Little House In The Big Woods: A Literary Analysis

Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in 1867 to Charles and Caroline Ingalls along with three other sisters. The oldest of the sisters was named Mary, Laura came next followed by Carrie, and finally Grace. Laura would often write down the events that would take throughout her life, from living in the Big Woods in Wisconsin to moving out west to start a new life. Later on in her life she would put all of her experiences down into multiple books that became vastly popular and helped teach the world about her life as a settler. Laura eventually became known as America’s Original Pioneer Girl. Laura’s first book “Little House in the Big Woods” written in 1932 focuses on her life in the Big Woods in Wisconsin with her Pa, Ma, and sisters Mary and Carrie

The story, along with one of Laura’s other book “Little House on the Prairie” exhibit cases of hatred and fear towards Native Americans, as well as manifest destiny, and American exceptionalism that were common during the time period that the family lived. Pa, especially, portrays most of these traits as the patriarchal leader of the family. There are many connections that can be made between the attitudes held by Pa, the family, and many other settlers at the time and the overall attitude towards Native Americans in the

Pa and many others thought it was their right as white males to lay claim to the wilderness. Pa and other white settlers had been driven out west and to new territory by the manifest destiny. The manifest destiny is the dream to move to new, unexplored and untamed land that offered more land to grow and a lot of resources to start new and better life, one that would allow the men to properly provide for their family. Many people were motivated by this dream of an improved life. While the family was still in the east in Wisconsin during the period when “Little House in the Big Woods” took place, Pa still dreamed of better life for himself and his family. He also wanted more land which he got when he and his family moved out west to the prairie in “Little House on the Prairie.” As stated in “Little House on the Prairie,” Pa had grown tired of the amount of people that moved into the Big Woods in Wisconsin. The land that they previously occupied had become too developed and busy with roads and housing being built nearby. To Pa, the west seemed like the ideal opportunity to expand and start a new, better life for himself and his