Pioneer life is at its most difficult in The Long Winter. What will seem to modern readers as exciting snow days quickly deteriorates to harrowing life-threatening conditions as the town runs out of provisions. It is only Almanzo Wilder’s crazy heroic trip to bring back wheat that saves the people of De Smet.
And so, quite obviously, it is in this book that Almanzo starts to play a larger role in the books. At his first appearance, mere pages from the start of the book, he is referred to as a “boy.” Later on, his age is revealed as 19 (Laura is nearly 14 at the outset). While I wouldn’t call 19 a boy, especially not in those days, it’s worth noting that Laura was totally fudging his age throughout the books to make modern audiences more comfortable with the age gap between them. In reality, Manzo was 10 years older than her, putting him at around 23 or 24 for the duration of The Long Winter. His interactions with Laura and the Ingalls family are still quite limited, but several chapters follow his life even as it was separate from hers.
The lengthy descriptions of scenery and the prairie are much more limited in this than in the earlier books, with this having much more action and dialogue.
Racism – Ma is upset when Laura wants to help Pa in the fields, because only foreigners do that. Her American daughters are “above doing men’s work.” They still use the term “Indian summer.” An Indian arrives and gives a warning about the weather. He speaks in stereotypical Indian dialect. “Heap big snow come.” “Many moons.” “You white men. I tell-um you,” etc. Pa starts to tell Ma about the warning and she makes a face when he says “Indian.” We’re then told that she despises them and is afraid of them.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – A boy is referred to as handsome.
Profanity – “I’ll be jiggered,” “gosh dang,” “darned,” “gee whillikins,” “hell freezes,” “darn,”
Death, Violence and Gore – Icy snow causes Laura’s eyelids to bleed. Mr. Edwards has a knife scar on his face. There’s an odd joke about a cobbler throwing something at his wife. A man butchers his oxen and sells off the meat. There’s a possibility that Pa will have to kill their cow and calf to keep them from starving.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – Laura thinks of children who were lost in the prairie grass. She and Carrie are lost in the Slough. In a storm some of the cattle nearly freeze, smothered by their own breath. Laura and Carrie must walk home in a blizzard and Laura fears becoming lost. Pa often has to go out in the storm and his family always worried about him. When the trains stop coming, they realize there is not enough food left to make it to spring.
