Little House on the Prairie is the first book this semester that I actually remember reading when I was younger. Opening the first page gave me such a sense of nostalgia for a simpler time and a simpler style of prose I used to read all the time. However, despite it's simplistic language and plot, there are quite a few larger issues hidden in the cracks of this beloved classic.
One of these issues is the reinforcement of gender roles through the novel. While on their journey, Pa is the one who builds everything, from their wagon to their house and all their furniture, almost by himself. The one time Ma tries to help him, she sprains her ankle because a log falls on it. Laura does help him sometimes as well, but only for doing easier work like holding nails and such. The girls are never allowed to go hunting with Pa, but they do help Ma with all the cooking and tending of baby Carrie. I for one feel bad for Pa because he has to do all this manual labor by himself and he never gets to sleep because he is busy watching for wolves and such at night. It makes sense why this book is reinforcing gender roles because while it is written by a woman, it was written in the 1930's about the late 1800's when women still very much had the domestic role in the household.
Another issue I saw was the racist ideologies about Native Americans. Even in the first chapter when they are leaving Wisconsin, Pa tells Laura that she will see a papoose in the West, which is described as "a little, brown, Indian baby" (Wilder 6). The fact that this is almost an attraction in the West rubs me the wrong way. Throughout the novel the Native Americans are objectified as savage and completely different from the Ingalls family. They barely wear any clothes and the ones they do wear are animal skins like skunks, and they simply walk into people's houses and take whatever they see fit to take. The author does not explain of course that they are taking things from the settlers because the settlers took their land, but I can chalk that up to the fact that our narrator is a young girl who is only concerned with seeing a baby papoose.
All in all, I really enjoy this book despite its blatant racist and patriarchal ideologies. It's just the charming tale of a family moving out West after all.
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteLike you Little House on the Prairie is the first book on our syllabus that I had read as a child. I got really excited when I sat down to read it a couple of nights ago, but was slightly surprised to find out that I remembered very little about the story! It is interesting that you mention nostalgia since the textbook reading says nostalgia is often tied with this book. I was nostalgic about it myself and I hardly remember the story! I think this says something about the staying power of this novel despite its shortcomings in gender and race, which in my opinion are not so much a reflection of Wilder's characters, but of the historical period).
Emily
Hello, Sarah!
ReplyDeleteFrom class yesterday, I got the feeling that only a few of us were in the minority of having read the Little House series. It appears I was right! It's been interesting to read the blogs of those who have read or otherwise interacted with the series before, and how they are reacting to it now, as I could not have that experience of revisiting it. There definitely is a sense of nostalgia, for the way of life, for the land and nature, and for the simplistic terms in which people supposedly existed. However, with all those positive associations, there are, as you pointed out, negative aspects of the period for which we long. Those frontier and pioneer "good feelings" come with the connotations of racism, gender roles, and some times violent means of survival.