Love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy.
Louisa May Alcott Little Women, Part II, Chapter XL (1868)
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When and why it was written
- When
- From Little Women, 1868 to 1869.
- Why
- Beth, dying, comforts her sister Jo.
What it means
Beth gives her sister a way to measure a life by what cannot be taken away. Achievements stay behind; love goes with us.
It is one of the gentlest passages in the novel.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
Read the source
Little Women, 1868
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