Pioneers of the American West
(From
the TV series ‘Little House on the Prairie’)
Jungwon
Lee
Pusan
National University
Dept.
of Global Studies
Charles
Ingalls spends his time mostly on the farm, plowing and carpentering because he
has to make a living for his big family. Caroline Ingalls takes control in
housework, like cooking for workers outside, making clothes, and nurturing
children. A little girl, Laura and her siblings always go to school, and they
learn from one teacher, because the school is small sized. Also, on Sundays,
every family meets together in town church and hold meetings.
The ‘Little
House on the Prairie’ is a media franchise that started with a series of
children’s books by Laura Ingalls Wilder that were originally published between
1932 and 1943. The book has nine series, ‘Little house in the big woods’,
‘Little house on the prairie’, ‘On the banks of plum creek’, ‘By the shores of
silver lake’, ‘The long winter’, ‘Little town on the prairie’, ‘These happy
golden years’, and ‘The first four years’. The Author, Laura Ingalls Wilder put
her real story as a pioneer’s daughter in this book series. It is based on
many-decade-old memories of her childhood in the Midwest region of the United
States during the late 19th century. Although this book series were
considered classics of American children’s literature, it was loved by numerous
people around the world and grew to include television and stage adaptations.
The book series and the dramas’ contents differ a little, but if you watch this
television show, you can see the lives of pioneers living in the little town
called ‘Walnut Grove’ closely.
Whenever we think
of Pioneers of America, we think of horse operas, imagining cowboys with cowboy
hats and riding horses with lightning speed. People think pioneers lived their
lives splendidly, but that’s just looking at the surface of it. In fact,
pioneers’ lives were hard and toilsome because they were settlers who were new
to the American land. After moving to America from Europe, they started their
lives on barren land. They tried to adapt to the new environment they were
living in, and they planted crops and raised livestock. Although their lives
were hard because they sometimes had tensions with native Americans, had to
endure cold blizzard, fought grasshopper attacks in summer, these pioneers
lived with their families with love. Also, they had faith that they can make
their lives better by working diligently.
To
pioneer families, being friendly with their neighbors was big help because they
didn’t get lonely and could get advice from each other on how to make living
well. If you didn’t have a chance to watch this television series, don’t
hesitate watching it! You will feel happiness, and warmth of many pioneer
families.
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