The Long Winter

“Carrie’s mouth opened a little. Her big eyes looked up at Laura and they said, ‘I know. We’re lost.’ Her mouth shut without a word. If they were lost, they were lost. There was nothing to say about it.”

Carrie and Laura are completing a quick errand in town, and they get lost in the tall grasses. The grasses are too tall to see over but too weak to climb to get a clearer view, and it is not even possible to retrace their steps. The Beauty and Danger of the Natural World is clear in this passage, as the girls are among the grass and must resign themselves to their “lost” status.

“Mary had liked such work, but now she was blind and could not do it. Sewing made Laura feel like flying to pieces. She wanted to scream. The back of her neck ached and the thread twisted and knitted. She had to pick out almost as many stitches as she put in.”

Mary is often used as a foil to illustrate Laura’s character traits. Mary enjoys more patriarchally dictated feminine pastimes, such as sewing, and Laura becomes impatient with them. It is clear that while Laura is an obedient and hard-working daughter, she must grapple with the societal expectations for girls and Self-Sacrifice for the Greater Good.

“‘It must be one of Laura’s queer notions,’ Mary said, busily knitting in her chair by the stove. ‘How could cattle’s heads freeze to the ground, Laura? It’s really worrying, the way you talk sometimes.’”

Mary and Ma often misunderstand Laura, who is much more attuned to nature and the natural world than they are. Laura has seen The Beauty and Danger of the Natural World and recognizes that something terrible has happened to the cattle, although she is slightly mistaken about the exact details. It is only when Pa comes in and explains that the cattle’s heads were covered in ice and they could not breathe that Mary and Ma stop doubting Laura.