Jump to content
IGNORED

Little House series: book vs reality


YPestis

Recommended Posts

I love the LHOTP books, but this has always bothered me. The Ingalls children went through a lot of suffering because their parents had wandering feet. They would have had a lot more comfortable and stable life if they had parked it somewhere.It's not unlike some of the Sparkly World, trailer-living fundies we've snarked on.

I can speak to that. I always thought Pa Ingalls reminded me of my own father, as far as moving frequently and without a lot of notice. It's extremely difficult. As an adult, I still get triggered into panic when someone tries to change things up on me suddenly, even if they're a good friend who I know wouldn't hurt me. Because that's what it feels like when you're are constantly unsettled: like your parents are hurting you over and over. There's nothing you can do about that while you're a minor. So you try to compartmentalize it, make the most of it, and get through it. They ripped so many things from my life. Our relationship is pretty rocky today, as you can imagine, because I can't trust that anything they have to say is for anyone's good except their own.

I saw much more in the books as an adult than I did as a kid. In fact, I found The Long Winter too boring to slug through (as a kid) and never read more than 1/3 of it. As an adult, it riveted me - it was scary!

I felt the same way about The Long Winter. Such a different reading experience from one age to another!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ITA about the Long Winter reading experience from child to adult. It is riveting!

I bet LIW would love to have vaccines and medical care.

Take that, anti-vaxxing fundies!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are you reading The Wilder Life? I knew Laura's life was different from the books but it shocked me how much when I read that book. I definitely think fundies idolize the entire area. I assume it's down to a lack of critical reading skills because I read quite a lot of hardship and even early feminist ideas in the books.

ETA: I wonder if fundie mothers reading the books to their kids censor the part where Laura says she doesn't want to promise to obey and submit to Almanzo during their wedding vows, too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I consumed the Little House books as a child, and when our town librarian noticed, she let me into the loft (the library was a revolutionary war church) and gave me access to their library of pioneer diaries and writings, which shed an entirely different light on pioneers, homesteading and the privations faced by settlers.

For those that would like a different look at life of a pioneer woman I highly suggest, "Letters of a woman Homesteader" by Elinore Pruitt Stewart. This book was made into a worthy independent movie called Heartland, staring Rip Torn and Conchetta Ferrell. These are the letters of a woman who once widowed with a child, travels to WY from Denver to become a housekeeper for a rancher, in order to secure a livelihood that could support her and her daughter. These letters are unedited, and the book is lightly illustrated by N. C. Wyeth.

There are many good accounts of life and traveling to the west available in some Smithsonian collections online and in oral histories gathered by the WPA. The address the reality of hardships, starvation, the dangers of childbirth and the often tenuous and abusive marriages many woman had to make to ensure that they had a roof over their heads and some bread to eat.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

ITA about the Long Winter reading experience from child to adult. It is riveting!

I bet LIW would love to have vaccines and medical care.

Take that, anti-vaxxing fundies!

True that. Especially when you consider that both Laura and Manzo almost died of Diptheria the first few years of their married life. It paralyzed him and took him years to learn to walk again. If you see pics of him in the later years, it is clear to see the pain and suffering on his face.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've read at least 3 biographies on LIW and RWL, though I can't remember the names of them.

Actually, I have my doubts that RWL especially would have approved of any government aid at all, seeing as how she condemned the use of food ration stamps during WWll, insisting that it was possible to survive without them if you were only willing to work hard.

Also, I noticed that, in reality, the Ingalls family moved around A LOT more than is portrayed in the books. When I first read them as a child, and then again as a 16 year old, I didn't think Laura had moved THAT much. At least, not more than I had. Then I read the biographies and was like, whoa, the family moved practically every other year!

And once I learned that the government paid for Mary's tuition, it kinda ruined the series for me. I also wondered why, then, was Laura obsessed with finding jobs? It never occurred to me that it might be ebcause of the dire poverty the Ingall's family faced.

I did re read the books at 16 and had an older perspective (picking up on the danger of rape in Silver Lake) but I wonder if I'd be able to read even MORE between the lines as an adult. Especially now that I know how to analyze literature.

Ironically enough, I had to force myself, at 16, to read Farmer Boy. I never read it as a child because it struck me as too boring. There was enough literature on what life was like for boys at that time period anyway, so it wasn't worth reading to me. As a 16 year old almost adult, when I read the book I was like, holy cow people get beaten a lot!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I

So it seems the good ol' days were times when people lived in abject poverty, where hard work did not mean prosperity, where a husband's illness could financially ruin a family. How interesting that fundies still hold up the 19th century as the pinnacle of societal perfection and moral value? That was a time when children died, sick husbands leave families destitute, and hard work only provides more debt. The government didn't offer the much aid but I bet those desperate families could have liked to ensure their children were fed every night. It makes me wonder how anyone could gloss over so much of this and want to go back to those days?

Not to get all political but this descripton of what the good old days were really like is also an accurate description of what the present moment days are like. People are working longer hours for less pay and less benefits. Healthcare costs often result in complete destitution for many people. I read that 1-2 million people, in America, are left homeless due to healthcare costs. 80% of those people had health insurance. There are government assistance programs but children and adults still go to bed hungry. Many times these benefits are cut once an individual starts working 40 hours a week at minimum wage, so families go into debt trying to buy gas, food, etc. Hard work leads to debt. The US has one of the higher rates of 1st world countries for mother and infant mortality.

I am not saying that there hasn't been many advances that have helped with many of the issues faced by people in the past. I don't want to go backwards or live in a time long forgotten. I like the internet, medicine, being immunize agaisnt various infectious, life threatening or life altering diseases, cold beer from the fridge, science, etc. It does seem that many people in the GOP and fundy leaders want to take us back to the good old days with their railing agaisnt universal health care, abortion, public education, and social(ist) programs, so, of course, they would want to gloss over the hardships faced back in the "good" old days. Longing for a fictional past seems a great way to solve current problems. It seems like an answer to the big bad of today's culture. How foolish that way of thinking is.

Back to the topic. I am now going to need to go back to the her books and read them with new eyes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I want to read these books again after this thread! It wasn't till I read them as an adult that I realized how bad life really was for them. And, yeah, as a child, Pa always seemed like the fun parent, but as an adult I realized what a jerk he was and how Ma must have been so stressed all the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And once I learned that the government paid for Mary's tuition, it kinda ruined the series for me. I also wondered why, then, was Laura obsessed with finding jobs?!

I wonder if the tuition was paid for, but that was it? Did she have to pay for housing and food and so on, too? Also, she had to pay for her own clothes and I'm assuming they also had to pay for transportation. I actually don't know. It would be interesting to find out. I'm just guessing that all the expenses associated with sending her to school were not covered.

I think Laura did work because her family needed the money, but I also got the impression from the books that she enjoyed working and she enjoyed having money to spend on herself. Definitely not fundie-approved!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I loved reading the Little House books when I was a kid but man did they have some problematic stuff! Did anyone remember Pa in blackface? I think that was in Little town on the Prairie. He and several other men dress up in blackface and sing a song about darkies. I had no earthly clue why he was doing that and it took me years to realize what was going on. I felt so betrayed and angry. Especially since the only person of color in the books was a black doctor who saved their lives in little house on the prarie.

Other fun facts about the Little house series:

Laura told the story of Little House in the big woods and Little house on the prarie out of order. The family moved to Kansas when Laura was 2 and then moved back to the big woods when she was 3. They moved back to the Big woods and lived there again for annother 4 years before moving to Plum Creek. However Laura's editors didn't think readers would believe Laura could remember so much of her life when she was so little so they changed the chronology around.

Nellie Olsen was a composite character of three girls that Laura didn't like. Most of their desecendents don't like how she was potrayed.

Laura's brother who other posters mentioned was named Freddy and he died while the family was living in Iowa (they really did move around a lot)

I think Laura did work because her family needed the money, but I also got the impression from the books that she enjoyed working and she enjoyed having money to spend on herself. Definitely not fundie-approved!

I thought Laura was unhappy working and wanted to be with her family.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was actually allowed to read these books as a child. My mother, who is American, is descended from a man with "itchy feet", and the only item I would like to inherit is the journal written On the Trail. It ends abruptly, as the dog ate the rest of the book, or so lore goes. Big bite marks. I co-sign experiencedd's book suggestion, but I love first person history.

I read the "Wilder Experience" and was very disappointed. Maybe I don't like the term "bonnethead", but it had so much promise, and I, personally, wanted more than what she wrote.

I have the boxed set of the LIW books, and read them every few years. I am not looking forward to explaining the "blackface minstrel show" to Ladybug.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll second (or third?) the suggestion for Letters of a Woman Homesteader and throw A Pioneer's Search for an Ideal Home in to the mix, too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doesn't surprise me that fundies claim to read LIW and yet totally miss the latent feminism & general independence of women in the books. After all, a big family goal for 2-3 of the books is to earn enough money to support Mary while she attends a school for the blind.

Then again, think how badly, even hilariously, fundies misread Jane Austen. It's as if they only consider these books as sources for the costume parties re-enactments they put on for themselves and ignore or don't understand the context.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always thought that for a series of children's books, the Little House books were pretty blunt about how difficult and occasionally awful life on the frontier could be, and I've reread them repeatedly well into adulthood (the series is on my bookshelf now, in fact). There was Ma almost getting killed by the falling log when they were building their cabin (I think that was Little House On the Prairie), the locust infestation, Pa more or less surviving on the oyster crackers when he got trapped out in the snow in The Long Winter.... While I found the books fascinating as a kid, I never wanted to live in Laura and Mary's world; it always sounded to me as if it was a very difficult, very unforgiving world, the family's early feminist leanings notwithstanding. By contrast, I think Farmer Boy is the book in the series that paints a relatively idyllic picture of life in America during the rush westward (which may be why it's always been my favorite), likely because Almanzo was from a relatively well-off family back East, and even then you had incidents like the Hardscrabble boys coming to break up the school and Almanzo's douchey cousin making fun of him because he didn't have a store bought cap.

I've never quite understood fundies who rail against feminism but embrace the Little House books,because in the world Laura Ingalls Wilder writes about, there was just too much damn work to be done to survive to worry about who was doing it. Being a woman didn't stop Ma from helping build the family cabin when necessary, for instance. But I've seen more fundy families who have banned Little House from their homes precisely for its less than rosy picture of frontier life and its feminist leanings than I have fundies who embrace that particular series, though plenty fetishize the era.

I was lucky enough to have grandparents who were born early in the last century (1905 and 1911) live into my middle age; both were 99 when they died and mentally sharp well into their 90s. While their childhoods and early married life weren't quite frontier life, they were close. Both would have told you that there was *nothing* charming or idyllic about having to eke out an existence on a rented farm during the Depression (without benefit of electricity or running water), and Grandma laughed at me when I was young and grousing about chores; when she was first married and for a couple of decades after, she did her laundry in a washtub by hand and cooked on a wood cookstove, no vacuum cleaner, etc. Dragging laundry to a laundromat or having to wash dishes by hand with readily available hot water was a breeze. And of course on the farm everyone chipped in when it was harvest time, women's "delicate" constitutions be damned (actually a pretty laughable attitude since women did twice the work of the men *especially* during harvest time).

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was lucky enough to have grandparents who were born early in the last century (1905 and 1911) live into my middle age; both were 99 when they died and mentally sharp well into their 90s. While their childhoods and early married life weren't quite frontier life, they were close. Both would have told you that there was *nothing* charming or idyllic about having to eke out an existence on a rented farm during the Depression (without benefit of electricity or running water), and Grandma laughed at me when I was young and grousing about chores; when she was first married and for a couple of decades after, she did her laundry in a washtub by hand and cooked on a wood cookstove, no vacuum cleaner, etc. Dragging laundry to a laundromat or having to wash dishes by hand with readily available hot water was a breeze. And of course on the farm everyone chipped in when it was harvest time, women's "delicate" constitutions be damned (actually a pretty laughable attitude since women did twice the work of the men *especially* during harvest time).

You might almost be describing my own grandmother, who just turned 99 in June. She's told me many of those same stories, the only difference being she grew up in a very small town rather than on a farm. Her father was the town blacksmith, but he was also an abusive alcoholic and her mother divorced him as soon as her three girls were grown up and out of the home (she also had three boys, all of whom lived with her for awhile after the divorce to help out). Grandma has never glossed over the hard life she lived when she was a girl, or even later, when she was raising five kids of her own during the Depression and WWII. She didn't even have a bathroom in the house til my mother was halfway through high school in the early 50s. The outhouse was still down at the back of the property--a long, chilly walk on a dark January evening! :shock: --when I was a little girl.

When I first realised that things in Laura's real life weren't quite the way she portrayed them in her books, I felt a little betrayed and wished I hadn't found out that Pa had skipped town without paying his bills, or that Laura couldn't possibly have remembered much about the family's time on the prairie in Kansas. But now I'm glad I know the real story. I just try to keep the reality separate in my mind from the stories whenever I re-read the books. I remind myself the stories were written for children. It's interesting to read them as an adult, though, and catch the many, many nuances I missed as a child.

The Little House books were the first things I bought when I got my first job back in the 70s. I still have them; if I ever have to evacuate for a hurricane they'll go with me, along with my important papers file and my family photo albums. Visiting the different family home sites is at the top of my bucket list. I was at the National Archives in Washington a couple of summers ago, and came across a little display case with an amazing piece of American history: Charles Ingalls' claim for the homestead near De Smet, South Dakota, the one that finally tied him down and put an end to his wanderings. Made me cry to see it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My grandparents were born in 1939 and 1942 but they lived in a place that was well behind the times, at least compared to more urban settings. My grandmother describes her childhood very fondly, but she definitely does not pine for the northern coastal Canadian winters with snow piled up to the second story windows and only a wood stove downstairs to heat the whole house, no electricity, no indoor plumbing - if you had to use the washroom you used the 'slop bucket' which was later dumped back in a field. The wood stove and kerosene lamps meant having to scrub the floors, ceilings, walls, windows, etc. and wash all the curtains and things far more often than you would have to nowadays, and remember, no electricity meant washing it all by hand.

My grandmother's grandmother had six daughters. One of them died as a toddler because she ate homemade soap with lye in it. The last daughter was born on the day her father was buried. He had pneumonia but he couldn't stop working because he had to take care of his family. He collapsed and died. His wife was left with five daughters. Their one cow froze when someone left the barn door open. The community helped them, but it was hard. She ended up running the post office to provide for herself and her daughters. The girls worked in hotels and such. They couldn't afford to stay at home.

My grandmother's other grandmother had fourteen children. She had a built-in cradle in the barn so that she could milk the cow and rock the baby in the cradle with her foot at the same time.

These people worked HARD. I don't think fundies would know what to do with themselves if they were faced with a life like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read all of the Little House books over and over, and played Little House with my dolls when I was a kid. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when the show came out when I was about 8. I remember being weirded out by Pa in blackface and several other things in the books, but I also remember realizing early on that Laura was a feminist (despite her statements to the contrary). My daughter just turned nine and one of the presents I got her was the boxed set LIW books. We'll definitely be discussing the extent to which these represent real life, or don't.

BTW, I've been following FJ for several years now and just recently registered. This is my first post. :)

Thank you soooo much to Watchdog for creating the list of blogs - very helpful, and more to distract me from work I need to be doing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was lucky enough to have grandparents who were born early in the last century (1905 and 1911) live into my middle age; both were 99 when they died and mentally sharp well into their 90s. While their childhoods and early married life weren't quite frontier life, they were close. Both would have told you that there was *nothing* charming or idyllic about having to eke out an existence on a rented farm during the Depression (without benefit of electricity or running water), and Grandma laughed at me when I was young and grousing about chores; when she was first married and for a couple of decades after, she did her laundry in a washtub by hand and cooked on a wood cookstove, no vacuum cleaner, etc. Dragging laundry to a laundromat or having to wash dishes by hand with readily available hot water was a breeze. And of course on the farm everyone chipped in when it was harvest time, women's "delicate" constitutions be damned (actually a pretty laughable attitude since women did twice the work of the men *especially* during harvest time).

My grandma grew up on the prairie (in town - a town so small it's since disappeared) and my grandpa on a farm, in the 1920s. They got married as teenagers & had their first baby just in time for the big drought to happen. Their parents were pioneers, who came into Dakota territory legally after the Army pushed out the native people (so much for not taking government benefits, pioneers! Who came from the East & Europe because there was no land left there to steal?)

There were 3 things in life my grandfather LOVED. Scotch whiskey, air conditioning, and automobiles. And my grandma was happy about the existence of wrinkleproof fabric, pasteurized milk, and wall to wall carpet until the year she died (2005).

When my oldest aunt was a baby, it was too cold to change her at night (not enough cash for coal that winter, uninsulated farmhouse) so they'd just add more cloth diapers on the outside so she wouldn't soak through, and changed her in the morning after the stove was hot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here you go: - "The Wilder Life" by Wendy McLure. She and her partner follow the LIW trail. This is the book that contains the hilarious fundie encounter.

-"My Life as Laura" by Wendy Ferguson. Both of these books are fairly quick reads.

Also "The Ghost in the Little House" by William Holtz. This is a very long, scholarly research of Rose Wilder Lane's life, and influence on LIW's work. It is well documented/footnoted throughout. Excellent bibliography.

Happy Reading!

I also recommend "I Remember Laura" by Stephen W. Hines which gives a look into LIW's later years, plus articles from the Ruralist, as well as stories about Rose's life from people who knew her from childhood, as well as her political POV and debates between mother and daughter. Laura may have inherited Pa's strong sense of independence, but she was certainly more sociable and had no problem spending money, even frivolously, when she had it. But she never stopped going to church as I believe Rose did, fairly early in her adulthood. What I HAVE forgotten is why Rose's marriage broke up. I always got a strong lesbian vibe from her.

edited to add the author (sort of important) :doh:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That exchange is in By the Shores of Silver Lake. Honestly, the way Pa spoke about Native Americans was absolutely standard and acceptable at that time and place. It would have been complete BS if she had sugar coated that.

Thanks! That was bugging me and I almost headed to the library.

Was that the book where Laura also took the job? I think she also said that she had to "pay back her parents for raising her" in that book. :cry:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe that fundies have it wrong about that era. Yeah there were times where things were calm and a husband and wife could fall into typical gender roles but those times were probably far and in between. Women back then were not in the house being happy homemakers while the their husbands were out taken care of the fields. They were out there working side by side with husbands to plant those craps or do whatever they needed to do so the family could eat. It was all hands on deck to keep a family afloat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I loved reading the Little House books when I was a kid but man did they have some problematic stuff! Did anyone remember Pa in blackface? I think that was in Little town on the Prairie. He and several other men dress up in blackface and sing a song about darkies. I had no earthly clue why he was doing that and it took me years to realize what was going on. I felt so betrayed and angry. Especially since the only person of color in the books was a black doctor who saved their lives in little house on the prarie.

Other fun facts about the Little house series:

Laura told the story of Little House in the big woods and Little house on the prarie out of order. The family moved to Kansas when Laura was 2 and then moved back to the big woods when she was 3. They moved back to the Big woods and lived there again for annother 4 years before moving to Plum Creek. However Laura's editors didn't think readers would believe Laura could remember so much of her life when she was so little so they changed the chronology around.

Nellie Olsen was a composite character of three girls that Laura didn't like. Most of their desecendents don't like how she was potrayed.

Laura's brother who other posters mentioned was named Freddy and he died while the family was living in Iowa (they really did move around a lot)

I thought Laura was unhappy working and wanted to be with her family.

As a child, I was disturbed by Pa in blackface, and from what I got about Laura working is that while she did like having money to spend on herself, she was also missing her family. For some reason, I never read the books again as an adult, but I'm thinking of getting them again to do so. Besides, I can use the excuse of getting the set for my niece, which is something I plan to do anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also recommend "I Remember Laura" by Stephen W. Hines which gives a look into LIW's later years, plus articles from the Ruralist, as well as stories about Rose's life from people who knew her from childhood, as well as her political POV and debates between mother and daughter. Laura may have inherited Pa's strong sense of independence, but she was certainly more sociable and had no problem spending money, even frivolously, when she had it. But she never stopped going to church as I believe Rose did, fairly early in her adulthood.

edited to add the author (sort of important) :doh:

I forgot I had I Remember Laura; now I know what I'll be reading this evening. :lol:

What I HAVE forgotten is why Rose's marriage broke up. I always got a strong lesbian vibe from her.

I always got the impression she often had lovers and didn't really care what people thought of her for that, in a time when being single and having sex was quite an eyebrow-raiser. Never thought about the lesbian possibility. :think:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are there any links or articles about Pa skipping town? I've never heard this before!

Don't have the books to hand here at work (ahem), but I believe that's essentially what happens when they leave Plum Creek. Pa is so far in debt for his farm+land due to locusts, bad weather, etc. that he essentially gives up on it all. IIRC, he leaves the family for a few months in the summer before they depart for SD in order to earn some cash dollars as part of a threshing crew so that they have money to live & travel on.

Hard to imagine how Caroline Ingalls put up with all that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.