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.
Themes
The Racial Attitudes of White Settlers
One of the most prevalent threads running through Little House on the Prairie is white settlers’ racial prejudices toward Native Americans (the lone black character, Dr. Tan, is treated quite differently). The Scotts voice this prejudice most bluntly, with Mrs. Scott saying, “She did not know why the government made treaties with Indians. The only good Indian was a dead Indian. The very thought of Indians made her blood run cold” (211). She alludes to the fact that she had relatives who were involved in conflicts with Native Americans in Minnesota, revealing the deep-seated fears and hostilities that both sides may have felt toward each other. An important element of the two cultures’ relationship with each other in this story is that the white settlers are merely presuming that the Native American territory will be opened up to whites, and they did not wait until they had legal access to the land to stake their claims. Such actions might have inflamed Native Americans’ reactions to white settlers in this situation, although they do not exhibit any violence toward the whites.
The Ingalls family vacillates between begrudging acceptance of the presence of Native Americans, are unquestioning of the fact that the natives will be displaced by whites, and fear that the natives will harm them. Pa offhandedly remarks that the native who came to their house was “no common trash” but “an Osage” (229), dehumanizing the natives. Ma consistently expresses fear or uneasiness about them: “Let the Indians keep to themselves […] and we will do the same. I don’t like Indians around underfoot” (229).
Pa, recognizing that he has settled in native territory, expresses more tolerance toward them than Ma: “Well, it’s his path. An Indian trail, long before we came” (231). There are times when he defends the natives’ actions and their presence. In Chapter 22, Mr. Scott and Mr. Edwards tell Pa they think the natives may have started the prairie fire intentionally to burn down white settlers’ homes, but Pa dismisses this idea and says that the fire was part of the tribes’ management of prairie grasses. He approves of this tactic because it aligns with his own purposes: “plowing would be easier” (284) without the thick layer of grass.
Both parents believe that it’s only a matter of time before the natives are driven out: Ma sings song about Alfarata, a Native American character from the song “The Blue Juniata,” and Pa explains:
When white settlers come into a country, the Indians have to move on. The government is going to move these Indians farther west, any time now. That’s why we’re here, Laura. White people are going to settle all this country, and we get the best land because we get here first and take our pick (237).
To Pa’s mind, the natives’ land is free for the taking, even though the natives still legally own it. Racial attitudes common in nineteenth century whites are woven into this mindset. Wilder, however, adds layers of ambiguity to her portrayal of the natives by implying that her family feels regret when the natives finally leave. Ma says, as they finish watching the line of riders, “she didn’t feel like doing anything, she was so let down” (311). In this way, Wilder skirts the most blatant statements of native prejudice in her portrayal of her family.
Laura herself experiences both fascination and fear about the Native Americans. At first, she is curious to see a “papoose” but becomes uneasy when Native American men begin coming into the family’s house. By the end of the book, she describes the singing and “war-cries” from the camps as “savage voices shouting” (286) and “more terrible than the most dreadful nightmare” (295). While she hears the noise from the camps, “She was afraid of the Indians” (289). At the end of the book, as Laura watches the line of native riders leaving the area, she portrays them almost as inhuman statues rather than people:
It was a proud, still face. No matter what happened, it would always be like that. Nothing would change it. Only the eyes were alive in that face, and they gazed steadily far away to the west. They did not move. Nothing moved or changed, except the eagle feathers standing straight up from the scalplock on the shaved head (305).
Though Laura is perhaps merely noticing the natives’ stoicism, the effect produces a sense of diminished humanity. She notices the same thing about the Native American children, although she thinks their eyes are more dynamic than the adults’: “Their straight black hair blew in the wind and their black eyes sparkled with joy. They sat on their ponies stiff and still like grown-up Indians” (307). For further reading on Wilder’s treatment of natives in the book, see “‘The Only Good Indian’: History, Race, and Representation in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie” by Sharon Smulders in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 4, 2002, pp. 191-202. (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/249978/pdf)
Feminine Propriety and Filial Obedience
Proper decorum for girls and women and filial obedience are both ideals that play central roles in Laura’s life. The two often connect because Ma’s discipline is centered on feminine propriety, while Pa is more likely to discipline Laura if she violates the precepts of nineteenth-century ideal of children’s obedience to their parents. In both cases, Laura is told that her desires and actions must be subservient to propriety and to obedience, the individual’s interest subservient to the group’s. Laura reminds herself of the injunctions her parents give her: at the table, children are not to speak unless spoken to, never interrupt an adult, and obey their parents unquestioningly. These dictates reflect a less egalitarian and child-centric family culture in the nineteenth century than in the present day. Child psychology was not well-understood, and family values, such as obedience, loyalty, and service to others, were emphasized in a dutiful, adult-like fashion that was at odds with traits we now associate with childhood. Laura’s experiences reflect this cultural reality.
This theme most prominently appears when Laura subverts feminine expectations with her adventurous spirit, unlike Mary, who upholds them. Rather than cowering while the wagon fords the river, Laura wants to watch. While her sister freezes in fear when burning debris falls from the chimney, Laura acts and saves her sisters. Laura recognizes her desire to be wild, like a native child, as “naughty,” and she chastises herself for wanting to keep her beads instead of giving them to her baby sister. Her inner turmoil indicates that she will later conform to her family’s expectations of feminine propriety.
Masculine Self-Reliance, Feminine Dependence
Masculinity and self-reliance are linked in Little House. Pa feels that the presence of other people in Wisconsin is becoming too close for his liking, and he uproots the family from their social ties there to begin anew in Kansas. Ma, conversely, would not have chosen to leave, misses their relatives, wants to stay in touch with them, and feels the effects of the family’s isolation more acutely. The white men in the story—Mr. Edwards, Mr. Scott, and Pa—all value their ability to determine their own futures and make their own decisions. Their abilities—digging wells, building houses (a task which Ma’s sprained ankle symbolically indicates is a masculine activity), hunting game, etc.—are all desirable on the remote, isolated prairie. They tend to carry out these tasks by themselves, although they can assist one another in them. They enjoy agency and autonomy.
Women’s skills, by contrast, rely on an input of supplies—also obtained, in Pa’s case, by a man on behalf of the family. To tend a garden, cook for her family, sew or wash clothes, and keep the house clean, a woman on the prairie relies on the action of a man to get her what she needs. Moreover, the socially oriented tasks of raising children and nursing are considered primarily feminine jobs, meaning that women in remote settlements were expected to carry out these responsibilities even without the social support from other women that they may have had in more populated areas. Settlers’ wives had fewer social outlets with other adults than their husbands and were responsible for the constant care and entertainment of their children rather than performing autonomous, solitary work.
Laura’s love and respect for her father reflects his importance in the household. Often, when she is afraid, it’s the presence of her father that gives her comfort. Some of the most climactic moments in the novel likewise occur when Pa is away, such as when the chimney catches on fire or when the natives first visit the house. Though Ma handles these problems efficiently, Laura’s narrative gives a sense that these incidents were “near misses,” and the presence of her father would’ve changed her fearful perspective. Despite the family’s unyielding trust in him, it’s Pa’s decision to uproot the family from their safe home in Wisconsin based on a rumor—a decision the whole family blindly follows and must suffer for at the end of the novel.
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