gender roles in little house opn the prairie

The chapter I will be looking at is chapter 13 fire in the chimney. In pediculate the part that the chapter is named after, Ma and the girls Lara, marry and baby Carrie are alone in the house. ma is on the rocking chair with baby Carrie close to the fire, but when she hears some thing coming from the chimney she hands baby Carrie to marry and pushes her in the rocking chare and goes outside. when Laura follows her she sees that the chimney is on fire and Ma is attempting to put the fire out.


when Laura goes back inside she sees that a burning loge has fallen out and the fire and is under Marys dress. Laura pulled the rocking chair away from the fire and then throws the loge back in to the fire. soon after ma puts out the fire and the danger is over. this is the part I wanted to look at the fact that it has been repeated and show many times over that Marry is the proper little girl and Laura is not. even if not outwardly Laura is still naughty in her head and the fact that she is interested in thing that are considered mans work and even helped him build the door and mixed mud to build the chimney . so here we see marry unable to move and Laura being the brave hero.