Gender Relations

• The plot of the book revolves around a young woman who visits a man and his two children on their remote prairie farm in answer to a newspaper advertisement the man had placed looking for a wife, a common practice at that time. After living with the family in their one-room farmhouse for one month she decides to marry him and help raise his children. (recurring)

Ideologies

• A woman insists on wearing men's clothing to do farm work despite objections from a child who finds it unconventional. Women's and men's attire in that time period were distinct and socially recognized as appropriately different. The author appears to be superimposing contemporary ideologies onto the historical gender roles of women during that time. (ch.8)