45 pages • 1 hour read
A Lantern in Her Hand
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 8-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary
Abbie moves in with Will’s family at the farm. She works hard to keep up with their constant labor, but the others find her lacking. This makes Abbie realize she wants a home of her own.
In 1867, Abbie gives birth to a boy named Mackenzie, whom they nickname Mack. Annoyed by his lack of independence in his family’s home, Will decides that he, Abbie, and Mack will move to Nebraska. Abbie doesn’t want to leave her family and worries that Mack will never know her parents and loved ones, but as a woman, Abbie doesn’t have a choice in the matter. She doesn’t want to leave her family but “in her heart she knew that as much as she cared for her people,—as dear as were her mother and sisters and the old settlement to her,—they did not outweigh her love for [Will]” (70-71). Will packs all their belongings into a covered wagon, and they head west.
Chapter 9 Summary
Nebraska’s prairie landscape is much more barren than Iowa’s. Abbie and her family break ground on their new camp with two other pioneer families, Oscar and Henry Lutz (two brothers with their families), and Gus Reinmueller with his wife, Christine. At night in the camp, Abbie is unnerved by the silence; she fears for their safety in the isolated, unfamiliar landscape.
Chapter 10 Summary
Abbie fears the Pawnee who camp close by though they prove to be no threat. Abbie gets to know the other pioneer women and takes a liking to Sarah Lutz. Abbie is deeply homesick and depressed, but she starts to feel better as Will’s construction of their house begins.
As their situation stabilizes, Abbie begins to understand the pride of being a pioneer, settling her own land. Abbie becomes pregnant again and gives birth to a daughter they name Margaret. Their first winter on the prairie is difficult, but spring arrives with the promise of fertile farming. Will is inspired by being a settler; he envisions an entire town in their future. More families move to the prairie, and their community grows to 13 families. Abbie is determined to help Will make their dream work.
Chapter 11 Summary
Abbie and Will discuss their future plans. Abbie details her dream house and garden and insists that “[y]ou have to dream things out. It keeps a kind of an ideal before you” (90). While Abbie works hard to build a well and maintain her home, more conflicts arise. She is constantly in fear of the local Pawnee. The natural world also presents danger; Sarah Lutz’s son Dan is bitten by a snake and dies.
Chapter 12 Summary
Natural challenges face the pioneer families. They struggle to farm a good first crop of corn, expand with fruit trees, and are threatened by a wildfire. They are resilient and work through farming and other natural challenges.
Soon, the settlers begin to build more of a town. One man builds a store; another man builds a blacksmith shop. A doctor and a preacher move to town, further building the community. The pioneers formally name their new town Cedartown. In 1872, Abbie gives birth to her third child, a son they name John. In 1873, Cedartown suffers through a terrible winter storm that ravages their resources, and the overall market for their goods also goes down. Six years into forming the community, Will’s corn crop finally begins to show stability. Another tragic consequence of living within nature is an infestation of grasshoppers that decimates Cedartown’s crops. Abbie offers to sell her pearl necklace, but Will refuses to allow his wife to make more sacrifices.
Chapter 13 Summary
The fallout from the grasshopper infestation is dire. Abbie is pregnant again and feels guilty when she regrets having another child. Abbie receives a letter from home telling her about Ed’s new wife and glamorous life in New York. Abbie momentarily regrets marrying Will and committing to a difficult life as a pioneer woman, but she knows that despite her poverty, she loves her family. Some of the other families in Cedartown cut their losses and move back to their hometowns. Will is adamant that the farmland is still good and needs more time to get under their control. Will’s parents send them provisions and money. Abbie takes comfort in the love and health of her family and starts singing again.
Chapter 14 Summary
Abbie is determined to make Christmas special despite their struggles. She and the other families work together to build toys and make candy for the children. Despite their hardships, Abbie’s children aren’t unhappy. They are well cared for and delighted with the gifts they receive at Christmas.
Chapter 15 Summary
The winter is difficult, and Will is ashamed of accepting the government’s aid. They receive news that his father is dead around the same time that the Lutzes’ father dies. In that season of hardship, “Only the children were happy. Too young to sense the desperate straits of the family” (118). Abbie gives birth to her fourth child, a boy who dies at birth. Abbie is heartbroken and fears that the baby died because of her previous thoughts that she didn’t want the baby in the first place. They bury the baby in the Cedartown graveyard, and Abbie hates that her baby is buried in a prairie without trees.
Chapters 8-15 Analysis
In Chapters 8 through 15, Abbie’s life changes drastically as she and Will become pioneers in the brutal and unsettled prairie of Nebraska.
Abbie undergoes significant character development in these chapters. She becomes a mother and “[a]ll her old love of life seemed to concentrate on one thing,—the little soft, helpless bundle. The world of romance, of courtly men and lovely ladies was a world of unreality” (65). Abbie draws strength, courage, and happiness from being a mother. Throughout these chapters, she gives birth to four children, three of whom survive. In the direst seasons of hardship on the prairie, Abbie’s children are the symbol of hope and happiness. This emphasizes the theme of The Importance of Family.
Life as a pioneer woman is difficult, and Aldrich celebrates Abbie’s character development as a woman who endures challenges to establish a new America. However, as a woman, Abbie has little choice in the matter: “The era of this freedom had not dawned. Abbie Deal’s man had said he was going to Nebraska, and Abbie had to go too” (68). Abbie doesn’t choose the life of a pioneer woman, but it is thrust upon her and she does her best to help her husband accomplish his dreams for the family. While Abbie ultimately finds her own purpose as a pioneer woman in motherhood, her choice to marry for love over money helps portray her characterization as someone who stays true to herself no matter the cost.
Abbie and Will are the early pioneers of the American Dream, a journey that is defined by sacrifice, adventure, ambition, and hope. To accomplish the American Dream, everyone in Cedartown works grueling hours in manual labor. As a woman, Abbie has many jobs. She is a wife, mother, and homemaker, and she helps construct the town. Abbie becomes the picture of the ideal pioneer woman who “went happily about her work, one baby in her arms and the other at her skirts, […] a song upon her lips and a lantern in her hand” (87). Abbie’s singing is a symbol of her resilience, highlighting The Power of Art. When she is in depths of despair, she stops singing, but she finds her song again when she resolves to make her own life better. Abbie demonstrates that being a pioneer and working for the American Dream is a choice and a mindset. The “lantern in her hand,” highlighted in its symbolic importance through the title of the novel, further emphasizes that Abbie is the heroine of the story and a testament to the American women who sacrificed to help build a nation. Aldrich uses Abbie’s story as an example of what contemporary Americans owe the early pioneers, emphasizing the theme of The Pioneer Spirit.
Abbie’s life is complex because it is defined both by the love of her family and the struggles of living in the prairie. The setting of Nebraska is a parallelism to Abbie’s growing pioneer consciousness. She notes that “[t]he grass out there,—would it never cease to wave? There were four rhythmic beats like music, but music which irritated rather than soothed one” (73). The setting is characterized by its barrenness and portrayed in unsettling imagery that parallels Abbie’s feelings. In this novel, the environment is crucial to the development of the characters. Abbie becomes as weary as the land around her, but she also becomes as tough as the land.
Unlock all 45 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: