Little House in the Big Woods

“Onions were made into long ropes, braided together by their tops, and then were hung in the attic beside wreathes of red peppers strung on threads. The pumpkins and the squashes were piled in orange and yellow and green heaps in the attic’s corners. The barrels of salted fish were in the pantry, and yellow cheeses were stacked on the pantry shelves.”

Much of the narrative within this book focuses upon the tenor of life as a homesteader in Wisconsin. This includes the making and storing of food, and descriptions of how the members of the family complete their chores and duties. Winter is coming, and here the author describes how vegetables from the garden are taken into the cellar and stored. Salted fish and cheeses are also stored, and Butchering Time comes along so that they can eat and prepare parts of the pig to last through the season. Without this food and all the work they do to prepare, the family would not survive. Wilder’s writing style is atmospheric, simple, and sweet, conjuring gentle images that help children picture life in Laura’s Big Woods.

“Then he laid away the traps, and he took his fiddle out of its box and began to play. That was the best time of all.”

The Ingallses’ life of hard work and duty is punctuated by entertainment provided by Charles, the father and head of the family. Music is an important part of the Ingallses’ rural life, helping to create the cozy winter nights that the person narration dwells upon so lovingly. In contrast, during this era, city entertainments included concerts, museums, and the theater. Books such as Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, published in 1871, were available. The Ingallses, on the other hand, own just a few books: Bibles and a green book called The Wonders of the Animal World. Technological advances in the late 1870s included the prototype telephone, the light bulb, and the phonograph—all items that did become common until many years later.

“Wash on Monday,/ Iron on Tuesday,/ Mend on Wednesday,/ Churn on Thursday,/ Clean on Friday,/ Bake on Saturday,/ Rest on Sunday.”

This short poem, used by Caroline, helps to lend structure to the workweek and offers an easy, clever way to instruct her daughters as to the duties of each day. The family starts by doing the chores they must do every day: cooking, washing and putting away dishes, and airing and making the beds. These chores are very important to life on the frontier within the more domestic sphere of women’s work. 

“Then Pa growled so terribly, his hair as so wild and his eyes so fierce that it all seemed real. Mary was so frightened that she could not move. But as Pa came nearer Laura screamed, and with a wild leap and a scramble she went over the wood-box, carrying Mary with her.”

This anecdote displays Laura’s personality; she is brave, strong, and protective, even if she sometimes has trouble behaving with the good manners that she thinks she should have. Laura is quiet when emotional, which sometimes causes her to be unable to speak when expected to thank others. Mary, on the other hand, is rendered silent by her terror; Laura’s personality may be more suited to the wilderness and the pioneering lifestyle. It also reflects life in the little house on the frontier, where entertainment often comes through interactions between the family. Here, Pa is playing “mad dog” with his girls at the end of a long day’s work, terrifying them in a fun way that also helps to teach them, indirectly, about survival. He easily transforms back to regular old Pa with his “shining blue eyes” (Page 35) as soon as he sees how scared his girls are.

“All alone in the wild Big Woods, and the snow, and the cold, the little log house was warm and snug and cosy. Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and Baby Carrie were comfortable and happy there, especially at night.”

One of the reasons this book evokes such a calming mood despite the family homesteading in wild and untamed country is that Wilder often soothes the reader with passages like this one. This quotation comes from a night after which Pa’s chores are done and he livens up their evening with songs and a story. A contrast is made between the busy days and the lingering, sweet nights of winter, yet one could not exist without the other. Nights of music and firelight, as they are called in the book, exist because there are not as many duties in the winter, and that means Pa is sometimes able to come home early while he still has energy to play with his daughters. Their situation, by modern standards, is precarious, but they are happy in each other and in living their values and their hopes.

“The gun was always loaded, and always above the door, so that Pa could get at it quickly and easily, any time he needed a gun.”

In the wilds of Wisconsin in the 1870s, life is full of unknowns, so a gun is a necessary tool. Along the frontier, there isn’t much law enforcement and no outside protection from wild animals. To a large extent, every family is out for themselves. Having a firearm can make a big difference not just for hunting, but also for bare survival. As such, it has become something of a symbol of the rugged individualism of the West; such dependence on firearms contributed to the U.S. gun culture of today.

“But Laura and Mary were never afraid when Pa went alone into the Big Woods. They knew he could always kill bears and panthers with the first shot.”

This passage in the story emphasizes that even though the characters live in a semi-wild frontier, the young ones still feel safe and secure because of their parents’ competence. Their father can protect himself and of supporting them. This calming and nurturing atmosphere is at the heart of Little House in the Big Woods and one of the reasons that it is so beloved a story for children. It at once highlights the dangers, tribulations, and hard work of life on the frontier while creating a sense that when faith, family, and social duty are intact and actively being practiced, nothing can harm those who live by American Christian values. 

“If you’d obeyed me, as you should, you wouldn’t have been out in the Big Woods, after dark, and you wouldn’t have been scared by a screech-owl.” 

All of Pa’s stories seem to have a moral that his daughters can take to heart, thus providing learning for them without his having to preach at them. In fact, since the stories are sometimes about him and his family, they can even be fun and relatable to his young listeners, reminding them that even their parents had to deal with similar situations and weren’t always perfect. In this story, “The Story of Pa and the Voice in the Woods,” Pa reflects upon a time when he disobeyed his own father and was scared by his fears as a result. He shows here that he expects the same kind of behavior, and will mete out the same kind of discipline, to his children. This consistency and kindliness combined with discipline is part of the comfort that the Ingalls girls experience in their childhoods.

“The little china woman had a china bonnet on her head, and china curls hung against her china neck. Her china dress was laced across in front, and she wore a pale pink china apron and little gilt china shoes. She was beautiful, standing on the shelf with flowers and leaves and birds and moons carved all around her, and the large star at the very top.”

Dolls are among the few symbols that appear with regularity in Wilder’s books, and this china shepherdess doll appears in several of them, as does Laura’s Christmas doll Charlotte. It is a representation of a family heirloom in a place where few exist, as traveling can be tenuous and difficult when bringing too many items along, and luxuries are few within the homesteading life. The doll gets pride of place in different domiciles the Ingallses reside in over the course of this book series. Here, she gets a spot on the bracket shelf that Charles has made Caroline for Christmas. Other dolls of importance within the Little House series include Nellie Oleson’s china and wax dolls, which are coveted by others as symbols of wealth and status, and Mary’s doll Nettie. 

“They were all so happy they could hardly speak at first. They just looked with shining eyes at those lovely Christmas presents. But Laura was happiest of all. Laura had a rag doll.”

One of the most memorable events of the year encapsulated within this narrative, for young Laura, is the receipt of a beautiful rag doll for Christmas: “She was a beautiful doll. She had a face of white cloth with black button eyes. Black pencil had made her eyebrows, and her cheeks and her mouth were red with the ink made from pokeberries. Her hair was black yarn that had been knit and raveled, so that it was curly” (Page 76). Any permanent possession is difficult to keep on the frontier, and the child’s responsibility upon receiving it, to not lose or ruin it, is clear. It is also an opportunity for her parents to teach her one of her social duties, which is sharing. The doll Charlotte appears in later Little House books and is included in a sad (especially for children) incident in On the Banks of Plum Creek when, while the family is worrying about Pa being away, a toddler neighbor takes the doll with Ma’s blessing, despite an older Laura’s protests. Laura finds it later dirty and discarded in a puddle. However, they repair it and it becomes as good as new. In later books, Laura and her sisters also covet dolls with porcelain faces.

“In just a little while the merry sound of the bells was gone, and Christmas was over. But what a happy Christmas it had been!”

In Laura’s world, Christmas is always a special day; she notes in later books of the Little House series how each holiday is better than the last. It is one of the days they can enjoy some extra luxuries, from gifts to food. They have family over, which means exciting playtimes for Laura, and of course, there’s a visit from Santa Claus. The adults give each other gifts and are indulgent to their children; for example, when Laura is disappointed at not being able to play outside because her mother thinks it is too cold, Ma relents and lets her join the outside games. After all, Aunt Eliza notes, “Christmas comes but once a year” (Page 80).

“On Sundays Mary and Laura must not run or shout or be noisy in their play. Mary could not sew on her nine-patch quilt, and Laura could not knit on the tiny mittens she was making for Baby Carrie. They might look quietly at their paper dolls, but they must not make anything new for them. They were not allowed to sew on doll clothes, not even with pins.”

The Ingalls family follows the tenets of the Sabbath, which is a religious observance of the day of rest within the Christian faith. The practice originates in the Bible’s Book of Genesis, in which God creates the Earth, its animals, and man for six days but rests on the seventh. Traditionally this has included no working and no traveling each Sunday, along with church services where available and Bible study. Laura, who is just a girl, finds the restrictions hard to bear, leading her to run and shout when she should not, and to exclaim “I hate Sunday!” (Page 86) when told to sit and be quiet. In response, her father tells her a story about how her Grandpa was similarly unable to keep to the Sabbath’s strictures, telling her it was generally harder back then. Ma tells her it was even more difficult for girls, who had to behave like little ladies.

“So hang up the shovel and the hoe,/ Lay down the fiddle and the bow,/ There’s no more work for old Uncle Ned,/ For he’s gone where the good darkeys go.” 

A thorough discussion of Wilder’s works, especially for more mature readers, should include a look at the racist connotations of her work; such beliefs were common at the time in which the book was set, but that doesn’t excuse its racism. In fact, it makes it more important to highlight in current readings the role that prejudice played in pioneer lifestyle. Pa often sings folk songs from this era, including this one, of which there are several versions still existing that have connections to the Ozarks. This song clearly references slavery and the slave culture without critique. In later books, as Laura grows older, prejudice also appears as a normalized circumstance. Later, Charles appears in blackface as part of a community minstrel show in Little Town on the Prairie. Caroline, who dislikes Native Americans and is one of the characters who expresses the idea that “the only good Indian was a dead Indian” in On the Banks of Plum Creek, when the family lives along a Native American thoroughfare; additionally, in that book, Laura talks of wanting to steal an “Indian papoose.” The Westward Expansion that made the Ingallses’ pioneering life displaced many tribes, and that fact is mentioned but glossed over within this children’s series. American history with a white European slant, too, is a focus of Laura’s later education and her public exhibition in Little Town on the Prairie. 

“Laura listened to the wind in the big woods. All around the house, the wind went crying as though it were lost in the dark and the cold. The wind sounded frightened.”

In this passage, the sounds of nature match the emotions of the girl in the Big Woods. She is worried that her Pa hasn’t come home yet, which means that her cozy existence has abandoned her for the night. He left to sell furs in town, and this reflection comes following an incident in which Laura and her Ma go outside to do chores only to encounter a bear where they thought their cow Sukey was. Ma immediately tells Laura to walk back into the house. Partway there, her mother scoops her up and they run into the house and shut the door. There’s a feeling of insecurity because the strong and capable head of the family is not there to protect the family. This is reflected in the way Laura views nature outside and shows how important the love and protection of her parents is to her normal state of mind and the general positive feelings of her home.

“In just a little while the trees would be putting out their baby leaves, all rosy and yellow and pale green, and there would be wild flowers and birds in the woods. Then there would be no more stories by the fire at night, but all day long Laura and Mary would run and play among the trees, for it would be spring.” 

Author Wilder’s writing style is warm, inviting, and simple. It’s perfect for children as a result. The third-person narrative and straightforward prose, calmly descriptive, is a good example of showing and not telling—the type of advice that teachers have always given writing students. In this way, Wilder imbues her words with profound and expressive emotion without making her prose sermon-like or overwrought. In this passage, she talks about the change of the seasons and how it affects the activities of the family. This is something different from what children experienced in more urban environments or what they often experience today when seasons do not make as much of a difference in the daily activities of the family.

“It’s called a sugar snow, because a snow this time of year means that men can make more sugar. You see, this little cold spell and the snow will hold back the leafing of the trees, and that makes a longer run of sap.”

Here, Pa explains maple sugaring to his girls. This is another “first time” for Laura and another source of hard labor for members of the family, which must be done to ensure the supply of another foodstuff that can help them survive—it also provides a sweet treat or two for the family. Additionally, the sugar snow helps provide a source of social interaction, since a dance comes in conjunction with the work so that family can come together and mix work with play.

“She said, ‘Caroline says Charles could span her waist with his hands, when they were married.’ Caroline was Laura’s Ma, and when she heard this Laura felt proud.”

The book mentions some of the social conventions of the day, including Laura’s aunts dressing for the party taking place at Grandpa’s house. Laura watches them do their hair, wash, fuss over their clothing, and put on corsets, which require tight tying to make women’s waists as small as possible to match the distinctive feminine silhouette desired in that day. This is an opportunity for the author to explain more of the actions that people from this era undertake, apart from their daily chores. This may very well be some children’s first introduction to this fashion garment and how it works. Clearly, even as a small girl in an “uncivilized” place, Laura understands convention well enough to feel pleased that her mother is considered attractive in this way. While it took much longer for new fashions and other popular trends to reach the Midwest from the East Coast where most of the people in these books originate, they clearly pay attention to what is happening back home, and civilization and frontier life mingle.

“Laura could have looked for weeks and not seen all the things that were in that store. She had not known there were so many things in the world.” 

One of the “first times” that appears in Little House in the Big Woods is when Charles and Caroline take their girls to the town of Pepin, Wisconsin, seven miles from their home. As pioneers, the girls are not used to so many people or things, and the experience is enlightening for them. They have also never seen Lake Pepin, and there is much empty space and sky in this new region. Laura is described as thinking: “She knew how Yankee Doodle felt, when he could not see the town because there were so many houses” (Page 165). The store is in a big building on the edge of the lake, and seeing all this renders Laura silent again, not just upon seeing everything, but when she is given candy and needs to thank the storekeeper. This is also where Laura feels insecure about her looks, since Mary’s beauty is praised and she gets a nicer piece of candy than Laura does. Laura also tears her dress when she collects too many pretty pebbles from the lake shore, leading to an admonition from Ma: “And another time, don’t be so greedy” (Page 175). While contemporarily modern culture mingled gracefully in Grandpa’s dance, Laura finds integration in comparatively modern life hard in this section.

“Nothing like that ever happened to Mary. Mary was a good little girl who always kept her dress clean and neat and minded her manners. Mary had lovely golden curls, and her candy heart had a poem on it.” 

This third-person reflection comes after Laura has been “greedy,” putting too many pebbles from the shores of Lake Pepin into her pocket, which causes it to tear. It is one of a series of small incidents that happen during the trip to town that aggravates Laura in that it shows her that she is inferior to her nice, neat older sister. She fails at the social duties that she and her sister have been taught to keep, which is one of the themes of this narrative.

“He was jumping up and down and hundreds of bees were stinging him all over. They were stinging his face and his hands and his neck and his nose, they were crawling up his pants’ legs and stinging and crawling down the back of his neck and stinging. The more he jumped and screamed the harder they stung.”

During this scene, spoiled cousin Charley does more harm than Laura, though she often bemoans her lack of social graces, ever has. Because his help is needed in the fields, he goes reluctantly, but he is not brought up well like Laura and Mary, so he causes trouble from the outset with his attitude. Mary and Laura witness his naughtiness and learn a lesson from it. 

“Autumn was great fun. There was so much work to do, so many good things to eat, so many new things to see. Laura was scampering and chattering like the squirrels, from morning to night.” 

Little House in the Big Woods covers one year in the life of the Ingalls family, going from winter to winter. At the end of the book the family is preparing for another winter, and readers see the work that they do to make sure they have the stores they need to survive the cold, barren season. This includes collecting nuts, storing the garden vegetables, and enjoying seasonal foods such as pumpkins and hulled corn. Ma also makes hats and the threshers come to harvest the wheat during this period. Naturally, the children participate in all of this, learning and helping as they work.

“He was too tired that night to talk to Laura but Laura was proud of him. It was Pa who had got the other men to stack their wheat together and send for the threshing machine, and it was a wonderful machine. Everyone was glad it had come.”

The defining characteristics of Charles Ingalls, which he has passed down to his daughter, Laura, include a proclivity for adventure, challenge, and progress. Near the end of the book, he and the other farmers band together put their wheat together and pay the men with the threshers to come. This provides another first for Laura and Mary, as they have never seen machines before, and it also shows her Pa’s ingenuity and strength of character, which naturally makes Laura very proud. Her parents are modeling social duty for her, too, Pa says, “Other folks can stick to old-fashioned ways if they want to, but I’m all for progress. It’s a great age we’re living in” (Page 228).

“He was a perfect mark to shoot at, but I was so much interested in watching him, and the woods were so peaceful in the moonlight, that I forgot all about my gun. I did not even think of shooting him, until he was waddling off into the woods.” 

One positive quality of Pa’s character is that, although he and his family are trying to survive in a rough-and-tumble location, he has compassion and admiration for the animals around him. While they are food, and can be predatory and dangerous, he recognizes that they are also fellow beings and can be majestic and beautiful, too. When he kills animals, as with the pig during Butchering Time, he tries to be conscious of their pain and suffering. The natural world shapes the life and livelihoods of this little family, and the author portrays Pa as respectful and understanding of that.