The Long Winter

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1940

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-8

Chapters 9-16

Chapters 17-24

Chapters 25-33

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Background

Historical Context: The Hard Winter of 1880-1881

The “hard winter” hit the Great Plains in 1880 and 1881. There were relentless blizzards from October through April, and The Long Winter contains “many verifiable facts, including those regarding the meteorological events of the Hard Winter. Both meteorological records and nonmeteorological accounts indicate that the winter was particularly long, snowy, and cold” (“The Long Winter of 1880/81.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, June 2020). The weather was so severe that trains were suspended to the Dakota Territory until May, because the trains could not get through the snow and ice. The suspension of the trains meant that homesteaders in the territory were without supplies for months. The flooding that occurred after the snow melted caused further damage.

The primary conflict in The Long Winter involves the Ingalls family and the town of De Smet surviving relentless blizzards for seven months. Because there are no supplies coming on the train, everyone begins running low on coal, kerosene, and food. The novel explores the physical challenges such as surviving the cold and food shortages, and the theme Pioneer Resilience and Ingenuity emerges as Ma and Pa try to keep their family alive. The Long Winter also explores the psychological impacts of hardship and isolation. Although the Ingalls family is in town, the blizzards keep everyone but Pa confined to the house for most of the winter.

Sociohistorical Context: The Homestead Act of 1862

The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed any citizen who had not borne arms against the United States during the Civil War to have 160 acres to cultivate and improve. After five years, the title would become theirs after a small title fee. Pa is a beneficiary of this act in The Long Winter. It was enacted during the Civil War and it opposed Southern policies of buying large plots of land to be worked by enslaved people.

The goal of the act was to encourage more people—families in particular—to move to areas considered uninhabited. Mostly, this meant going west of the Mississippi River. Many of these areas already had Indigenous tribes, and this caused conflict between homesteaders and the tribes. Indigenous people faced racism, prejudice, and violence by homesteaders. Their resources and lands were depleted because of this act. The knowledge of the Indigenous man who predicts the long winter in the novel highlights the long stewardship of the land that Indigenous peoples have, but the settler characters exhibit prejudice toward him.

Literary Context: The Little House Series

The Long Winter is the sixth installment of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s classic Little House series of middle grade books. The books are primarily autobiographical and focus on Wilder’s childhood and young adulthood in the American West in the late 1800s. While The Long Winter primarily follows the Ingalls family, it gives a prominent role to Almanzo Wilder who would later become Laura Ingalls’s husband and is the main character in Farmer Boy (1933), the second book in the Little House series. Almanzo Wilder is shown as brave and heroic, and he is a pivotal figure in preventing the town of De Smet from starving.

By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939)—the fifth installment of the series—focuses on the family’s move from Plum Creek to the Dakota Territory. It depicts Mary’s scarlet fever and resulting blindness, and it also features Mr. and Mrs. Boast, who both appear in The Long Winter. By the Shores of Silver Lake ends with Pa filing on a claim and setting up a homestead near De Smet. The Long Winter begins with 13-year-old Laura, as the family begins their first fall on the homestead. It explores the challenges of preparing for winter while living in a claim shanty and trying to raise crops on sod.

The Little House series has been beloved for generations because it allows insight into both the joys and hardships of frontier life and explores the complexities of family and community. Wilder’s descriptions of the setting illustrate her love for nature, though that love is tempered by her understanding of its dangers. In The Long Winter, the primary antagonist is the natural world, which presents innumerable dangers even to families that are well-prepared to endure them. Family and community are shown as a source of great strength and joy within the novel, and Laura takes pride in the ways she helps her family members, particularly her older sister Mary.