Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book, Little House in the Big Woods, is a selected account of her memories
as a child growing up in a settler family. Because they are remembered
experiences rather than current, recorded ones, the memories are boiled down to
what impacted her as a child the most. Woven in with these experiential memories are pragmatic descriptions of common processes (making butter, cheese, etc.), creating a book
that both documents a child’s perspective and the type of life a child lived in the late
1800s.
The story begins with what concerns a child most when being
introduced to a new place—her home. Laura’s world centers on the “little gray
house made of logs” (1) and expands outward from this center of gravity. Next,
Wilder describes the large surrounding forest, filled with both benign and dangerous wild animals. The forest is simply referred to as the “Big Woods” by Laura, a
child-like name that captures her straightforward view of the world around her.
Similarly, Wilder capitalizes “Butchering Time” (18) to characterize how a
child groups together time by the activities associated with it. Wilder captures
the main concerns of a child—where you sleep, where you play, what you eat,
where you are safe—through describing the world, expanding from the familiar
house and out into the unknown woods.
Wilder is also careful to document not only the descriptions
of her life as a child, but her childish mindset as well. In one passage, Laura
personifies her corncob doll, casually treating it as if it were living: “Mary
was bigger than Laura, and she had a rag doll named Nettie. Laura had only a
corncob wrapped in a handkerchief, but it was a good doll. It was named Susan.
It wasn’t Susan’s fault that she was only a corncob. Sometimes Mary let Laura
hold Nettie, but she did it only when Susan couldn’t see” (21). This short
passage captures Laura’s jealousy of her sister and her own imaginative
compensation for that jealousy with language that rings authentic. A child’s logical thought process is also documented, with “Santa
Claus did not give grown up people presents, but that was not because they were
not good…It was because they were grown up, and grown people must give each
other presents” (79).
Most of the book, however, is spent describing the work
processes of living in a cabin in the woods. Smoking meat, making cheese,
churning butter, tanning leather, Sunday routines, and many other tasks are
described simply but with enough description to peak the curiosity of child
readers. Each chapter is an episode describing a different event or chore to be
done, moving the reader through Laura's life based on the work of the season. Though Laura is set several chores and works her fair share, her time
to play is also included. Though many of these tasks are menial or mundane, it
captures the true experience of a child living in the late 1800s.
Pa’s stories in particular impact Laura because it’s through
stories that children learn about the world around them, and, in particular,
learn about correct behavior. Each story has a serious moral that is important
to Laura’s everyday life, whether it be to obey her parents or behave
reverently on Sundays. Wilder’s inclusion of these stories documents their importance
to her childhood experience, and captures the integral role stories play in a
child’s development.
Little House in the Big
Woods is a documentation of a child’s perspective and experience growing up
in a cabin in the woods, doing chores and playing with her family. Its simple
language expresses Laura’s young age while the episodic stories document the
hard work and happy rewards of an industrious life.
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As a side note, I love this physical example of documentation. I read my mother's copy of the book that she received when she was eight years old.
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