By the Shores of Silver Lake

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1939

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-18

Chapters 19-25

Chapters 26-32

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The Strength of Family Bonds

Although the bonds between the Ingalls are tested, the family remains strong and united in the face of adversity. Over the years, they’ve endured many hardships and brushes with death, such as the bout of scarlet fever at the novel’s start. The bonds between the Ingalls gain even greater strength and significance because they repeatedly uproot their lives and start over in unfamiliar environments, linking this theme to another, Adaptation to Change. They depend on one another for everything from survival to entertainment due to the rigors of pioneer life, especially during the winter when they’re isolated from others, and severe weather makes travel impossible. As a result, it’s essential that the family members handle disagreements in a way that preserves harmony among them, as demonstrated in the compromises Ma and Pa reach. Initially resistant to the idea of leaving their Minnesota farm, Ma agrees to go West one last time on the condition that they settle near a town so they can send their daughters to school. Later in the story, Ma resists letting strangers stay in the surveyors’ house but agrees on the condition that their guests pay for meals and lodging. Near the novel’s end, Pa makes a concession by planting a windbreak of cottonwoods near their new home, even though he doesn’t share his wife’s fondness for trees. He plants one tree for each member of the Ingalls family: “Ma’s tree and mine by the door, and a tree for each of you girls on each side of ours” (275). The seedlings will take root and grow alongside one another just as the Ingalls will grow together on their new homestead.

On top of their major decisions and challenges, the Ingalls show the strength of their family bonds through their day-to-day actions. Both Ma and Pa work hard every day for their children’s sake. To secure the homestead, Pa endures hunger, a night on the land office’s doorstep, and even the threat of violence. After staking his claim, starting the homestead requires him to perform grueling manual labor, such as digging wells and constructing shelters. Meanwhile, Ma provides for her family through sacrifice and strategy, ensuring that her children are safe, clothed, and well-fed despite financial and logistical challenges. Although she is still a child, Laura resolutely takes on increased responsibilities to lighten the burden on her parents and help her family advance toward their goals: “Laura did not care how many dishes she washed, nor how sleepy and tired she was. Pa and Ma were getting rich, and she was helping” (240). In addition to the bonds between the daughters and their parents, the siblings are united by unconditional love. Mary diligently looks after her younger sisters, and some of the novel’s most joyful scenes depict the Ingalls girls playing and exploring together. By sharing stories from her childhood, Wilder teaches a touching lesson about the importance of strong family bonds.

The Transition From Childhood to Adolescence

As the fifth book in the Little House series, By the Shores of Silver Lake follows Laura as she transitions from childhood to adolescence. At the novel’s beginning, several concurrent factors contribute to Laura’s belief that she needs to mature quickly, namely Mary’s blindness, Jack’s death, and Pa’s absence. The family’s protector must leave suddenly to secure a chance to change their fortunes, and the death of Laura’s cherished bulldog symbolizes the end of her childhood. Without her beloved canine companion and the father she reveres, the 12-year-old feels as though she has “no one [...] to depend on” (13). As the second oldest child, the protagonist must step up to help her mother and sisters. For Laura, the realization that she is leaving her childhood behind stems from loss and pain.

Convinced that she must grow up, Laura takes on additional responsibilities throughout the novel. She spends much of the story looking after her sisters and assisting her parents with their labors. As she grows into adolescence, Laura naturally seeks out role models, and she finds two in her cousin Lena and Mrs. Boast. Both young women are relatively close to Laura’s age, which helps her relate to them. Lena shares Laura’s free-spirited personality, and she increases her cousin’s independence and skills by teaching Laura how to ride a pony and drive a buggy. Mrs. Boast, who shares Laura’s lively curiosity, offers friendship and insights into homemaking. Although Laura increasingly identifies with women who are older than her, she doesn’t want to grow up completely yet. The transition between childhood and adolescence leads to inner conflict for the protagonist. She has no desire to settle down and become a teacher, but she feels a deep obligation to obey her parents. In one of her most mature decisions in the novel, Laura accepts the future her parents want for her and promises to support Mary’s education through her work as a teacher. While Laura doesn’t fully resolve her inner conflict by the end of the story, she demonstrates admirable maturity throughout the novel.

Although she takes on increased responsibilities, Laura retains some childlike qualities. She revels in nature and is fascinated by technological marvels like the railroad, demonstrating a sense of joy and curiosity. At the novel’s close, Laura reveals that she still believes in magic and drifts off to sleep, “thinking of violets and fairy rings and moonlight over the wide, wide land, where their very own homestead lay” (292). She is growing into adolescence and demonstrating reliability and a strong work ethic, but she retains her childlike sense of wonder and joy as well. At this point in her life, Laura remains between childhood and adolescence and demonstrates some of the best qualities of each, from her mature diligence and responsibility to her childlike sense of wonder and curiosity. Laura Ingalls offers young readers an example of navigating the tricky transition from childhood to adolescence.

Adaptation to Change

To survive on the prairie, the Ingalls family must adapt to near-constant change. At the novel’s start, poor agricultural conditions and financial difficulties force Ma and Pa to rethink their plans for their family and make the sudden decision to move to Dakota Territory. The Ingalls relocate repeatedly during the story and must adjust to new surroundings each time. This acclimation is made more difficult by environmental factors, such as isolation, wolves, and blizzards. While nature presents the characters with dangers, it also affords them some opportunities. Supplies are limited and expensive to transport to Silver Lake, but Pa is able to utilize their surroundings and supplement the family’s food supplies by hunting. In addition to the challenges that the Ingalls face as a whole, Mary experiences a unique change in the novel. After her blindness due to scarlet fever at age 14, the oldest Ingalls child adapts by developing her other senses, relearning skills like sewing, and finding ways to contribute to her family. Mary uses her hearing to assess her surroundings, and she often assumes the responsibility of caring for her youngest sibling: “Mary sat holding Grace and amusing her, to keep her out of the way while Ma and Laura and Carrie were busy” (145). Mary and her family respond to changes with resilience and adaptability, allowing them to survive the vagaries of pioneer life.

On a larger scale, the novel’s historical setting is an era of enormous change. The influx of settlers, spurred in part by the Homestead Act of 1862, rapidly transforms the Western United States. Wilder presents transformations in technology, geography, and people’s lifestyles through detailed descriptions of the railroad’s construction, the speed with which the town of De Smet springs up, and the streams of travelers that pass through Silver Lake: “The strangers came from Iowa, from Ohio, from Illinois and Michigan, from Wisconsin and Minnesota and even from faraway New York and Vermont. They were going to Huron or to Fort Pierre or even farther west, looking for homesteads” (227). It’s important to remember that the land the United States government granted to homesteaders was others’ homes first and that the eerily empty prairie was once filled with life: The plains used to be covered with herds of buffalo, which were “the Indians’ cattle, and white men had slaughtered them all” (62). Near the end of the novel, the protagonist has a similar thought: “The buffalo are gone [...]. And now we’re homesteaders” (285). These references to the decimation of the buffalo offer somewhat euphemistic reminders of the displacement of Indigenous peoples and the destruction of their traditional ways of life. The Ingalls offer one example of the larger changes unfolding in the American West in the late 19th century. While these changes benefited some people, they came at a great cost to others.