Letters of a Wonam Homesteader

A detailed Summary of Letters of a Wonam Homesteader

In Letters of a Woman Homesteader, there are several ideas and themes that are present. Mixed among them are conflict, geography and gender roles but deep within the letters and a word of Elinore Pruitt Stewart, no other theme is more prevalent than that of community. Community can be defined as people living together closely, socially as well as physically. And in my opinion, community often involves sharing, which we see in this book quite often.

First off, I would just like to discuss some of the other themes that took place in the book. Geography was actually a huge element as Elinore described unique environments throughout. In her first letter she talk about how she can't plant because of 15 feet of snow and how they only have three seasons, "winter, July and August." Even as the letters continued, she claimed that snow was "yet too deep." One time sticks out in my head when Elinore could see that the snow was so great that it had pressed the branches of threes down so low that she was hitting her head. Her response was quite simply, "Such a snowstorm I never saw." Her descriptions of the land were extremely vivid, especially when she talked of leaving the snow-capped mountains for the "des

In closing, I would like to stress the strong presence and significance of community in these letters written by Mrs. Elinore Pruitt Stewart. Her trials and tribulations were shared with many characters such as "Mis' Lane," Sedalia, Gale, Mrs. Louderer and of course Jerrine and Clyde. The many stories she had to tell revolved around all these people and vice versa. These people were dependent on each other and shared much of what they have. In the beginning of this paper, I wrote that community can be defined as people living together closely, socially as well as physically and that also sharing was a vital part. After reading and looking at these experiences that I have just talked about, I would most definitely have to agree with that statement.

Briefly, I would like to mention gender because I had some interesting thoughts about it as I read. First of all, I found it unique that Elinore was skilled as she was. In the beginning she talks of how she learned to do many chores due to the untimely death of her parents. She carried this with her and I thought she was a very strong woman for it. The reason I think I find this so intriguing is that, in this era, I thought that woman weren't supposed to be so independent and strong as Elinore. I say she is strong because she was able to leave her hometown, which had so many dear people to her, with her daughter and begin a new life, a brave thing for anyone to do. I think that the last letter she writes to Mrs. Coney is one that shows her true progress as a woman because it was at that point she had finally "proved all that she wanted to prove."

The idea of community can be traced all the way to the beginning of the book. Elinore Rupert, widow and mother of one daughter, was moving on from her current home of Denver to Wyoming where she would live with a rancher and could learn to "homestead a place for

Some common words found in the essay are:
Benny Louderer, Mis' Lane, Elinore Jerrine, Pruitt Stewart, Elinore Coney, Denver Wyoming, July August, Jerrine Clyde, Greasy Pete, Woman Homesteader, mis' lane, community defined people, closely socially physically, living closely socially, benny louderer, gender roles, elinore jerrine, community defined, elinore pruitt, sense community, defined people living, people living, defined people, pruitt stewart, people living closely,

Approximate Word count = 1256
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History