family. In making cheese and churn, Mary, who is bigger than Laura, is able to churn because she is strong enough to deal with the dash 1971:31. She also helped her
mother in making the curd 188, picking potatoes 216, cooking 216, and also preparing the dinner 266. Mary is able to be a helper for this work or to do as she
could to help. Besides, Mary is described as an obedient character. It can be seen by her
reaction towards adults’ order. She does all the things that adults require her to do but sometimes she does not really like or even hate the requirement. For example, the chips
picking, although she hates to do the chips picking, she actually obeys the rule that she
should pick the chips. Mary does not have any other choice but to obey her parents.
They were at the woodpile, gathering a pan of chips to kindle the fire in the morning. They always hated to pick up chips, but every day they had to do it.
Tonight they hated it more than ever 1971:183. Another example is when Pa asks Mary and Laura to watch him in making
bullets. They are asked to watch him carefully and they do so as in the quotation, “....while Laura and Mary stood on either side of him, Pa said: ‘You watch me, now,
and tell me if I make a mistake.’ So they watched very carefully, ...” 1971:48. Mary’s action to do what Pa tells her to do without asking why shows her obedience.
Although Mary is depicted as an obedient child, there are some parts in the story which describe her disobedience. The depiction of her disobedience appears at the time
when she could not control herself to do something attracts her. The bullet was too hot to touch, but it shone so temptingly that sometimes Laura
or Mary could not help touching it. Then they burned their fingers. But they did not say anything, because Pa had told them never to touch a new bullet. If they
burned their fingers, that was their own fault; they should have minded him. So
they put their fingers in their mouths to cool them, and watched Pa make more bullets 1971:46.
When she sees a hot bullet that shines temptingly she could not help herself to not touching it. It means that she breaks the rule because her father has told her not to touch
the hot bullet. On the other occasion, she says something offensive to her sister, an action that
is not supposed to do in their house. What she says to her sister is a reaction of her dislike of her sister’s being better than her in the picking the chips, as seen in the
quotation, “Laura grabbed the biggest chip, and Mary said: ‘I don’t care. Aunt Lotty likes my hair best, anyway. Golden hair is lots prettier than brown’” 1971:183. The
depiction of chips picking situation also shows that sometimes Mary is also jealous to Laura. At the same time, Mary also breaks her father’s rule as he says, “You
remember...I told you girls you must never strike each other” 1971:184.
c. Little Pa, Little Grand Pa, and His Brothers: The Past Boys
The Past Boys here refers to characters in the past life. They are Little Pa, Little Grand Pa and his brothers. They are the minor characters of the novel, they only appear
once in the story when Pa, Laura and Mary’s father tells story to his daughter. He tells story about himself and his father when they were young.
The character of Little Pa is depicted by the way Pa tells a story about his own childhood. Little Pa is said to be in the same age to Laura. Little Pa helped his family
by doing the boys’ duties such as looking after the cows. He is described as a boy who
loves to play. For example, he is used to play as a hunter who stalks the animals and he even imagined that he has ever fought the Indians.
‘When I was a little boy, not much bigger than Mary, I had to go every afternoon to find the cows in the woods and drive them home. … One day I
started earlier than usual, so I thought I did not need to hurry. There were so many things to see in the woods that I forgot that dark was coming. There were
red squirrels in the trees, chipmunks scurrying through the leaves, and little rabbits playing games together in the open places. Little rabbits, you know,
always have games together before they go to bed. I began to play I was a mighty hunter, stalking the wild animals and the Indians. I played I was fighting
the Indians, until the woods seemed full of wild men, …’ 1971:53-54.
By his mannerism, Little Pa is described as a character who gets into trouble
because of his playfulness. He used to spend too much time to play in woods. When the day turned into the night with the darkness surrounding, Little Pa was worried.
‘I was afraid of the dark and the wild beasts, but I dared not go home to my father without the cows. ... Right over my head something asked, Who? My
hair stood straight on end. Who? Who? the Voice said again. And then how I did run I forgot all about the cows. All I wanted was to get out of the dark
woods, to get home’ 1971:55.
It is said that Little Pa was afraid of the dark and the wild beasts, but he was more afraid of his father. He tried to be obedient by finding the cows although the situation
was too scary for him. Other characters of the past boys are Little Grand Pa and his brothers. They are
depicted when Pa tells a story about Laura’s and Mary’s Grandfather. The story is about Grand Pa and the Sunday tradition when Grand Pa was a little boy. Pa tells them
the difference between Sunday nowadays and Sunday in Grand Pa’s time. ‘When your Grandpa was a boy, Laura, Sunday did not begin on Sunday
morning, as it does now. It began at sundown on Saturday night. Then everyone stopped every kind of work or play. Supper was solemn. After supper,
Grandpas father read aloud a chapter of the Bible, while everyone sat straight and still in his chair’ 1971:87.
At Grand Pa’s time, Sunday was stricter than in Laura’s and Mary’s time. In Grand Pa’s time, Sunday began at Saturday night when sun set and people had to stop their
work or play. It is different from Laura and Mary’s time which starts the Sabbath on Sunday Morning.
In Pa’s story, Pa tells Laura and Mary how Grand Pa and his brother, James and George behaved in one Sunday. It is said that they had favorite game, sliding. In one
week, they made their best new sled. However, because they helped his father for whole day, they had no time to try their new sled. They really wanted to play the game,
on the contrary there was a Sabbath rule which did not allow them to do any activities including playing. They tried to obey the rule by waiting until Sunday was over but
when they found that the father fell asleep, they went and played their slide as it is said in the following quotation.
‘After dinner their father sat down to read the Bible, and Grandpa and James and George sat as still as mice on their bench with their catechism. But they
were thinking about the sled. After a long time they heard a snore. They looked at their father, and they saw that his head had fallen against the back of his chair
and he was fast asleep. … They took their new sled and went quietly up to the top of the hill. They meant to slide down, just once. Then they would put the
sled away, and slip back to their bench and the catechism before their father woke up. …’ 1971:91-92.
d. Peter, Alice, and Ella: The Cousins
Laura and Mary have cousins. They are Peter, Alice and Ella. These cousins are their friends who are used to spend time playing together. Laura and Mary play making
picture in the snow with their cousins.
All morning she played outdoors in the snow with Alice and Ella and Peter and Mary, making pictures. The way they did it was this: Each one by herself
climbed up on a stump, and then all at once, holding their arms out wide, they fell off the stumps into the soft, deep snow. They fell flat on their faces. Then
they tried to get up without spoiling the marks they made when they fell. If they did it well, there in the snow were five holes, shaped almost exactly like four
little girls and a boy, arms and legs and all. They called these their pictures’ 1971:65-66.
The cousins, like Laura and Mary, also believe in fictive character such as Santa
Claus. They are depicted as characters who love to play and see things based on their imagination. It can be seen in their thoughts, “But they must sleep, or Santa Claus
would not come. So they hung their stockings by the fireplace, and said their prayers, and went to bed—...” 1971:67. Like Laura and Mary who believe in other fictive
character, Jack Frost, the cousins also believe in Santa Claus who will bring them Christmas presents in the Christmas’eve. Their trust in Santa Claus is stronger after
they find their Christmas gift in the next morning. It is said, “They looked at their stockings, and something was in them. Santa Claus had been there” 1971:74.
e. Charley: The Spoiler Boy
Charley is eleven years old boy. He is characterized as an attractive boy. He likes to play the boyish games such as jumping, or walking in top rail of the fence and
plays them bravely 1971:200. In the novel one of the characteristics of Charley is depicted clearly by Pa and
Ma’s statement. It is said that Charley is spoiler. But he still obeys his father when one day his Pa, Uncle Henry, says that he has to go to the field to help them working. It can
be seen in the quotation below.
At home, Pa had said to Ma that Uncle Henry and Aunt Polly spoiled Charley. … Now Uncle Henry said that Charley must come to the field. He could save
them a great deal of time. He could go to the spring for water, and he could fetch them the water-jug when they needed a drink. … Charley did not want to
go to the field. He wanted to stay in the yard and play. But, of course, he did not say so 1971:203-204.
Actually Charley does not want to go to the field but he does not say so and follows his father’s will. In the field, Charlie makes a lot of troubles. He does things such as hiding
the whetstone, making the adults cannot swing their cradles, and not bringing the water- jug properly. He lies to his father and Pa by yelling at them as something dangerous
happens to him. When his Pa and Laura’s Pa come to him, nothing is wrong and he laughs at them and only says, “I fooled you that time” Charley thinks it is really funny
1971:204-205. At the end of the day, he is stung by the bees, yellow jacket type. His father and Pa are little bit late helping him, because they think he is lying as what he did
before 1971:207-209. As we can see on the characterization of the children in the story, there are some
basic characteristics that most of the children characters shared together. Most of the children characters share the same idea of small, innocent, and playful children. Some
of them are depicted as kind, obedient, and helpful children; but some of them are described as the children who are curious, disobedient, and competitive. This
characterizations are resulted from the way of each analyzed characters above is depicted. The depictions come by the narration, what the characters do, what the
characters said, and what the other characters said about a character.
