W.H. Auden introduces a book of Joseph Jacob fairy tales by saying “You have in your hands a book of stories…They come from a world in which most people ate the food they grew themselves, made their own clothes, went to bed at sunset, [and] got up at sunrise.” These words could introduce the stories of Laura Ingalls Wilder in her Little House on the Prairie series.
Historical Accuracy
While many people read the stories as an actual account of Laura’s life. She and her daughter Rose actually edited the time-line and events of Laura’s life in order to make the stories more interesting to children. They are a fictionalized account of Laura’s life. In addition, the books do not mention details that Laura and Rose did not believe were suitable for children.
While as an autobiography the books are not accurate, from a social studies standpoint they are valid historical documents. Laura researched the details so that the accounts of how things were done were correct. The stories also portray truthfully how daily life was lived for one pioneer family.
However, the popularity of the stories cannot be attributed to their accuracy and importance as socio-historical documents. People enjoy the stories because of the characters and because of the opportunity to escape to a ‘better’ time as presented in the stories.
The Magic of Bygone Days
Laura wrote a poem that captures what people find in her stories. Her poem locates these desires in a time that is earlier than her own childhood but people are drawn to the stories of her childhood because they find the same values in her books as she is seeking in her poem.
Laura begs “Oh read me a story and let me forget / This brain racking worry, this wearying fret.” No common story will do she wants a story that tells of a time “When all hearts were merry and the world was still young / When honor was common and knavery rare / The men were all gallant, the women all fair: / And when sweetest sad music was heard in the air.”
The Passage of Time
The axis of the Little House series is time itself. Laura wrote her stories in order to capture something that had passed away long before she did. The stories begin with the fairy tale phrase “Once upon a time, sixty years ago a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin.” Just like fairy tales, the woods in Laura’s story are big, dark, and endless.
In the middle of these mysterious woods lives a family in a little gray cabin and as we meet Laura and learn about her life it seems like a magical life suspended in time. But the adult Laura cannot forget time and she reminds her readers of time and civilization by telling us of the wagon track that passed the house. In a sense, the track represents the story of the woman who is writing the book but “the little girl did not know where it went, nor what might be the end of it.”
The series ends on the same axis when in These Happy Golden Years “Laura’s heart was full of happiness. She knew she need never be homesick for the old home. It was so near that she could go to it whenever she wished.” She ends the story with the memory of “the voice of Pa’s fiddle and the echo of a song, ‘Golden years are passing by, These happy, golden years.’”
The Dangers in Fairy Tales
Many people would argue that her stories portray a world harsher and more difficult than ours and are not like fairy tales at all. However, fairy tales are of harsh worlds where failure often means death and impossible tasks are set before the protagonist. In Laura’s stories, the difference between life and death find their fulcrum on minute actions of the protagonist.
In Little House on the Prairie Laura realizes that if “Pa had not known what to do, or if Ma had been too frightened to drive, or if Laura and Mary had been naughty and bothered her then they would all have been lost. The river would have rolled them over and over and carried them away and drowned them, and nobody would ever have known what became of them.”
The Quality of a Fairy Tale Heroine
After she quit writing the books, Laura wrote a ‘letter’ telling more about her life to her insatiable fans. In it she writes that: “The "Little House" Books are stories of long ago. Today our way of living and our schools are much different; so many things have made living and learning easier. But the real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong.”
Auden says the same thing when discussing fairy tales “The kind of person who is held up in a fairy tales as an example of the person we ought to be is not only brave-that the fairy tale takes for granted-but humble, polite to all, generous, and grateful.”
It is true that Wilder’s books are based on her life and it is true that they were well researched and that they are valuable documents recording pioneer life. However, their appeal lies in something more enduring and it is the same stuff that fairy tales are made out of.
Sources
Auden, W.H. The Pied Piper and Other Fairy Tales of Joseph Jacobs. The Macmillan Company, 1963.
Anderson, William. A Little House Reader: A Collection of Writings by Laura Ingalls Wilder. HarperCollinsPublishers, 1998.
Read more about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her books at Suite101.
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