In the movie Little Women, when Amy says they trade limes for "beads and things" at school - what are limes?

Question

This scene was when Meg, Jo and young Amy was walking to school/work. Amy trips and drops her chalkboard into the snow. She says, " I'm so degradetated, I owe at least a dozen limes." Meg replies, " Are limes the fashion now?" After the teacher strikes Amy in a later scene, Amy says, "He threw the limes out into the snow." What are the limes they are talking about? The fruit? Please explain what the are and why are they trading them at school?

Answer 1

They are talking about the actual fruit. Remember, Amy goes to buy limes at the market then takes them to school. Then she hides them in her desk for recess and the teacher finds out. Her limes are tossed out into the snow and Amy's hand is beaten with a ruler. Likely the limes were a distraction: many a teacher has tried to keep a classroom's attention while students are obsessed with their new "thing" like Pokemon card trading. The teacher was basically embarrassing Amy, teaching the girls a lesson, and trying to keep order in school. (The teacher had likely already banned limes.)

The girls were bringing limes to share with each other. Amy was getting limes from girls, but she wasn't giving any back to the group. Her sister, Meg, understood the inner workings of "girl society". She knew if Amy didn't take limes to school soon, she'd be an outcast. So, she allowed Amy to use the money from selling rags to buy limes for her friends.

The thing is, only the wealthier girls could afford the luxury of limes -- remember, this is the Civil War period, and many people were going through hard financial times since the men were away. The women had to come up with money, and that was pretty hard to do in a respectable "woman's" position. So, if you couldn't bring limes to school, it meant you were poor. The girls then are just as snobby as they are now. If you couldn't afford limes, you were a social outcast.

Answer 2

Limes Little Women

Answer 3

They are indeed talking about the fruit. At least, that's the impression I've gotten from the book and multiple movies. I'm sure limes were rather expensive at that time and place, as has already been said, but that's why the schoolgirls found them to be so valuable.

Answer 4

From reading the book, it referred to them as pickled limes, so yes they were the fruit. The girls ate them and gave them to each other because it was the fad at the time; it was the popular thing to do.

Answer 5

i love that movie. i've always thought they meant the fruit though it really made no sense to me. i doubt limes were very plentiful in concord and even if they were, there couldn't be many in the dead of winter. as to why they were trading, i've no idea. i suppose it was like having trading cards and such, like the kids do now.

Answer 6

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