I’ve been reading the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I am reading them in order, and so far have finished three. I really, really like them. They’re very moral, and I find myself being very mindful of being selfish after reading them. I find myself trying to be good, just as Laura does.
They are a charming picture of what life was like back then, and astounding to me is the amount of work they have to do. The Mother makes the butter and the cheese and the bread, the father spends the winters going out into the snow to trap animals to sell for their furs. They are so skilled compared to us!
The only bad thing I can see about the books is the attitude to the Native Americans (Red Indians). They are looked upon with fear, and sometimes hatred and loathing. Of course, this is just representative of the time it’s depicting, but when you realise that the eponymous Little House is actually built illegally on an Osage Reservation you kind of realise the “Indians” may have had reason to be less than friendly.
Apart from that little aspect, they really are quite charming books if you keep in mind that they are a product of their time. After all they are mostly written over fifty years ago and depicting fifty years before that.
The materialist in me does balk at the idea of nothing but one stick of candy for Christmas though….
PoF: grown up?
CO: superheroes.