Adventures West: Laura Ingalls Wilder from the Little Cabin to the Little Grey House will be an educational game based on the text of the Little House on the Prairie series, not including Farmer Boy and The First Four Years. Also not addressed is the period not covered in her works, when the family lived in Iowa. Not using that period was an editorial decision of Wilder and her daughter, Rose WIlder Lane, to keep the story coherent. 1Wilder’s first book, Little House in the Big Woods was first published in 1932, followed by another eight books continuing the Ingalls family story. The series is autobiographical fiction with highly idealized versions of her family: Pa, Ma, Mary, Carrie, Grace, and Almanzo. Similar to books such as Alcott’s Little Women, the books treat the characters as overcoming adversity through virtuousness.
Using Laura’s descriptions of the places and details of her family’s travels from Pepin, Wisconsin to De Smet, South Dakota, explore several of the themes that run through her books. Major themes are those from three or more volumes.
The first theme is attitudes toward and displacement of Native Americans. Ma and Pa differ on their views of the relative “goodness” of the Native Americans, but still reflect the prejudices and dehumanization of the era. The books include both the events of the family settling in Indian Territory on land not opened for settlement after a rumor of further displacement and the story of Ma’s brother, who attempted to settle and mine gold in the Black Hills while still reserved lands.
The changing environment is the second theme, in terms of geography, flora and fauna, and weather. The Ingalls family travels through multiple environments, from the woods of Wisconsin to the prairies and a growing town. Laura encounters wolves on several occasions, in the earlier books, then never again. Likewise, she encounters buffalo wallows, but is arriving after the herds of bison have been hunted to near extinction. One of Pa’s great farming failures is the result of a plague of grasshoppers and their eggs the following planting season.
The project will be a game leading the player to different events and links to resources for further investigation such as letters, images, and legislation. The two themes will be the main stories in Twine, with the passages from the books starting the game passages.
The audience is intermediate school age students, who are accustomed to digital learning. As the protagonist of the novels is a young woman, the themes were chosen as they are non-gendered. Further iterations could include foodways, gender roles, animal husbandry and planning for travel.
- Letter from Rose Wilder Lane to Laura Ingalls Wilder; 1/21/1938; Collection HH-RWL: Rose Wilder Lane Papers. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/letter-from-rose-wilder-lane-to-laura-ingalls-wilder, March 29, 2024]
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