This chapter can be deemed as significant as it represents some of the traditional gender roles that you would expect to see within a family, but also reveals events where those roles are broken, which may be related to the environment in which the Ingalls family have decided to settle.
The chapter begins with the family travelling further into the wilderness and becoming more isolated from civilisation. Wilder sees the significance of this as she decides to include that, 'There was no road now.. the wagon left behind it only the tracks of the wheels'. The first sight of traditional gender roles in this chapter is seen when Pa proclaims that 'here we are Caroline!... right here we'll build our house'. This shows the dominance of the alpha male figure as it was Pa's sole decision to settle in a particular place, with no consultation of Ma or the children. This suggests that the rest of the family know that the male figure knows much more that they do, so trust that he is making his decision wisely, so do not question it. This trust and leadership of the male figure in the wilderness is common in Western stories, as it seen as the male represents wilderness and the females as that of civilisation, therefore Ma and the girls would traditionally not be comfortable or have knowledge of life outside of their traditional homely sphere. The image below pictures the Ingalls family in the TV adaptation of the book. This depicts Pa in the middle, surrounded by Ma and the girls; this could suggest that the family roles are changing due to their new environment. In the wilderness, the family relies more on the male role than ever before and puts the civilised role of the women under pressure.
The connection between female characters and civilisation is seen soon after when Pa takes the wagon, after it had been emptied, and goes down to the creek to collect logs and wood to build the house. While he is gone 'Laura and Ma made the beds... then Ma arranged the boxes and bundles...'. This is interesting as even though they were in the wilderness, the female characters still have to make, even a tent, a home. This could be because it may seem as though they would not have any other role in this sort of environment, or that to make their surroundings more comfortable for them, they would need to make it more civilised. After they have done all they can while Pa is away, Laura decides she wants to explore a bit before Pa returns. This can be seen as an odd thing for a little girl to do as she is walking away from her civilised role and is intrigued by the wilderness. Throughout the novel, it can be seen that Laura is a character that challenges the role of genders in the family as she moves away from a civilised female role, to a more male wilderness role; which can be seen as following in her fathers footsteps.
The majority of the rest of the chapter is taken up with a detailed explanation of how Pa starts to build the families new house. This reinforces Pa's alpha role in the family as he is providing shelter and a safe place for his family. As, for the majority of the time, he starts building the house by himself; 'all by himself, he built the house three logs high'. This also represents the strength of the male character, and also that this type of work would not be suitable for women. Therefore, it is a surprise when Ma starts to help Pa when lifting and securing the logs was becoming more difficult for just one male. This shows that even the help of a woman in this wild environment is useful, which reinforces the idea that the families new environment is putting their gender roles under pressure and forcing them to act outside of them. This move out of Ma's comfort zone is soon halted when a log slips and falls on her foot. This can suggest that this is a sign that Ma is stepping too far out of her civilised role and that there is no place for her in a more male role. This may be because she is the ultimate civilised role and that she needs to stay that way otherwise the traditional family will descend into wilderness.
Overall, it seems that the change of environment and the isolation of the Ingalls family puts the traditional gender roles under strain, and you see the female characters venture out of their civilised role and take part in activities that would be done more traditionally by males. Laura is the most significant character associated with this theme as, throughout the novel, we see her become less civilised e.g. wanting the explore the unknown, becoming more involved in the building of the family home. This change for Laura is more apparent due to the continued commitment of the other women in the family to maintain a civilised role in the family.
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