Caroline (Miller) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Caroline: Little House, Revisited … then take off on your own:

1. If you have been a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie series, how well does Sarah Miller adhere to the basic story, especially her characterization of "Ma"?

2. Follow-up to Question 1: How would you describe Caroline? Talk about the ways in which Miller explores the emotional as well as the geographical terrain of a life lived on the edge of civilization, especially as it applies to Ma.

3. Follow-up to Question 2: What does Caroline observe about the effects of prairie life — and a tight-knit family — on her husband and daughters.

4. Does Miller's book include any surprises — new details or altered events — that are not found in Wilder's original telling? (Consider, for instance, Carrie's birth.)

5. How does this new book handle the treatment of the Osage Indians? Does Miller's treatment differ from Wilder's? In what way are Caroline's attitudes at variance with her husband's. Would you say either of their views reflect those of the era's culture?

6. Discuss the pioneer life, its hardships and perils. Talk especially about the difficulties for women and the myriad responsibilities that normally fall under their purview: tending to illness, giving birth, keeping house. How might you have fared, making your way across the frontier in a wagon or living in a rough-hewn log cabin? What inner strengths would you have had to tap into?

7. Do visit the author's webpage where she lays out all the sources she has based her novel on. Does undertanding the degree of Miller's research make a difference in how you view her novel?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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