Các đặc trưng văn hoá trong cuộc sống hàng ngày của cộng đồng qua tác phẩm ‘n

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  CHU THỊ THU HUYỀN TYPICAL CULTURAL FEATURES FOUND IN DAILY L

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



CHU THỊ THU HUYỀN

TYPICAL CULTURAL FEATURES FOUND IN DAILY LIFE

OF THE COMMUNITY IN SERIES THE LITTLE HOUSE ON

THE PRAIRIE BY LAURA INGALLS WILDER

FROM PERSPECTIVES OF LANGUAGE-CULTURE

( CÁC ĐẶC TRƯNG VĂN HOÁ TIÊU BIỂU TRONG ĐỜI SỐNG

HÀNG NGÀY CỦA CỘNG ĐỒNG QUA TÁC PHẨM

“NGÔI NHÀ NHỎ TRÊN THẢO NGUYÊN” – LAURA INGALLS

WILDER DƯỚI GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HOÁ-NGÔN NGỮ)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Hanoi - 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



CHU THỊ THU HUYỀN

TYPICAL CULTURAL FEATURES FOUND IN DAILY LIFE

OF THE COMMUNITY IN SERIES THE LITTLE HOUSE ON

THE PRAIRIE BY LAURA INGALLS WILDER

FROM PERSPECTIVES OF LANGUAGE-CULTURE

( CÁC ĐẶC TRƯNG VĂN HOÁ TIÊU BIỂU TRONG ĐỜI SỐNG

HÀNG NGÀY CỦA CỘNG ĐỒNG QUA TÁC PHẨM

“NGÔI NHÀ NHỎ TRÊN THẢO NGUYÊN” – LAURA INGALLS

WILDER DƯỚI GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HOÁ-NGÔN NGỮ)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Dr Ngô Tự Lập

Hanoi - 2013

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and certify the best of my knowledge This thesis contains no materials that have been accepted as part of requirements for any other degree or diploma in any educational institution nor previously published is written unless the reference to the material is made

Signature

Chu Thị Thu Huyền

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like first and foremost to thank Dr Ngo Tu Lap, my thesis supervisor, for his critical comments and valuable instructions without which this thesis could not have been completed

My indebtedness is also to my beloved family members whose help and encouragements contributed greatly to the completion of my study

Last but not least, I am grateful to my colleagues and my friends for their support throughout the process of writing this thesis

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ABSTRACT

The end of nineteenth century in America is considered the ―Frontier time‖, which had great impact on American culture and history Taking inspiration from this period, this study is an investigation into American culture of the Frontier

time through the series The Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Basing on the Frontier Theory of F.J Turner, the study focuses on analyzing Frontier Spirit expressed in the Westward movement tendency, the Self-provision activities, Self-reliance attitude and the Evolution in attitude toward Native Americans of the main characters in the series Through the study, the author would like to suggest that teaching literature is inseparable with teaching culture; moreover, culture will be more accessible for students through studying literature work

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

1.1 Language and Culture 1

1.2 Literature as Verbal Manifestation of Language 2

1.3 The Little House on the Prairie – a Typical Literary Work of the Frontier Time in American History 3

2 Aims of the Study 4

3 Scope of the Study 4

4 Methods of the Study 4

5 Outline of the Study 5

Part 2: DEVELOPMENT 7

Chapter 1: MAJOR CULTURAL FEATURES OF THE SOCIETY IN FRONTIER PERIOD ACCORDING TO TURNER‘S FRONTIER THEORY 7

1.1 Frontier Period in American history 7

1.2 Fredrick J Turner‘s Frontier Theory 8

1.3 Frontier Spirit in Turner‘s Frontier Thesis 11

Chapter 2: LAURA INGALLS WILDER AND HER LITTLE HOUSE SERIES 15 2.1 Laura Ingalls Wilder 15

2.2 The Little House Series 16

2.3 Reviews on The Little House Series 19

Chapter 3: EXPRESSIONS OF THE FRONTIER SPIRIT IN THE LITTLE HOUSE SERIES 21

3.1 Expression of the Frontier Spirit in the Westward Movement Tendency 22

3.2 Frontier Spirit Expressed in the Self-provision Activities 26

3.3 Expression of the Frontier Spirit in the Self-reliance Attitude 29

3.4 Expression of the Frontier Spirit in the Evolution of the Racial Problems 32

Part 3: CONCLUSION 40

3.1 Issues Addressed in the Study 40

3.2 Implications of the Study 41

3.3 Suggestions for Further Studies 42

REFERENCE 43

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Part 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

1.1 Language and Culture

Language, our primary tool of thought and perception, is at the heart of who we are as individuals Language is constantly changing, sometimes into entirely new verbal varieties, leading to subtle differences in how we present ourselves to others

Understood as particular sets of speech norms of a particular community, language is also a part of the larger cultural spheres of the community that utilize them Languages do not differ only in pronunciation, vocabulary, or grammar, but also through having different "cultures of speaking." Humans use language as a way of signaling identity with one cultural group and difference from others Even among speakers of one language, there are different ways of using language existing, and each is used to signal affiliation with particular subgroups within a

larger culture

Culture, on the other hand, is the humankind‘s treasure that individuals inherit from their ancestors (including experience like knowledge, skills, values and norms), develop them, and then pass onto future generations In his book

Language Shock – Understanding the Culture of Conversation (1994), the

American linguistic anthropologist Michael Agar declares that ―Culture is … what happens to you when you encounter differences, become aware of something in yourself, and work to figure out why the differences appeared

1.2 Literature as Verbal Manifestation of Language

Among various language manifestations, literature is undoubtedly the most sophisticated ―Language is the medium of literature as marble or bronze or clay are the materials of the sculptor‖, whereas ―the literature fashioned out of the form and substance of a language has the color and the texture of its matrix,‖ – says Edward Sapir (1921) They are complementary as they enrich and glorify each other Also, literature and culture have a reciprocal relationship Literature takes its inspiration from the daily life and the social context; therefore culture affects literature what to write and how to write, while the product of this writing process will be used to interpret culture Language of literature works, therefore, has been the subject of many studies by linguists because it presents particularly the relation of language and culture Socio-cultural background should be taken into account when analyzing a literary work; vice versa a literature work, more or less, always reflected the social condition of its time Therefore, a literary work can help readers widen their knowledge of a certain historical period

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When referring to the West of American in the second half of the 19th century, enormous popular attention in the media often focuses on the "Wild West", symbolized by wars and treaties, cowboys and the gold rush Nevertheless, fewer people know that this period is a remarkable milestone in American history, known as the Frontier time Since knowledge about this period still somehow insufficient, this paper hopefully provides more information about that time

1.3 The Little House on the Prairie – a Typical Literary Work of the Frontier

Time in American History

This study is an investigation into American culture of the Frontier time through

the famous series entitled The Little House on the Prairie written by Laura Ingalls

Wilder, with which many Vietnamese people may be more familiar thanks to its

adaptation The Little House on the Prairie drama television series This series, often known as Little House series, is based on decades-old memories of Laura

Ingalls Wilder's childhood in the Midwest region of the United States during the late 19th century As Wilder noted in 1937, she wrote the series to show children who had grown up in a post-frontier age "what it is that made America as they know it." Although these books are classified as children‘s books, they still provide a ―real‖ picture of America at that time, a kind of historical chronicle offering both a detailed record of how the pioneers lived and an illustration to the values that built America As Wilder declared, in her own life, she "represented a whole period of American history", and it was through the details of her own life that she wanted to tell the story of the frontier experience

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2 Aims of the Study

The aims of the study are to investigate some major cultural features of American society in the Frontier time of the nineteenth century, and to show how

these features are reflected in the series The Little House on the Prairie by Laura

Ingalls Wilder

To realize these aims, answers for the following research question are sought out:

1 What are the major cultural features of the American society in the Frontier time of the nineteenth century?

2 How are these features reflected in the series The Little House on the

Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder?

3 Scope of the Study

This study will focus on expressions of the Frontier Spirit in Laura Ingalls Wilder‘s series through four main points: the west-wards movement, self-provision activities, self-reliance and the evolution of racial problems

However, within this minor M.A thesis, the author will not analyze the whole

nine-book series The second book in the series, Farmer Boy, which focuses on

the childhood of Laura's future husband, will be excluded in order to keep the mainstream of the whole story (focus on the life of Laura only)

4 Methods of the Study

In the research process, both qualitative and quantitative methods are employed Generally the study relies on the qualitative analysis of cultural features, while

of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House series is also included

5 Outline of the Study

The study consists of three main parts

Part 1: Introduction

This part comprises the rationale, scope, aims, methodology, and design of the study

Part 2: Development

This is the main part, consisting of three chapters

Chapter 1: Major Cultural Features of the society in Frontier period according to Turner’s Frontier Theory

This chapter includes an overview about the Frontier period in American history, the Frontier Theory developed by F.J Turner, and major cultural features according to this theory

Chapter 2: Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House series

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This chapter supplies a brief introduction to Laura Ingalls Wilder‘s life, her Little

House series and some reviews on the value of this series

Chapter 3: The Expressions of Frontier Spirit in the Little House

Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

This chapter is the heart of the study It illustrates how the issues of the Frontier

Spirit reflected in the Little House series

Part 3: Conclusion

This part summarizes the main findings; then draws important conclusions and offers implications for culture teaching and learning as well as suggestions for further studies

At the end of the study, one can find the references including articles and book concerning the study‘s issues to help the analysis of the author clearer and easily accessible

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Part 2: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: MAJOR CULTURAL FEATURES OF THE SOCIETY IN FRONTIER PERIOD ACCORDING TO TURNER’S FRONTIER THEORY

This chapter will be devoted to a review of issues most relevant to the thesis's topic: the Frontier period, the Frontier Theory by Frederick J Turner and the cultural features of the American society according to the theory

1.1 Frontier Period in American history

Frontier, as widely understood nowadays, is the border separating two countries

Besides this current meaning, both Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries define the

Frontier, as used in the past in the United States, as a border between the settled

land where people live and the wide land

Thus, the Frontier period is a term referring the second half of the nineteenth century in the Unites States, when the new nation grew very rapidly in population and area, as pioneers pushed the frontier of settlement west The process finally ended around 1890-1910 when the last major farmlands and ranch lands were settled

As defined by Hine and Faragher, "frontier history tells the story of the creation and defense of communities, the use of the land, the development of markets, and the formation of states" They explain that "It is a tale of conquest, but also one of survival, persistence, and the merging of peoples and cultures that gave birth and continuing life to America‖ (2000)

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The term Frontier period is associated with the Frontier Theory developed by

Fredrick J Turner

1.2 Fredrick J Turner’s Frontier Theory

Many sociologists have tried to found a theory on the relationship between

American culture, society and history Max Weber, for example, in his book The

Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905), proposes the ideas

that ascetic Protestantism was one of the major "elective affinities" associated with the rise in the Western world of market-driven capitalism and the rational-legal nation-state He emphasizes the importance of cultural influences embedded

in religion as a means for understanding the genesis of capitalism and the success

of the USA In Democracy in America (1835), Alexis de Tocqueville, on the

other hand, believes that the republican democracy contributes mainly to the foundation and development of the United States Along with these theories,

the Frontier Theory or Frontier Thesis of historian Frederick Jackson Turner is

arguably one of the most influential interpretations of the American past ever espoused, which laid the foundation for modern historical study of the Unites States in general and the American West in particular

Turner most coherently expressed

his idea in The Significance of the

Frontier in American History,

which he first delivered to a

gathering of historians in 1893 at

Chicago, then the site of the

World's Columbian Exposition, an

enormous fair to mark the four-hundredth anniversary of Columbus' voyage

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Turner elaborated on the theme in his advanced history lectures and in a series of essays published over the next 25 years, published along with his initial paper

as The Frontier in American History Although almost totally ignored at the time,

Turner's theory eventually gained such wide distribution and influence that Faragher has called it "the single most influential piece of writing in the history of American history" (1999, p.1) Faragher even emphasizes that "The frontier thesis became the most familiar model of American history, the one learned in school, extolled by politicians, and screened each Saturday afternoon at the Bijou" (1999, p.1)

Before Turner, many Americans did not think there was much American history

to study Turner proposed a framework for studying the uniqueness of the Unites States through examining the character of America's pioneers Turner's point of departure for the theory was that in the published report of the 1890 federal census, it was reported that the United States no longer had a discernible frontier -

a line of demarcation dividing, as they said then, "civilization" from "savagery." This led the historian to muse upon the importance of the frontier in American history As for Turner, this "closing of the frontier" was taken as an opportunity

to reflect upon the influence it had exercised

The Frontier Thesis shares Turner‘s views on how the idea of the frontier shaped the American being and characteristics He writes of how the frontier drove American history and why America is how it is today Turner reflects on the past

to prove his point by noting human fascination with the frontier and how expansion to the American West changed people's views on their culture

Turner's emphasis on the importance of the frontier in shaping American character influences the interpretation found in thousands of scholarly histories

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More than a century after he first delivered his Frontier Thesis, historians still hotly debate Turner's ideas and approach Although widely popular at the turn of the century, Turner‘s thesis became less credible in the eyes of later historians Some oppose Turner's assumption that the frontier is the key to American history

as a whole; they point instead to the critical influence of such factors as slavery and the Civil War, immigration, and the development of industrial capitalism (as

in Pierson‘s, 1942) Others have criticized Turner‘s unawareness of cities as an integral part of western expansion like Chicago and San Francisco which came first, before the pioneer cowboy Urban historian Richard C Wade challenges the

Frontier Thesis in his first asset, The Urban Frontier – The rise of Western Cities

first released in 1959, asserting that western cities such as Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Cincinnati, not the farmer pioneers, were the catalysts for western expansion More recently, Glenda Riley has argued that Turner‘s thesis ignored women She disputes that his context and upbringing led him to ignore the female portion of society, which directly led to the frontier becoming an exclusively male phenomenon The exclusion of women, later, became one of the central debates around his work, particularly referred to by New Western Historians Last but not least, the idea of a frontier of "free land" has long been disputed Obviously, Turner's formulation ignores the presence of the numerous ―Indian‖ native peoples whose subjugation was required by the nation's westward march, and assumed that the bulk of newly acquired lands were actually democratically distributed to yeomen pioneers

Despite these limitations, the Frontier Theory has tremendous influence on the viewpoint of American history, and it still has great impact on American culture nowadays It tells Americans they are unique and separates them from other Anglo-Saxon peoples A decade after Tuners speech, the Frontier Theory was the

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bedrock for American history, it helped explain who Americans were as people and why they considered themselves extraordinary This thought of what an American is and what the West was has led to the perpetuation of this idea In Hollywood's westerns starting in the 1930's, the cowboy personified the frontier myth, this imagine still popular until today

1.3 Frontier Spirit in Turner’s Frontier Thesis

1.3.1 Frontier as the Key Term

Although Frederick Jackson Turner was inaccurate in some descriptions of the West, in a broader and more fundamental way, his thesis captures the spirit of America; it is indelibly etched in American cultural psyche

The key point in the theory is the ―frontier‖ According to Turner, the frontier means that every American generation returns "to primitive conditions on a continually advancing frontier line‖ Along this frontier, which he also describes

as "the meeting point between savagery and civilization", Americans again and again recapitulated the developmental stages of the emerging industrial order of the 1890's ―The frontier is the line of most rapid and effective Americanization American social development has been continually beginning over again on the frontier‖ (1893, p.2) Then, American people, to Turner‘s viewpoints always try

to pass that frontier in order to have a better, more ―civilized‖ life

1.3.2 Geographical Frontier and the Westward Movement

The very first frontier that Turner mentions is the geographical one He believes the existence of the frontier between the cultivated land and the wild-west land serves as a ―safety valve‖ for the discontents of the society and that the existence

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of the frontier means that any American dissatisfies with his or her life can always ―go west‖ and start a new life ―So long as free land exists, the opportunity for a competency exists, and economic power secures political power‖ (1893, p.6) The time of this theory, 1893 was the beginning of a depression, it was a time of immense immigration, it was a time to worry about the closing of the frontier Therefore, Turner hints that we might need to find new frontiers: ―Movement has been its dominant fact, and, unless this training has no effect upon a people, the American energy will continually demand a wider field for its exercise.‖ The westward movement in American history reveals the American‘s desire to break any frontiers and advance a happier, more satisfied new life

1.3.3 Westward Movement as a Character Forging Factor

The most significance of this theory lies on the belief that the force of westward expansion forged the American character "The frontier," Turner claims, "is the line of most rapid Americanization This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces dominating American character ‖ (1893, p.2) He believes the American character, including such traits as democracy and materialism, deriving from the frontier experience Turner also asserts that the pressures of frontier living forces the immigrating populations to abandon their native customs and adopt a new culture – the American culture – adapted to the frontier environment: ―in the crucible of the frontier, the immigrants were Americanized, liberated, and fused into a mixed race…‖ Especially, he considers the promotion of individualistic democracy as the most important effect of the frontier During the process to pass the frontier,

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the pioneers had to face many difficulties And it was when each one had to prove his ability to survive and succeed

1.3.4 Racism as a Social-Cultural Frontier

Frontier also exists in the field of attitudes and thoughts: in religion, gender, varied language use and other frontier Among those, racism is undoubtedly the most important Although the United States can be considered as a single country,

it is also one originally made up of the Native Americans and of immigrants who arrived not only from Europe and Asia, but also forcibly as slaves from Africa and Its population is the most radically and culturally diverse in the world and for that reason is often referred to as a ―Melting Pot‖ Nevertheless, the racial diversity has also brought a serious problem to the USA since its foundation: the racial discrimination

Racism far exceeds just Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans, who once forcedly or voluntarily immigrated to the USA Often forgotten, there is an entire other race who originated in America but have still experienced racism on every level without a real sense of justice, it is the American Indians or Native Americans They are subjected to racism on the land that they have longtime called home

Discrimination against Native Americans is the longest held racism in the United States It dates back to the arrival of the pilgrims and the subsequent invasion of the continent In an effort to obtain much of North America as territory of the United States, during the colonial and independent periods, a long series of conflicts were waged, with the primary objective of obtaining resources of Native Americans Through wars, massacres, forced displacement (such as in the Trail of

US history the European settlers attempted to assimilate American Indians and forced them to adopt cultural values of the whites Then, prejudice against Native Americans is such a huge frontier that hardly to overcome

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Chapter 2: LAURA INGALLS WILDER AND HER LITTLE HOUSE

SERIES

2.1 Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Ingalls Wilder is one of the most influential children‘s authors in the American history According to Wadsworth (1997), Anderson (1992) and Zochert (1976), Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born on February 7, 1867, in Pepin, Wisconsin She was the second of five children born to Charles and Caroline Ingalls Like other families in the frontier West, Charles and Caroline worked very hard for their family‘s survival

Wilder once described her early years as "full of sunshine and shadow." As a young girl, she moved with her family from place to place across America's heartland Since 1874, the family had moved westward several times and overcome several harsh times before finally settled in what would become De Smet, South Dakota, which remained Charles and Caroline's home until they died

Laura attended regular school whenever possible However, because of her family's frequent moves, she was largely self-taught In 1882, at the age of fifteen, she received her teaching certificate and worked as a teacher for three years Laura's teaching career and her own studies ended when she

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married Almanzo Wilder on August 25, 1885 She joined Almanzo in a new home on his claim north of De Smet They had only one surviving daughter Wilder‘s writing career started with when her journal of their travels through

South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas was publishes on the De Smet News An invitation to submit an article to the Missouri Ruralist in 1911 led to Wilder's

permanent position as a columnist and editor with that publication, which she held until the mid-1920s

Wilder began composing stories based on her childhood experiences after

encouragement from her daughter Set in Wisconsin, Little House in the Big

Woods was published in 1932 followed by Farmer Boy (1933) and Little House

on the Prairie (1935) Her simple stories portraying the true warm side of life

engrossed her readers, and still continuing to charm them Three days after her 90th birthday, Wilder died on February 10, 1957 She is buried beside her husband at the town cemetery in Mansfield, Missouri

2.2 The Little House Series

The process of composing the Little House series

is specifically described on the website

http://www.notablebiographies.com The Stock

Market Crash in 1929 which wiped out all her

investment, coupled with the death of her mother

Caroline in 1924 and her sister Mary in 1928,

seem to have prompted her to preserve her

memories in a life story called Pioneer Girl As

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she once shared ―I began to think what a wonderful childhood I had had How I had seen the whole frontier, the woods, the Indian country of the great plains…‖ This book was a first-person account of her childhood on the frontier from the time she was three until she reached the age of eighteen After Rose edited the book, Wilder submitted it to various publishers under the name Laura Ingalls Wilder However, it received little interest because it favored on historical facts about her childhood rather than the development of character

Determined to succeed, Wilder spent the next several years reworking her writing, including switching the title and changing the story to be told from the first-person perspective, and the focus moved from the story of one little girl to the story of an entire family's experiences on the new frontier Wilder also decided to direct her writing specifically at children Although she sometimes streamlined events, created or omitted others entirely (such as the birth and death

of her brother), and opted for happier endings, she wrote about real people and

things that had actually happened The stories told in Little House on the Prairie

took place from 1869-1870 (when Laura was two-three years old) Because she was so young, she did not remember many of the incidents she writes about in this book They were told to Wilder by her parents and her older sister Mary She also did a great amount of historical research into the time period to get the details correct

In 1932, at the age of sixty-five, Wilder published the first of her eight "Little

House" books, Little House in the Big Woods It tells the story of her early childhood years in Wisconsin and was a huge hit with readers Farmer Boy, an

account of her husband childhood in New York state, followed in 1933 Two

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years later, Little House on the Prairie appeared on the shelves Nowadays, The

Little House series are known with nine books as followed:

1 Little House in the Big Woods (1932)

2 Farmer Boy (1933) – about her husband's childhood on a farm in New

York

3 Little House on the Prairie (1935)

4 On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937)

5 By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939)

6 The Long Winter (1940)

7 Little Town on the Prairie (1941)

8 These Happy Golden Years (1943)

9 The First Four Years (1971) - follows the earliest years of Laura and

Almanzo's marriage

―The vivid details and realistic characters of the Little House series helped bring

to life Laura‘s experience on the American frontier for countless children around the world‖ (Barnett, T.) Aside from having multiple libraries, reading rooms, and elementary schools named after her, including those in her home towns of Mansfield and De Smet, Laura‘s books can still be found on library and elementary school reading lists all over the country In 1954 the American Library Association created the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for lasting achievements in children‘s literature, and gave the first award to Laura the next

year The commercial success of the Little House book series reached new heights during and after the 1970s due to the success of Little House on the

Prairie, a long-running television series loosely based on the books In 1993

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Little House on the Prairie was honored on a stamp by the U.S Postal Service as

one of the top four classics of American children‘s literature

2.3 Reviews on the Little House Series

Since its first publication, the series has been loved by many generations of children and also a limitless inspiration for many critics Some authors, like Anderson, W (1984), Sneyder, K (1996), and Wadsworth, G (1997), wrote several articles based on the journey of Wilder‘s family through the prairie Other researchers, on the other hand, focus on the value of the series

Clyne, M (2002) appraises The Little House series as a song of liberty Based on

the description of the daily life, the relationship with neighbors and community, and the attitudes when facing up the hardship, she concludes that these books help the rising generation assess a vision of freedom deeply rooted in virtue: a vision that posits a balanced ideal of ordered liberty between the extremes of overbearing government and radical individualism; a vision of the free life that is also a vision of the good life

Heldrich (2000) is more concerned about the racial issues in his article ―Going

into Indian Territory”: Attitudes towards Native Americans in Little House on the Prairie Starting from the opinion that The Little House on the Prairie seems

guilty of portraying racial prejudices and stereotypes, Heldrich analyzes the attitudes of Pa, Ma and Laura towards the ―Indian‖, and then comes to the conclusion that the Little House books "reflect the disparate and often conflicting attitudes present in a nation undergoing radical change", and that these attitudes should not be ignores while approaching the series because ―to silence the text would be to silence an understanding of how writers like Wilder in the 1930s

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represented our past and responded to relations between white and Native Americans‖

The last book to be mentioned here is "Little House, Long Shadow: Laura Ingalls

Wilder's Impact on American Culture," by Anita Clair Fellman (1999) Unlike the

previous researcher, Fellman tries to provide a comprehensive evaluation on this series and its influence on American culture "The reader sees both how a self-sufficient family, responsible for its own successes, manages to survive many challenging circumstances without the aid of the government and how that self-sufficiency is somehow tied to the admirable values of individual responsibility taught by the tight, cohesive, and loving family," Fellman writes, "many readers would pick up that message unconsciously, without even being aware they were

absorbing it" (251) He also believes that The Little House books champion the

self-reliance, isolationism, and "buoyancy of spirit" Wilder felt had made America great She also mentions the inaccurate portrait of American Indians, but

to bring to a close that this series only tries to provide a "true picture of the times and the place and the people."