Little House in the Big Woods

Charles Ingalls, Laura’s Pa, often livens the family’s evenings by playing music and telling stories. Explain how these stories help to develop his daughters’ knowledge and impart lessons to readers, while creating a framework for the narrative?

Describe the relationships between the family members in this book. What is Laura’s relationship like with her sisters, Mary and Carrie? What are Charles and Caroline Ingalls’s parenting styles like, and how does this influence their children?

All family members must pull their weight when it comes to hard work on the frontier. Analyze the division of labor in the Ingalls family. How is it separated by age and gender and how does this help them survive? Why is this an important theme in the narrative?

The story takes place in the 1870s. Research the historical context; what was happening back East at this time, where cities were more built up, versus the more rural and untamed West? What was going on politically and historically, and how did this influence the lifestyle of the Ingalls family?

Is the story convincing as a third-person account of the viewpoint of a small girl? What techniques does the author use to make a five-year-old’s experience authentic? Explain how Laura’s life as a girl on the frontier compares and contrasts with the lives of similarly-aged children today.

Explain the family’s relationship to nature. Use examples from the text that illustrates their dependence on it and shows how it affects their existence.

Charles and Caroline try to instill values such as social duty, family life, faith, and manners in their children. Why do you think this might be important in an environment such as the one they live in? How do Ma and Pa go about enforcing their lessons? 

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s style offers a third-person, semi-omniscient narrative. Is this effective? Is it too limiting in showing only Laura’s point of view? Investigate and explain how her prose is inviting to children.