The Fishing Trap
Pa just finished building their new house and Laura feels very relieved to be living in an actual house again instead of the dugout. Once everything was back to how it was before, Pa and Ma started discussing Laura and Mary’s education, saying they should go to school because they live so close to town. Laura disagrees, feeling nervous about going to school for the first time. Together Pa and Laura build a fish trap. Later they go to the creek to test it out, and Laura begs Pa for the last time in this chapter not to go to school.
I feel bad for Laura not wanting to go to school, but I think Pa and Ma are right. She deserves a good education even if she doesn’t want it. I was also rebellious when my parents made me go to school for the first time. Laura loves her freedom of being in the wilderness, and I feel like she’s afraid school will take that away from her. She feels like her free spirit is being put in a tight cage, feeling trapped.
I think Laura and Pa are very similar: they love being in the wild, they are adventurous, and they love fun. I feel like Laura and Pa share a lot of special moments together. In this chapter when they were catching fish, Laura wanted to catch enough fish for dinner hoping that she and Pa would have a little more fun. Of course, Pa didn’t turn down the offer to have more fun. When they came home from catching fish Pa showed Laura how to scale a fish.
I think it is smart when Laura and Pa put the fish trap directly under the waterfall. I wonder how they made the fish trap. I also wonder how many fish they caught.
Reflections
In the first book Little House in the Big Woods, Laura made me feel really jolly when Christmas came with all the presents and the candy. It felt so good to hear the family was coming together. I really noticed how happy Laura was. She was feeling pleasantness smoldered in joy dipped in care. You can really see how much fun she was having with her family. She was definitely feeling the Christmas spirit.
I felt really sad in book three, Little House on the Prairie, when Laura said Jack died when the creek rose. She described her pain and misery, so overwhelmingly that I felt it with her. I felt all her memories with Jack rush over me and slowly fade away into sadness. When I read the next chapter it turns out Jack is alive. When I heard that I thought “Seriously, I gave you my heart and soul you made me feel misery, then you say that was all for NOTHING!”, but I was glad Jack was alive.
My favorite thing about the books is that Laura really pulls her past to right now. She wrote how she felt and everything she remembers, every single detail adding more to the image she’s painting in our minds. For example: in the third book Little House on the Prairie, Laura and Mary came back from the Indian campsite with their hands full of beads. Mary decided to give baby Carrie her beads, so Laura felt pressured to give up her beads. She was mad at Mary for being so good. She felt that she could have enjoyed her beads, but instead Mary had to suck up to Ma and Pa, so then she joined Mary in donating beads and making a bracelet for baby Carrie. I felt that this part had so much detail, and I really felt how upset Laura was. I thought that she shouldn’t be mad at Mary, that Mary was just being generous, but then again, I know how Laura feels.
These books make you feel a rush of emotion every time you read them.