The Hummel Family, Little Women

The Hummel Family, Little Women

In Greta Gerwig’s 2019 adaptation of Little Women, the audience watches a large ensemble cast on the big screen. Even though the film is filled with talented A-list actors, many background actors get overlooked. A small but recurring minor role is the Hummel family. The Hummels are German immigrants who are very poor and sick. Mrs. Hummel is a single mother with six young children. One of the reasons for having the Hummels is to Juxtapose the March family. Through juxtaposition, the audience can visually see the contrast in wealth between the March family and the Hummel family. While the March family is not super-wealthy like the Laurence family, they (the Marches) are well adjusted compared to the Hummels. This also makes the audience more empathetic towards these characters. A second reason why the Hummels exist is so that the March family can “…exemplify…[through their actions]… sociological appeal” towards the immigrant family, which makes the audience have more empathy towards the main characters (Mathijs, pg. 89). With how many children Mrs. Hummel has, the baby that she holds could act as a prop. Like in On The Waterfront with Marlon Brando and the glove he uses can be compared to Mrs. Hummel and her holding her baby. Both of them use a prop (in Mrs. Hummel’s case, her prop is her baby) to show and express through their actions that the audience sees their true nature is a loving and caring person/character (Keathley, pg. 105). Another rationale for the Hummel family is to set up character personalities (Meg being motherly and caring, and Beth being selfless and responsible) and create conflict for more minor plot points of the story (I will not say the conflict for spoiler reasons). Overall, in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women (2019), minor characters like the Hummel Family can serve multiple purposes, such as bringing out main characters’ actions and personalities through interaction, having the audience empathise with them and creating side plots that affect the main characters.

Sources:

Mathijs, E., Straw, W., Kenaga, H., Williams, M., Keathley, C., & Read, R. J. (n.d.). Screen Volume 52 issue 1 : Free download, borrow, and streaming. Internet Archive. Retrieved March 10, 2022, from https://archive.org/details/Screen_Volume_52_Issue_1/page/n119/mode/2up?view=theater 

Youtube. (2020). Last Christmas | Helping the Hummels | little Women(2019) | Emma Watson. Retrieved March 10, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II8DsrQ7sxw.