76 pages • 2 hours read
Laura Ingalls WilderLittle House on the Prairie
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1932A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Essay Topics
Laura Ingalls Wilder didn’t write the Little House books until the 1930s, when she was in her sixties. Do you think the books would have been received the same way if she’d written them in the late 1800s, when she was in her twenties? What might have been different about readers’ responses? What about differences in how Laura might have written the books?
How would you describe Laura’s relationship with Pa? With Ma? (Use examples from the text as evidence.)
Have parents’ expectations for their children’s behavior changed since the time the book was written? If so, how? (Use examples from the text as evidence of nineteenth-century parenting; general knowledge about modern parenting is sufficient evidence for these purposes.)
What role does Mary play in the book? Is she the antagonist, or a positive role model for Laura?
How important is historical accuracy when a writer is using material from his or her own life? In Little House on the Prairie, Laura changed several events, timelines, characters, etc. How do such changes add to or detract from a completely faithful story?
Is this story helpful in understanding relationships between people of different races in nineteenth-century America? Why or why not?
What role does the prairie landscape play in this book?
Discuss some examples of community in this book and some of the settler community characteristics. In what other settings might you find similar types of communities? Use specific examples from real life or from other works of literature to support your argument.
Is Pa right to say that the stranded settlers the family encounters at the end of the book “shouldn’t be allowed loose west of the Mississippi” (331)? Does he seem to think that there is a certain set of traits that makes would-be settlers “deserve” to settle an area? If so, what are those traits? Use examples from the text to support your argument.
Compare and contrast the portrayal of Native Americans to contemporary literary portrayals. How have perspectives changed since the publication of Little House on the Prairie?
Related Titles
By Laura Ingalls Wilder
