Comparing Laura Ingalls Wilder S West With the True West

WOMEN IN THE LATE 19th AND 20th CENTURIES LAURA INGALLS WILDER Laura Ingalls Wilder is famous for writing extensively about the lives of a family that moved westward in the late 19th century. In some respects, her work is quite accurate and enhances an accurate picture of the Great Prairie during those times.

However, in other respects her work is inaccurate, particularly in the way it glosses over the presence and lives of Native Americans, as well as the hostility and brutality of pioneers toward Native Americans, very nearly resulting in the extinction of Native Americans. In some respects, Wilder's work exemplifies life on the Great Prairie during the late 19th Century; however, it also falls far short of explaining that life in other respects.

The Wilder family lived in Wisconsin, Kansas and Minnesota during Laura Ingalls Wilder's early life but moved to De Smet, South Dakota, when Laura was 11-12 years old (Brammer & Greetham, 2008). The chapter called "Moving In" in Little House on the Prairie describes their experiences and hard work after relocating to De Smet. The chapter accurately gives an idea of the Great Prairie's vastness, wildness and loneliness (DuBois & Dumenil, 2016, pp. 351-3).

After moving to the land that would contain their new home and unloading the wagon, her father left to get a load of logs. "The land and the sky seemed too large, and Laura felt small. She wanted to hide and be still in the tall grass like a little prairie chicken" (Wilder, 1953, p. 54) and a person living alone on the Prairie could certainly get lonely for company (Wilder, 1953, p. 68). Finally, the chapter also speaks of people apprehensively hearing howling wolves in the distance (Wilder, 1953, p. 79).

This chapter conveys the hugeness and possible dangers of the Great Prairie. The chapter also accurately tells of the hard lives work that men, women and children had to perform in order to survive on the Prairie (DuBois & Dumenil, 2016, pp. 361-2). They lived in a tent or in a wagon on the property until the house was built (Wilder, 1953, p. 65). The father and mother were doing the heavy work of building the house when the father let a log slip and badly sprained the mother's ankle.

Even with her bad sprain, she still hobbled around and got supper as usual, only more slowly, but could no longer help with the building (Wilder, 1953, p. 61). After the house was built with the neighbor's help, the mother supervised the move-in, lifted and swept, though she still limped around on her sprained ankle (Wilder, 1953, p. 72). The children also helped, moving the wood chips out of the house before their mother could sweep and they could move in (Wilder, 1953, p. 72).

Comparing Wilder's work to our readings, she gives a good sense of the hard work and hardships endured by these settlers. The simple life they led was also illustrated by the chapter. Laura admired the roughly-finished house because, "Everything was so free and big and splendid" (Wilder, 1953, p. 75). However, they used a quilt for a door (Wilder, 1953, p. 78), and the house had no windows, the floor was dirt and the roof was canvas stretched over logs (Wilder, 1953, p. 74).

The family had to make do with the rough house, while a solid roof, a "puncheon" (logs smoothed on one side) floor, fireplace, beds, tables and chairs all had to wait for a later time (Wilder, 1953, p. 75). Furthermore, supplies were so scarce and carefully monitored that they saved sugar for company (Wilder, 1953, p. 65). In these ways, the chapter accurately reflects the harshness of life for people who moved west. Perhaps the biggest failing of the chapter is its treatment of Native Americans.

The Wilder family's experience of Indians was basically nonexistent in this chapter. Laura had never seen Indians (Wilder, 1953, p. 56) and they still hadn't seen any Indians by the time the house was built (Wilder, 1953, p. 72). However, they had preconceived notions about the Indians: "We wanted to live like the Indians" (Wilder, 1953, p. 76) by washing clothes in the creek and having a fire in the house that let smoke escape through the house roof.

Meanwhile, as we know from our reading, the actual interaction of westward expansionists and Native Americans was cruel and devastating for the Native Americans (DuBois & Dumenil, 2016, pp.