Little House on the Prairie

Pa is cheerful, optimistic, and hard-working. A skilled farmer and woodsman, he builds a homestead for the family on the prairie of Kansas before deciding to leave the area rather than being driven out forcibly by the government. Laura admires her father and feels protected by him: “she knew nothing could hurt her while Pa and Jack were there” (7). She idealizes him to some extent as well: “Thickly in front of the open wagon-top hung the large, glittering stars. Pa could reach them, Laura thought. She wished he would pick the largest one from the thread on which it hung from the sky, and give it to her” (37). She perceives him as capable and wise, a figure somewhat larger than life. His laugh reminds her of “great bells ringing” (270).

Ultimately, Pa is determined to be a self-made man, which drives his decision to leave Kansas of his own accord rather than being asked to leave. This trait also drives him away from Wisconsin in the first place, since he is happiest when he has the sense that he is creating a home amid a paradisal natural world rather than among other people. He enjoys the company of the other men on the prairie and is willing to give and receive assistance from them, but his independent streak forbids him from becoming too indebted to others. At his core, he wants to be self-reliant.

Ma serves as a “civilizing” influence as the family journeys to, and builds, a new home. In keeping with the role of most married middle- and working-class women in the nineteenth century, she attends to both functional and decorative matters in the prairie house, like cleaning, cooking, mending, washing, laying out table linens, and putting up a china figurine of a shepherdess on the mantel. These feminine duties reflect Ma’s self-image, since she considers herself a homemaker, a mother, and a wife. Laura’s relationship with Ma is characterized by a mix of frustration, admiration, and affection. Ma embodies many of the qualities that Laura struggles with—patience, thoughtfulness, and acceptance of the status quo—and Laura therefore regards her with both reverence and resentment. Ma acts as her “conscience,” urging her to do things that Laura is reluctant to, such as giving up her beads to Carrie.

Though she doesn’t ever say so, Ma is most affected by the family’s departure to Kansas from Wisconsin, where extended family surrounded them. Her opportunities for socializing with other women are few and far between in their new home, and she loses the social network of relatives that had been a fundamental part of the family’s Wisconsin life. In keeping with gender roles of the time, she tends to acquiesce to Pa’s wishes, even when it means sacrificing her own comfort or happiness, as in the move to Kansas. 

Mary’s caution and reserve serve as a foil to Laura’s exuberance and impulsiveness. When the family fords the creek in the prairie canyon in Chapter 2, for example, “Mary huddled down on the bed. She did not like fords, she was afraid of the rushing water. But Laura was excited; she liked the splashing” (20). Mary, like Ma, exhibits traits that were desirable in nineteenth-century girls and women like docility, generosity, and domesticity, and Laura feels the same mix of frustration and admiration toward Mary that she feels for Ma. Because Mary is her peer and her sister rather than her “superior” in the family hierarchy, Laura is more easily able to acknowledge and express anger toward her sister. When Mary’s gift of her beads to baby Carrie forces Laura to do the same, Laura “wanted to slap her” (181).

Mr. Edwards is one of the Ingalls’s neighbors and a cheerful, welcome addition to their family circle when he visits. He helps Pa with various jobs at the homestead and comes to help look after the farm while Pa is in Independence. He is kind to Laura and Mary, fetching their Christmas presents from town so that they, and their parents (who were undoubtedly feeling guilty about not being able to go get presents themselves) can enjoy their Christmas. He seems grateful for their company, as they all spend time together, and he becomes one of their closest acquaintances during their time on the prairie. Like Pa, he possesses an independent masculinity that compels him to decide his own actions. At the end of the book, he too chooses to leave his homestead voluntarily rather than “be driven across the line like an ornery yellow hound” (317).