C. Method of the Study
In conducting this research, the method used was library research. The primary data is the novel, Little House in Big Woods. Then, the secondary data are books,
articles from journals which support the theories and criticisms, such as the articles from Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, the books Little House Long
Shadow , Who Wrote That? Laura Ingalls Wilder, and other sources. Information about
the author, the novel, children’s literature, and also about children desire and adults knowledge in children’s literature were obtained from the articles and books from the
web. Several steps are taken to conduct this study. Firstly, the writer read the novel
thoroughly in order to point out the most important aspects in the novel. This led the writer to the second step to find more data about the novel including other related
studies on that novel. The third step guided the writer to make the study more specific and comprehensive by formulating the problems and paving the way of the data. In this
step, the writer also started the analysis of the data to answer the problem formulation. The writer answered the first problem formulation by applying the theories of character
and characterization. The second problem formulation was answered by applying the concept of children desire and adults knowledge in children’s literature proposed by
Nodelman. Then, the last step was drawing the conclusion. In this step, the writer made the summary of the process of analyzing the data and also concluded the result of the
research.
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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
This research is conducted to analyze adults knowledge and children desire appearing in the novel. The writer answers the formulated questions in Chapter I in
order to analyze adults knowledge and children desire in the novel. The first question is about how characters of children and adults are depicted in the novel. The second
question is about how the characterizations show the idea of adults knowledge and children desire.
A. The Depiction of the Characters of Children and Adults in the Novel
Dividing the characterization into two main groups is conducted to help the writer draw the general characterization of children and adults in the novel. This
classification is made to help the writer show adults knowledge and children desire in the novel through characterization.
In the end of the analysis, the similarity of the characterization is discussed. Generally, each characterization shares similar ideas that can be said as characteristics
of children and characteristics of adults.
1. The Characters of Children
The major children characters in the novel are Laura and Mary. Interestingly, the other children characters also have significant roles that are observed in this
analysis. The minor characters in the novel are Peter, Alice, Ella, and Charley. They are Laura and Mary’s cousins. The analysis of the major and minor characters is done to
catch the general idea of children characters.
a. Laura: The Little Half-Pint of Sweet Cider Half Drunk Up
Laura is one of the major children characters in the story. By the conversation of her father, she is described as a child with a small physical appearance. Therefore, her
father, Pa, describes her smallness by calling her “a little half-pint of sweet cider half drunk up”.
He would hang his gun on the wall over the door, throw off his fur cap and coat and mittens, and call: ‘Wheres my little half-pint of sweet cider half drunk up?;
That was Laura, because she was so small. 1971:34 Through her mannerism, Laura is described as a child who really loves to play.
In most of the time, she plays together with her sister and her cousins. Sometimes, Laura and her sister, Mary, also play with their father. A game they love most is called
Mad Dog. In this game, Pa pretends to be a mad dog and tries to chase Mary and Laura 1971:34-35
Besides, by her reaction towards things outside her, Laura is described as a dependent character. Her dependent is shown in her need for other people who can
make her feel comfortable. As a child, Laura has fear of something. She is afraid of any outside forces which is possible to bring harmful effect to her. This condition
causes her look for other people that can protect or provide her with a secure feeling.
As we can see in the following quotation, Laura’s living place is surrounded with wild life. The sound of a howling wolf, for example, sometimes brings fear to her.
Sometimes, far away in the night, a wolf howled. Then he came nearer, and howled again. It was a scary sound. Laura knew that wolves would eat little
girls. But she was safe inside the solid log walls. Her fathers gun hung over the door and good old Jack, the brindle bulldog, lay on guard before it. Her father
would say: ‘Go to sleep, Laura. Jack wont let the wolves in.’ So Laura snuggled under the covers of the trundle bed, close beside Mary, and went to sleep
1971:3.
In the quotation above, her fear is described in her thought, “It was a scary sound. Laura knew that wolves would eat little girls.” Her father saying to her makes her feel
comfortable so she goes to sleep. Another example is a sudden appearance of a wild bear to their house. That
evening, when Pa is not home, Ma has to milk the cow in the barn. She and Laura, who carries the lantern, are shocked knowing Sukey, their cow, is outside the barn. Then,
Ma slaps ‘Sukey’ so that it would like to go back to the barn. In fact it is not Sukey but a bear. After Ma realizes it, she goes home quickly. At home they talk about it as we
can see in the following. Then Laura said, ‘Ma was it bear?’ ‘Yes, Laura,’ Ma said. ‘It was a bear.’ Laura
began to cry. She hung on to Ma and sobbed, ‘Oh, will he eat Sukey?’ ‘No,’ Ma said, hugging her ‘Sukey is safe in the barn. Think, Laura—all those big,
heavy logs in the barn walls. And the door is heavy and solid, made to keep bears out. No, the bear cannot get in and eat Sukey.’ Laura felt better then
1971:106.
By her reaction in the quotation above, it is seen that Laura will feel better when she knows that there are people who comfort her. Laura cries, hangs on to Ma and sobs.
She is afraid if the bear will eat their cow. After Ma says that Sukey is safe in the barn, Laura feels better then.
Pa and Ma are the closest adults to Laura. They are important to Laura. Pa and Ma make Laura feels better when she is afraid of something. The importance of Pa and
Ma for Laura is also showed in following quotation. Laura had never known that the sky was so big. There was so much empty space
all around her that she felt small and frightened, and glad that Pa and Ma were there 1971:164.
By her thought in the quotation above, it is obvious that Laura is frightened when she sees the open sky. At that time, Laura does not know that the sky is so big. She feels
small because she realizes there is so much empty space all around her. Her dependence on the adults for a secure is showed by her thought that says that she is “glad that Pa
and Ma were there” 1971:164. She finds that the existence of Pa and Ma brings her a feeling of glad and avoids her from the feeling of fright.
The other characterization of Laura is she is also described as a kind-hearted child. It is seen in her speech. She has sympathy toward other creature. She feels sorry
for the harm or damage which happens to animal or the tree. It is seen in the following quotation.
Then Laura ran and hid her head on the bed and stopped her ears with her fingers so she could not hear the hog squeal. ‘It doesnt hurt him, Laura,’ Pa
said. ‘We do it so quickly.’ But she did not want to hear him squeal 1971:13.
The quotation above shows that she does not want to hear the hog’s squeal when Pa slaughters it. It is because she does not want to know that the slaughter hurts the hog.
Laura’s kindness can also be seen in her sympathy to the bees. She feels sorry for the bees because she knows that the bees have worked so hard to collect honey, but now Pa
takes honey from its nest. When Pa collects honey from an old nest of bees, Laura says,
“They worked so hard, and now they won’t have any honey” 1971:198. Not only for the animal, but Laura also feels sorry for the tree. When Pa makes maple syrup, Laura
feels sorry for the maple tree because she is afraid that the tree will be hurt when people bore a hole on it. It is shown in her saying “Oh, didnt it hurt the poor tree?”1971:124.
Laura has sympathy toward plants and animal. She is also kind to other characters. She is described as an unselfish character. She lets her sister to play with the
swing although it is her swing. It is shown in her thought “It was her swing because it was in her tree, but she had to be unselfish and let Mary swing in it whenever she
wanted to” 1971:157. Besides, Laura is also depicted as a curious child. As a child, there are many
new things that Laura finds interesting or amusing for her. She really wants to know about the thing that she knows very little of. She is not afraid of something that is new
for her, as she does not find any reason to be afraid of Uncle George that is said as wild man. It says, “Laura had never seen a wild man before. She did not know whether she
was afraid of Uncle George or not” 1971:137. She asks many questions about new things. She is curious about many things such as what Adam in Bible wears on Sundays
1971: 85, the story that the moon is made of green cheese 191, the name of sugar snow 119, why there is a cake with the name Johnny-Cake 226-227, and what is the
days of auld lang syne 237. She is used to ask adults to answer her curiosity. By her mannerism, Laura is also described as a simple and naive child. She
lacks of experience and knowledge of general thing. The quotation below talks about Laura and the sugar snow.
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