail. Furthermore, in the case of screen stories (stories we watch on devices like

television shows, movies, etc.), visual communications scholar, Ken Smith (2005) explains how

these narratives hold a dichotomy of persuasive power. First, they contain storyline/plot/series of

events as well as characters which can be referred to as the content. Yet, unlike other modes of

storytelling, screen stories also contain ​how t​ he narrative is told, or expressed, which refers to

how the events are structurally told and revealed verbally, pictorially, gesturally, or musically

(Smith, 2005). Put in a different way, a story told through a visual format does not have to

contain words to reveal elements of narratives. Images, whether glimpses of particular moments

or gestures of emotion, are able to show meaning without having to verbally convey it (Smith,

2005; ​Braudy​ & ​Cohen​, 2009). For example, smiles can share a reality of happiness without

having to say “I am happy.” Therefore, screen stories possess a unique combination of telling

and ​showing​ (​Braudy​ & ​Cohen​, 2009).

Going back to the idea of a story’s expression, it may seem odd that the structure of the

narrative is not a part of the content of the narrative as one event leads to the next. This,

however, is taking into account how narratives do not necessarily require a linear storyline. As

we will discuss later in my analysis of ​Little Women,​ stories can contain “flashbacks” which take
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the audience back in time to foster meaning, make connections, etc. without wishing to reveal

events in chronological order. In fact, in accordance with all of rhetoric, the same content within

a narrative can produce two different meanings depending on how it is expressed or framed and

one way to do this is by using flashbacks. Yet, think back to the previous example of Walt

Disney taking the reality of the atomic bomb and discursively changing the narrative of the atom

from one with negative connotations into one with positive connotations. Placing this idea of

how​ a narrative is told as well as ​what​ content is told within the narrative, it is clear that screen

stories can be “powerful and persuasive” (Plantinga, 2018, p. 1). Additionally, in accordance

with cultivation theory, individuals who watch screen stories heavily can come to believe what

they see on their screens as representations of reality (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan & Signorielli,

1986). Therefore, if screen stories combine the persuasive power of both narratives and visual

images, it must be the case that viewers are absorbing particular constructions of the world that

express what reality is like, what is to be valued or devalued, what personal characteristics

produce positive outcomes, and even what we should consider to be good. Clearly, screen stories

contribute to the “quest… for all people” as we seek out the good life (Fischer, 1984, p. 18).

Scholarly contribution

Because this paper combines several ideas, I believe my research contributes to several

streams of scholarship. When it comes to the influence of story on the human psyche, this essay

furthers the notion that narratives contain the persuasive power to alter individual and cultural

understandings of how the world operates. At the same time, I also aim to investigate how the

notion of the good life is being narrated by the stories circulating through the U.S. at this point in

history. Then, due to the fact that most of the narratives that are being consumed within our
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culture are on visual platforms, it is apparent that my research must engage with screen stories in

particular. As a result, this essay adds to the work being done by media effects scholars by

analyzing how the persuasive capacities of narratives within the media are creating ideologies of

the good life that the public is consuming. Yet, coming from the perspective of rhetorical

criticism, this research is able to examine what it is ​within​ the current narratives that are pushing

for certain conceptions of reality, thus working to target the weapons of persuasion. By

“weapons,” I am referring to the questions of ​what​ within the screen story are being used to

generate ideas of the good life and ​how​ these are being used to produce a specific result.

Therefore, by choosing the recently released film, ​Little Women,​ I am able to apply this type of

analysis to our current point in time. However, I find it worth noting that I am not approaching

this text with the mindset that ​Little Women​ was necessarily intending to make claims on what

the good life is or should be. Rather, what I am concerned with is how the elements of this screen

story, in particular, are perpetuating notions of the good life. In other words, I am not concerned

with the intent of the director’s or author’s persuasive goals for this film because there could be a

myriad of hopes for how this was/is to influence society. As Carole Blair (1999) puts it, “we

must ask not what a text means but, more generally, what it does: and we must not understand

what it does adhering strictly to what it is supposed to do” (23). Therefore, it is in my interest to

analyze how the consequences of the director’s or author’s goals have also produced specific

ideologies of what the good life might look like. In all, my research dabbles in multiple realms

within communication research as it claims that any narrative may directly or indirectly be

making claims about the good life.

Theoretical basis
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Within the realm of rhetorical analysis, I will be approaching the film, ​Little Women,

through narrative criticism, as introduced by Fisher in 1984. In his article, “Narration as a

Human Communication Paradigm: The Case of Public Moral Argument,” he argues for a new

paradigm within rhetorical criticism that investigates narratives as a basic form of

communication, holding both aesthetic ​and​ persuasive elements. Drawing on Alasdair

MacIntyre’s (1981) observation that humans are innately story-telling creatures and also

combating the notion that stories do not contain reason or rationality, Fisher asserts that

narratives are relevant for both critics and researchers because they rhetorically and symbolically

reveal the human experience and establish a world of meaning (1984). Putting all of that

concisely, stories have the unique capability of using symbols (be them conflicts, resolutions,

characters, or any other mode of expression) to communicate meaning. Therefore, they have the

ability to be analyzed for ​how​ they convey meaning. To do this, scholars can apply narrative

criticism to a text to reveal how the characters, plot, etc. are used to make certain claims.

Applying this to the film, ​Little Women,​ it is thus my goal to analyze how the symbolic elements

within this narrative, specifically the main characters, are arguing for specific definitions of the

good life.

Yet, Fisher brings up another important factor for the narrative critic: what makes some

stories more persuasive than others? The answer to this, he claims, can be found in a story’s

probability and fidelity. The first of the two, narrative probability, refers to “what constitutes as a

coherent story” (Fisher, 1984, p. 8). Though seemingly obvious, this means that a story will not

succeed in persuading its audience if it does not follow a logical pattern, remain consistent in its

plot, or as in the case of ​Little Women,​ remain historically accurate for the proposed time period.
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The second, narrative fidelity, hinges on “whether the stories [the audiences] experience ring true

with the stories they know to be true in their lives” (Fisher, 1984, p. 8). In other words, audiences

judge a story by its verisimilitude, not by its verifiability (​Bruner, 2010).​ This is how fictional

stories of superheroes or aliens are still able to hold persuasibility; just because the literal story

itself might not be realistic does not mean the audience cannot relate to the experiences, morals,

truths, etc. that are found in the story. Elaborating on narrative fidelity, one author of ​Telling

Stories​ (2010) explains that “​We accept stories on their truth-like-ness​—​even though we may

believe that there is some deeper, more canonical truth that lies beneath them” (Bruner, p. 46).

Therefore, though the original story of ​Little Women​ was written over one hundred years ago, its

narrative fidelity and probability are able to carry the narrative into a world that looks much

different from its first intended context. ​And with the new movie rendition being released just a

few months ago, it can be assumed that the narrative ​holds truths that individuals in 2020 are

able to understand, relate to, and even trust. For these reasons, ​Little Women​ is not only

applicable for current analysis but also for its capabilities to hold a timeless idea of what the

good life might be.

The good life according to academics

Before getting into my analysis of the movie, it is important​ to touch on how the good life

is currently being defined within academic circles. As briefly mentioned in the introduction, a

semantics scholar by the name of Stephen Luper-Foy claimed in 1986​ that the good life hinges

on the idea of competition, where a life is only worthwhile if it is better than another. He stated,

“Just as a good racehorse must have the competitive property of being faster than average, the

thought goes, so a good life must possess various properties to a degree that exceeds the
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average” (Luper-Foy, 1986, p. 168). Therefore, from this perspective, in order to have the good

life an individual must be faster, wealthier, more intelligent, stronger, more attractive, or greater

in some area than someone else. Though this may seem obviously faulty, this mentality can be

seen everywhere in modern individualistic Western cultural desires to be the “greatest” or to be

chosen before someone else. Love stories, in particular, hold this deep desire as characters

choose to be with each other while forsaking all other options. However, it is clear that if the

good life is simply being better than someone else, it is not accessible to every human being. A

psychologist who studies morals and values in the American people, Joseph Schwab, claims that

a person who has the good life in the U.S. is ​“​an independently-motivated, communally oriented

individual who is striving to be the best s/he can be to move forward into a future life that will be

filled with meaningful relationships and positive growth for all involved” (​2019, p. 9)​. Yet

Schwab also claims that our notions of the good life come from the stories circulating through

our communities as they offer a means of making sense of our world (2019). This idea is

furthered by the film scholar, Plantinga, who states, ​“I am convinced that the type and quality of

the stories we consume relate to important questions of ​eudaemonia​, or human flourishing, and

to a civil society” (2018, p. 1). Therefore, it is certainly not a revolutionary claim that definitions

of the good life often come from the narratives we consume.

Synopsis of ​Little Women​ film

Given that our conceptions of the good life are shaped by the narratives we consume, it

can be assumed that narratives—implicitly or explicitly—make claims about what the good life

is.​ Wanting to examine what recent screen stories are claiming, I landed on the 2019 film, ​Little

Women.​ This movie, based on the classic book, tells a tale of family, friendship, marriage, and
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dreams. In the first scene, viewers get a glimpse of Jo March, one of the four sisters in the story,

running to meet with an editor to sell stories she had written for money to send back to her

family in Massachusetts. A different sister, Amy March, is growing her skills as an artist in Paris

with their wealthy aunt when one day she spots the sister’s childhood friend, Theodore

Lawrence, whom they lovingly call Laurie. Jo, however, receives a letter at her boarding house

in New York that their sister Beth is sick with scarlet fever and immediately leaves for home.

When she arrives at her family’s modest house, she is greeted by her third sister, Meg, Meg’s

two children, and their mother, whom the sisters refer to as Marmee. The rest of the film is filled

with many flashbacks that reveal how Jo first met Laurie, how the Lawrence and March families

become friends, how the sisters have interacted with each other throughout the years, and

especially, how their individual characteristics both define and separate them from one another.

Therefore, the whole story hinges on the individual but intersecting lives of these four sisters.

Meg, the oldest of the sisters, is revealed to be a kind-hearted young woman who values

romantic relationships and secretly dreams of the lavish life of the wealthy. These characteristics

can be seen in moments such as when she accepts an elegant dress and a pet-name given to her

by wealthy girls at a party in order to fit in, when she assures Jo on her wedding day that her

dream is to marry the man with whom she is in love, and when she gently comforts Amy when

she is not permitted to come to the event that Meg and Jo are attending. Jo, on the other hand, is

shown to be the boyish writer who loves her family and refuses to accept the cultural rules and

norms forced upon women. This is demonstrated in scenes in which she is found scribbling

stories onto paper, untraditionally dancing with Laurie outside of a traditional party, willingly

sporting very short hair after selling her untamed but beautiful locks for the good of her family,
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and frustratingly remarking how society has made the only fate of women to be married. The

next sister in line, Beth, is probably the least developed of the sisters but is shown to be the

bravest, most selfless one of them all who loves being with her family and playing the piano.

These characteristics are clearly displayed through moments when she calmly tells Jo that she is

not afraid to die from scarlet fever, when she goes to care for a poor family though no one else is

willing to go with her, when she excitedly yet gently accepts Mr. Lawrence’s invitation to use

the grand piano that is collecting dust at his home, or when her only desire on Christmas is to be

with her family. The youngest sister, Amy, is the bold artist who spends most of the story feeling

unreciprocated love for Laurie and feeling like she must fight to not live in Jo’s shadow. These

feelings become obvious when she tries making a mold of her foot to show Laurie how small and

beautiful her feet are or when Laurie alludes to the possibility of them being together after Jo

rejected his offer. Amy emotionally refuses him as well, stating that she will not be his second

choice when she has spent her whole life loving him. Yet all of these scenes work together to

produce a bright, happy ending​—​one in which Meg is happily married with two children; Jo

publishes her novel, ​Little Women,​ opens a schoolhouse, and marries by choice rather than

expectation; Amy takes back her refusal, marries Laurie, and becomes a new mother; and each

sister fondly remembers Beth, who was gently taken by her illness. Therefore, though the film

contains many more details, these concise descriptions display specific moments of the narrative

while revealing the nature of each of the sisters, all coming to completion by the end of the film.

Little Women​’s narrative fidelity

Coming back to the idea of a successful, or persuasive, story needing to ring true with

what the audience believes to be true in their own lives, we must investigate if ​Little Women​ has
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“narrative fidelity” as defined by Fisher (1984, p. 8).​ ​To do this, I will incorporate several

authors’ experiences with the story and supplement it with my own. The first author, Anne Boyd

Rioux, draws on how each of the sisters are unique but none are idealized. She furthers this by

stating, “Each of the March sisters has a flaw she cannot easily overcome” (2018, p. 138). I

believe she is right. Throughout the movie, Jo is shown to have a temper, Meg longs after the life

of the rich, Amy sees the world as a competition in which she always loses, and Beth, though the

“best of [them],” suffers from her illness. There are no perfect people in the real world, thus it

would only be fitting that there be no perfect character in the story. Nothing about perfection

could ring true in an audience’s life. Rioux also states that although the sisters in this movie must

grow up in a span of two hours, the film gives close insight into their stories of self-discovery

and who they wished to become (2018). In this film rendition specifically, the flashbacks give

perspective into the process of learning, making mistakes, and growing from them—something

that real life is full of. Jo writes stories over and over until they are good. Meg is caught multiple

times trying to fit into a social class that she does not belong to, constantly working for

contentment. Beth gets sick and recovers but then gets sick again. Amy fights for Laurie’s

attention and only gets it when he can no longer have Jo. On this struggle of normal life, Rioux

quotes an old newspaper review of the story’s first film rendition from 1949 that states, “There is

just enough sadness in [this narrative] to make it true to life” (2018). Therefore, though ​Little

Women’​ s plot may look much different in our current context, many of the truths in the narrative

like imperfect, mistake-making people, imperfect lives, growth, and even death are concepts that

are very much a part of our lives as viewers in 2020.

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Four authors of a single book further these claims by revealing their personal experiences

with the March sisters’ stories. Kate Bolick, the first author, claims that these main characters

were “drawn from life” to embody separate experiences of being a female (Bolick et al., 2019, p.

41). She writes about how Meg’s story rang true in her own life when she put on a specific dress

and felt like she was trying to fit into a group that she was not a part of (Bolick et al., 2019).

Jenny Zhang writes about her relation to Jo as she struggled many years feeling like life was an

either/or situation just as Jo felt the tensions of wanting to be a writer but also wanting to get

married for accompaniment’s sake, feeling like if she wanted one, she had to give up the other.

Reflecting on the moment when Jo confesses to their mother that she perhaps was too quick to

reject Laurie, Zhang writes that she too felt the same thing in her own life: “I felt like Jo…

wondering if she made a mistake all those years ago. Did she reject the wrong things, the wrong

people?” (Bolick et al., 2019, p. 94). The next author, Carmen Maria Machado, reveals her

struggles of having a health condition and feeling like that was so much of her identity. Just as

Beth’s major defining characteristic in the story was her illness, Machado writes that for much of

her life, she was defined as the girl with the sickness by those around her (Bolick et al., 2019).

Lastly, Jane Smiley in the final section of their book describes her connection with Amy, stating

that both of them learned how to navigate their social worlds, stay true to themselves, and gain a

wisdom and self-knowledge that is different from others (Bolick et al., 2019). Smiley even

makes the claim that “Amy is the modern woman,” thereby stating that who Amy was in this

nineteenth century story could very much live on today.

In all, each of these examples reveals individual and collective truths gathered from the

story of ​Little Women​ that appear to be timeless. It is true that we no longer use carriages for
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regular transportation, that women do not wear puffy dresses every day anymore, and that quills

dipped in ink are not the main writing utensils used today. However, it is ​still​ true that life is

messy, that we do not always get what we want, that we make mistakes, suffer from sickness,

and even lament the deaths of loved ones because these truths are not bound to a time period;

they are all true of the human experience. For these reasons, it is clear that the 2019 screen story,

Little Women​, has narrative fidelity.

Narrative probability in ​Little Women

Yet our analysis does not end here; there is still the question of narrative probability, or if

this film holds consistency and coherence in its plot, character development, and supporting

elements (Fisher, 1984). To do this, we need to examine whether the storyline remains the same

throughout the movie, the ending makes sense given the rest of the story, each of the characters

has a stable nature, and the plot and setting are not anachronistic.

To answer these questions, we must compare the bookends of the film where the

characters are brought to life and then settled happily in the end. Within the initial twenty-five

minutes of the movie, the viewers get glimpses of the nature and lives of the four sisters and their

close friend Laurie. First on screen is Jo, who we see muster the courage to enter a publishing

office to sell her “friend’s” stories to the local newspaper. As she does this, viewers take in the

style of her outfit and the antique-looking office to gather that this story does not take place in

the present but what seems like the nineteenth century. Additionally, with video shots of her

ink-stained hands and the unsure question “What...compensation--how do you?...” viewers gain

an understanding that the stories she is selling were actually written by her and she is, at least, in

some need for money (​Pascal​, ​Di Novi​, & ​Swicord​, 2019, 0:03:22). Therefore, we come to
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define Jo very early on as a writer, who by her outfit and her question of compensation, is not

wealthy. Taking into account the historical context that we were brought into, as well as the lack

of a wedding ring on her ink-stained hands, this fact is historically probable as women in the

nineteenth century often did not have money on their own. Then as Jo leaves the publishing

office, the audience also sees her running through gently-walking people on the streets to enter a

building titled, “New York Boarding & Rooming House… Best Rates in New York” (​Pascal​ et

al., 2019, 0:04:45). Additionally, in this boarding house, viewers see her obliviously get too close

to a fire where she burns the hem of her dress and we hear her answer why she went to sell her

stories with “Well, my sister, Amy, is in Paris and until she marries someone obscenely wealthy,

it’s up to me to keep the family afloat” (​Pascal​ et al., 2019, 0:05:53). This combination of

introduction scenes, therefore, supplements our understanding of Jo as a woman who does not

follow the social expectations or behaviors of her time period, who is working to get money for

her family, and who is also rather clumsy. Looking at how Jo is revealed, it seems as if her

definition of the good life includes being a writer and caring for one’s family. However, that is

not all viewers gain about Jo in the first eighth of the film. In the mix of these scenes, we also see

a gentleman who looks to be the same age as Jo affectionately looking at her across a large room

though she does not notice and soon after gives her a gift of three books that hold the works of

Shakespeare. This holds particular significance because if this story is to hold narrative

probability, this man must be introduced to us for a reason and should appear again. All of which

does,​ in fact, happen when we look at this story’s ending.

The next character we are introduced to is a well-dressed woman with a paintbrush. With

the camera panning a beautiful garden, we hear a man speaking in French to a line of individuals
LITTLE WOMEN​ AND THE GOOD LIFE 17

who are working to paint the scene before them. Building off of the prior scene when Jo speaks

of her sister in Paris, viewers can assume that the woman before us is Amy. Interestingly, the

first action we see her do besides paint is look to another person’s painting on her right, look

back at her own, and slightly furrow her eyebrows. Therefore, because of the visual element of

screen stories, viewers are able to pick up on Amy comparing her work to another artist without

saying a word. In the following scene, we see Amy elegantly dressed in fur riding in a carriage

with an older woman royally dressed in purple, whom she refers to as Aunt March. Though

Amy’s garbs do not seem to line up with what we learned about the family’s financial state, we

can infer that this aunt of hers is, indeed, wealthy and is the source behind the luxurious clothing.

As the scene continues, viewers watch Amy notice a certain man walking on the road next to

them whom she calls out to by the name of Laurie. The carriage stops and Amy rushes out to hug

him. As they talk, we hear her ask if he is in Europe chasing a woman, to which he answers no.

After an awkward pause, Amy says, “I… I couldn’t believe Jo turned you down. I’m so sorry”

(​Pascal​ et al., 2019, 0:07:41). Though this scene focuses on Amy, it also reveals that Laurie had

once proposed to Jo, who for some reason she had rejected. Carrying on, with Laurie replying

that she should not feel sorry for him because he is not sorry and Aunt March beckoning her to

return to the carriage, the two say their goodbyes with plans to meet that evening at a ball. As he

walks away, we see Amy spend a considerable amount of time fondly looking after him,

revealing that she may have romantic feelings for her old friend. Though all of these events

happen quickly, viewers are able to gather a few characteristics with which they can define Amy

early on: that she is an artist, she compares herself to others, and that though her sister may have

turned Laurie down, Amy might not have if she were the one whom he asked. In Amy’s case, it
LITTLE WOMEN​ AND THE GOOD LIFE 18

seems as if her idea of the good life is to be in first place in everything, especially when it comes

to Laurie’s affections.

After this, viewers are presented with a different scene where another young woman, by

the name of Meg, admires several yards of fabric. Cutting her off, a well-dressed woman tells her

that she should buy the fabric for a dress. At first, Meg turns her down stating that her husband,

John, “needs a new coat for winter, and Daisy and Demi need new clothes” (​Pascal​ et al., 2019,

0:08:49). After saying that she cannot buy the fabric several times, though without giving a

reason why, she gives in to the peer pressure and purchases twenty yards. Right after, the scene

switches to what appears to be Meg’s home. Wearing stained and plain clothes, she makes her

way to watch her children play outside and mumbles under her breath “Fifty dollars. What was I

thinking?” (​Pascal​ et al., 2019, 0:09:15). The camera pans out after she hugs her children and

viewers are left to see her sit in the doorway of a very small home. The next glimpse we get of

Meg is several minutes later in a flashback, as she hobbles into the family home after twisting

her ankle at a party from wearing shoes that were too small but that, in her words, were worth it

since they “look so good” (​Pascal​ et al., 2019, 0:17:33). Again, though these scenes do not hold

much, they give the initial impression that Meg is, first of all, one of the March sisters and then

that she married a poor man though she longs for the nicer material things of society. Based​ on

these events, it is probable that her idea of the good life is related to​ financial success and the

beautiful and lavish life attached to it.

The last sister we meet is Beth, whom we first see beautifully playing the piano in their

family’s house. The camera pans a few rooms in the house, revealing that they are empty, and

with a slight sigh, we realize that she is the only sister left at home. Besides a few glimpses and
LITTLE WOMEN​ AND THE GOOD LIFE 19

words in the first flashback and a mention of her being sick in the letter sent to Jo at the boarding

house, this is all the audience gains of Beth. She is just musical and sick. In the case of the good

life, it appears that she may feel that it simply entails being with her family and playing the

piano.

Now after adequately revealing how the story begins and who the characters are revealed

to be, we can compare it to the ending to see if what was first introduced is cohesively followed

through. Interestingly, the very last scene, when everything is tied up, is without words. This

screen story simply reveals a happy ending where simply eyes to see and ears to hear only music

and laughter are needed. The first thing the audience sees is a glimpse of Aunt March’s house

with a sign in the front yard reading “Plumfield Academy” and children running through its open

doors (​Pascal​ et al., 2019, 2:06:21). Jo, whom the story revealed to receive the house after Aunt

March’s death a few scenes prior, walks down the stairs to the ground level, smiling over the

school she has created. She then sees her father and Meg’s tutor husband teaching children and

she beckons them to follow her to the backyard. As she casually walks to the end of the yard

with a cake in hand, she passes the gentleman from the beginning of the film who has now

become her husband. He is shown to be teaching children how to play music, thus filling the

musical role of Beth whose illness tragically took her life several scenes earlier. Next Jo sees

Meg living out her childhood dreams of acting with a few children on a picnic basket. Instead of

plain, stained clothes, she is now in a long blue skirt and bright white detailed top—an outfit that

does not look like it belongs to a poor woman. Right after Meg, Amy enters the camera walking

away from children that she has been giving painting lessons to and she passes her newborn child

to its father and her husband, Laurie. It seems as if being his second choice, after Jo, was not too
LITTLE WOMEN​ AND THE GOOD LIFE 20

much of an obstacle; she is married to the man she has always loved. Then arm-in-arm the three

sisters meet their husbands and father at a big table where Jo places the cake in front of their

mother for her birthday. One-by-one they stand with their husbands with smiles on their faces.

The scene then fades with images of the four sisters playing together in their attack so long ago

and switches to present-day Jo holding the red book shown to the audience at the very beginning

of the film—her own novel titled ​Little Women.​ Finally, Jo’s dream has come true. Therefore,

the whole story lies in these four little girls who grew up to be little women.

In all, each character was presented in the end to be consistent with how they were

introduced. What was shown in the beginning was made relevant by how it was used throughout

the story to reach the specific ending. Even looking at the costumes, set, and other supplemental

elements, the antique look of the publishing house, the ink quill pens that stained Jo’s hands, the

modest long dresses, the horse-drawn carriages, and even the oil lamps and architecture were all

correct for the nineteenth century time period. Though much more could be included, this

analysis reveals that this film rendition of ​Little Women​ does, indeed, have narrative probability.

Therefore, according to narrative criticism, this film which holds both narrative fidelity

and narrative probability is capable of making persuasive arguments about the human condition

and how the world operates (Fisher, 1984). And as a screen story, ​Little Women i​ s also able to

“transfer beliefs about a fictional world to beliefs about the actual world, and...cultivate patterns

of response and ways of thinking” in its viewers (Plantinga, 2018, p. 9). Therefore, it is certain

that by watching this movie, we are being offered specific pictures of how the real world

operates, who or what we should or should not value, and even what the good life may be.

The March good life

LITTLE WOMEN​ AND THE GOOD LIFE 21

Building off of what was just discussed, I believe that a story’s narrative probability is

specifically what points to its definition of the good life. Since a probable story calls for a

specific ending, one that ties up loose ends and is consistent with the introduced plot, characters,

etc., it is clear that a narrative’s ending holds great weight. In simpler words, the ending is where

the story makes sense—where we see why things were introduced at the beginning and how

those details were consistently carried through the middle. Further, it seems that the point of a

story, or the reason behind why it was told, is located in its ending. Therefore, I argue that

notions of the good life can be found when a story’s protagonist(s) reach a positive ending. In the

case of the film, ​Little Women​, then, I believe we can find ideas or definitions of the good life in

the final scene when Meg, Jo, and Amy each arrive at their happily ever after.

On that account, if we look back at the closing scene, we can recall that it was certainly

one of bliss and fulfillment. For Meg, she received the gift of being able to rekindle a touch of

her childhood love of acting which she forfeited pursuing professionally to be a wife.

Additionally, it appeared that she will no longer have money issues since her husband now works

at Jo’s school and she is wearing a fancier outfit than the one in which she was introduced to the

audience. Therefore, though simply put, it seems that for Meg, the good life is achieved when

you are able to do what you enjoy, be married, and not be “poor” (​Pascal​ et al., 2019, 1:02:22).

For Jo, she was shown to be running a successful school (by the number of children and the

smiles on their faces) with the family she dearly loves and as the author of her very own

book​—both ​of which she did not have to surrender in order to become a wife. Unlike many

women in that time period, Jo was able to be more than just a wife. Jo’s version of the good life,

then, is attained when you are surrounded by those you love, when you can accomplish your
LITTLE WOMEN​ AND THE GOOD LIFE 22

life’s dream, and when you do not have to sacrifice your personal aspirations and goals in order

to be married. And then for Amy, who was revealed to be continuing her love of painting while

being a new parent alongside her husband Laurie, the good life was defined as being married to

the person that she always loved and being able to continue doing what she loves. As a whole,

each sister’s story reveals a specific and slightly different definition of what the good life entails.

However, it is clear that the major themes in each of their good lives is being married and

achieving one’s dreams. Truly, as Rioux puts it, the story of ​Little Women​ has “helped shape the

way we think about what it means to grow up, to be female, and what it means to live a fulfilling

life” (2018, XIV).

Implications of this research

Looking at these findings, I believe there are several implications for individuals in or

outside of the scholarly realm. First, because of the highly influential nature of narratives and

specifically, screen stories, I echo the many scholars who argue that audience members must be

conscious of how our understandings of the world are being persuaded by stories. If these screen

stories have the power to cultivate particular beliefs and ways of thinking in their viewers, it

seems clear that they can consequently affect individual lives and even entire cultures (Plantinga,

2018). Applying this to the definitions of the good life found in ​Little Women,​ viewers may

consciously or subconsciously come to believe that the only way for them to achieve the good

life is to get married and accomplish their dreams, whatever they may be. Therefore, with this

kind of definition which hinges on marriage and being with family, the good life becomes

something that is exclusive to married couples with close family members. Or in the individual

character’s cases, viewers may see Meg’s happiness at the end of the movie and take it to mean
LITTLE WOMEN​ AND THE GOOD LIFE 23

that she finally attained the good life when she appeared to no longer be poor. In this case, then,

the good life must include financial security and even more so, financial success​—something

that may not only be hard for the billions of people on this planet to achieve but also nearly

impossible for many. ​Taking this further, viewers who are older than Jo may look at her as she

successfully wrote her own book and did something momentous with her life by starting the

school, and feel disappointed or dissatisfied with their own lives that they had not achieved this

success by her age. Or for younger viewers, they may see these women and begin to make their

lives the standard to meet by the time they reach their ages. In either case, the good life then

must entail success​—especially success achieved by a certain age or phase of life. This, then, is

also an issue since the idea of success is subjective, even vague, and again, may not be able to be

achieved by everyone​. Therefore, with each of these, it is clear that exclusive definitions of the

good life in this film, or in any narrative, are problematic for the many Americans who may not

ever be able to achieve them, making discontentment and dissatisfaction seem like inevitable

outcomes. Even further, with the millions in the United States suffering from mental illnesses,

we need to be asking how exclusive definitions of the good life as found in the 2019 film, ​Little

Women,​ may be contributing to depression, anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts. Put another way,

if viewers are unable to achieve this definition of the good life, they might wonder whether their

lives are good enough or whether they should feel content. And if these consequences could

occur from this narrative, it seems highly likely that they could be occurring from other

narratives as well.

Bringing this into the academic realm, I believe my findings push for additional

examination within communication research for how narratives have shaped and are currently
LITTLE WOMEN​ AND THE GOOD LIFE 24

shaping our perceptions of reality. Building off the last paragraph, I also think further

investigation and research needs to be done on how the many screen stories currently circulating

through our society may be shaping our understanding of the good life, life satisfaction, and

ultimately what makes life worth living. In the same vein as ideological criticism, we must look

to the narratives being told in the U.S. for cues on how they are telling their audiences to view

the world (Black, 1970). Therefore, if stories have the ability to shape our understandings of so

many things, then it is vital for our stories to be examined and evaluated and for our definitions

of the good life to be inclusive enough for ​everyone​ to be able to attain them, not just the

wealthy, beautiful, talented, successful, or married individuals who have accomplished their

dreams and have great family relationships.

Conclusion

In his article on the good life and the American people, Schwab writes, “When one tells a

story… the narrator makes claims about the world that are inherently evaluative and value laden”

(2019, p.1). As we have discussed in the past several pages, this statement has proven to be true

in this case, as narrative fidelity and probability reveal that the stories of ​Little Women’​ s main

protagonists show specific definitions of the good life in the final scene. Though Meg, Jo, and

Amy’s definitions are slightly different, they reveal common themes which promote notions of

the good life to include marriage, personal success, and positive family connections. Though this

is not far off from the popular definitions circulating through our current society, it further

cements the idea that the good life is exclusive and not attainable by all. This is problematic for

many reasons but especially for how these narrow definitions might be contributing to poor life

satisfaction, contentment, and mental health struggles. Thus, ​seeing how even the classic story of
LITTLE WOMEN​ AND THE GOOD LIFE 25

Little Women can still have negative implications on society's perception of the good life

through this film rendition,​ I argue that narrative criticism should be applied to many current

texts in order to reveal common trends or ideologies that may be harmful to society and fueling

negative outlooks on life. In all, this research and my findings work together to echo the late

psychologist Jerome Bruner’s question, “So ought we not, then, be more aware of how fraught

are the consequences of storytelling?” (2010, p. 49).

LITTLE WOMEN​ AND THE GOOD LIFE 26

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