Little House on the Prairie

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1932

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-10

Chapters 11-14

Chapters 15-20

Chapters 21-26

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Prairie House

The prairie house symbolizes safety and security to Laura, in contrast to the relatively flimsy covered wagon. The house also symbolizes stability rather than the upheaval and constant change implied by the mobile wagon. The process by which Pa improves and reinforces the house with features such as a door, latch to lock the door from inside, glass windows, hearth, a floor, built-in bedstead, etc. all serve as signs that the family intends to permanently stay in Kansas, providing Laura with a sense of safety. The house’s protective features such as the door, windows and latch also increase its ability to shield the family from the elements and perceived threats like wolves and hostile Native Americans. Thus, when the family leaves their house at the end of the book, they are not just leaving its physical structure but also the protection, security, and stability it embodies.

Fire

Fire serves both a protective and a destructive function in Little House. Fittingly, Pa in his role as mediator between the females and the natural world makes the fire each night while the family is traveling in the wagon, and he has mastery over the element. The fire lets the family warm up, cook food, and see in the darkness. However, later in the book, fire becomes destructive, as it threatens to burn down the prairie house. The fire is symbolic of the family’s early mastery over the Kansas landscape that later erodes as the government decides to evict the white settlers. Fire’s instability manifests when the chimney catches on fire and threatens to burn the house and the girls, suggesting that the family’s security is more tenuous than they might realize.

Mobility and Displacement

Both the settlers and the Native Americans experience mobility (voluntary or forced) and displacement in the story. Pa takes the family from Wisconsin to Kansas, followed by a period of “rootedness,” ending with a mobilization back out of the area. The first period of mobility is freely chosen; the second is involuntary.

The mobility sequences of the natives mirror this pattern as well. First, they retain their seasonal patterns of mobility, making temporary camps and then moving on, as when Pa and the girls visit the deserted camp in Chapter 14. They gather and disperse again during the traditional time of the buffalo hunt when the Ingalls family hears the “war-cries.” This mobility is voluntary as well, although it is certainly affected by the white settlers’ presence in the area. Finally, the natives are compelled to make a last journey, which is ambiguous as to its voluntariness or lack thereof. This ambiguity marks both final departures—those of the natives and Laura’s family—with a mixture of compulsion and freedom. Pa may not have been “forced” out of his claim, but he is merely choosing to leave of his own accord to prevent himself from being forced. The natives, if they are not acting under government command, are “choosing” to leave only to prevent being forced later.