Comments on: Thanksgiving in Literature

By: Lisa Bramen

Lisa Bramen — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:12:39 +0000

Thanks, Kati K and Jenny! This is a good reminder that actually reading the book is always superior to merely searching keywords on Google Books. A lesson all students should take to heart.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:47:17 +0000

Actually there is at least one mention of Thanksgiving in the “Little House” books. They have a roasted goose for thanksgiving, and remember the poor pilgrims who only had 3 grains of parched corn to eat until the Indians brought them turkey. This is in “On the Banks of Plum Creek” in chapter thriteen ‘The Christmas Horses’. Page 80-81 in my set of books (the blue Harper Trophy ones).

I think there is some other mention of it as well, perhaps talking about roasting a rabbit for it, but I don’t remember it, and couldn’t find it when I looked.

However, it doesn’t seem to have been celebrated every year, or at least not memorably enough to have been remembered and written about so many years later. Maybe because they didn’t have any extended family close enough to celebrate with for most of the series, or perhaps because they didn’t have the means to have a large feast each year (The Long Winter especially).

For once I can say that something useful has come out of my dozens or hundreds of readings of these books, some of my favorites. Thanks for giving me an excuse to thumb through them again.

By: Kati K

Kati K — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:32:52 +0000

Actually, Laura does talk about their Thanksgiving tradition in ‘On the Banks of Plum Creek’ (Chapter 12, p. 81). It is brief, but she does describe the food they eat: goose, corn dodgers, mashed potatoes, plum preserves, and three pieces of parched corn. The last item relates to the story they were told about the first Thanksgiving at which the pilgrims had only three pieces of ‘parched corn’ each to eat until “the Indians came and brought them turkeys, and the Pilgrims were thankful.” She describes how, at the end of the meal, they ate these three pieces of corn in remembrance of the first Pilgrims.