Before coming to this class, I had never even heard of The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich. And now, even though I am not finished with it yet, I regret never hearing of it when I was younger. It was published in 2000 so I would have been just starting school when it came out, but I suppose since it never won a Newbery award or anything like that my school didn't think it was important to read in classes.
This book was written about the same time period as Little House on the Prairie, but from the opposite perspective. To me, they literally seemed like the exact same story: told from a little girl's point of view, and a tale of how their family survives in the harsh conditions the novel takes place in. In Little House, Laura is the main character who has two sisters, one older and one younger, and their family moves west as settlers. In Birchbark House, Omakaya is the main character who has siblings, an older sister and two younger brothers, and their family is forced to move west as well because of the settlers. Both novels have similar plot elements as well. One that really stood out to me was the fact that in both of theses novels, the family gets sick with a deadly illness and live to tell the tale (well mostly); the Ingalls family with Malaria and Omakaya's family with Smallpox.
Another similarity was the way the families treat "the other". Both are fairly tolerant with the other being there as evidenced by Deydey trading furs with the white people for supplies, and Pa not letting Jack attack the Indians because it was their land first. The Birchbark House seems much less racist than Little House, but perhaps that is because there are less actual encounters with white people than the Ingalls family has with Indians.
Hello Sarah!
ReplyDelete(Sorry again, for mistakenly calling you out about poor Neewo in class! The sadness of it just got to me, I suppose!)
The amount of parallels between the two novels, as we discussed yesterday, is insane. From the plot structure, to character relations, to processes of living, so many similarities occur. But, we can also note some of their differences. Omakayas's family has a much deeper appreciation and respect for their land, while Laura's family sees it as property to be claimed. As I mentioned in my blog post, Deydey is absent for much longer periods of time, while Pa is only absent for a few days at a time. It appears that Yellow Kettle, and Old Tallow, have much more agency and ability, as well as survivability. Not to say the Ma didn't have survival skills, she certainly did, but Yellow Kettle and Old Tallow definitely had more at their disposal.
I really appreciate that you noted there are no interactions with white settlers in "The Birchbark House." I think this comments on the lack of aggression involved with this side of the story, whereas "Little House" has various instances of the two cultures intermingling, and these passages are quite racist. Erdrich's decision to not include white characters illustrates her lack of the need to project hate.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had heard about this book when I was younger as well! I liked the point that there was a lack of interaction with the pioneers, but I don't know if it was intentional to avoid projecting hate or because she didn't want to touch on the subject. I would prefer to think the former. "The Birchbark House" has been educational for me because I was able to see a part of American history that has never been presented to me.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be effective for elementary schools teaching Little House on the Prairie to teach this alongside it, because you do get such a different perspective on the same situation. I never read the Little House books when I was young, and nor had I ever heard of this book before this class, but I agree that it is definitely important enough to be taught in schools, especially if Little House is being taught. It's so important at a young age to get both sides of a story. We talked in class about teaching Little House but pointing out the problematic elements, and this story could does that even more effectively.
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