Google Doodle celebrates Louisa May Alcott’s 184th year showcasing ‘Little Women’
Google treats visitors to its homepage with a literary tribute to renowned American novellist Louisa May Alcott, in honour of her 184th birthday. The search engine designed a Doodle that shows characters from her iconic work, “Little Women.”
In today’s Google Doodle made by Sophie Diao , web visitors would see Beth, Jo, Amy, and Meg March, as well as Jo's best friend Laurie, their neighbor. Reports say that the March family was based on her own, as she also has three sisters. The second daughter in her family, Alcott was said to have based Jo’s character from her life.
Jo, who’s also the second-oldest, is a 15-year-old girl who’s strong, willful and at times hot-tempered. Considered to be boyish, Jo is called by her dad as his son, while her best friend Laurie refers to her as “my dear fellow.” Like Alcott, Jo is also passionate about literature and writes short stories. “I like good strong words that mean something,” says Jo in “Little Women .”
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“Little Women,” which Alcott penned in 1868, has been received positively worldwide, and several television and movie adaptations have been made. One of the most known versions was the 1994 film directed by Gillian Armstrong starring Winona Ryder as Jo. She’s joined by Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes, Christian Bale, Eric Stoltz and Susan Sarandon.
Alcott wrote two sequels to “Little Women,” titled “Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys” and “Jo’s Boys and How They Turned Out: A Sequel to ‘Little Men.’” She also produced quite a number of short stories novels, including those she authored under the name M Barnard.
In addition to being a writer, Alcott was a suffragist, abolitionist and feminist, according to Google. She was reported to have volunteered as a nurse during the American Civil War and became the first woman to register to vote in Concord, Massachusetts.
