- Alternative Character Interpretation: After Sprague donates books for the school and Laura meets him at the fishing spot, he goes to talk to Charles and Laura informs he gave Pa his loan. Did Sprague change his mind about the loan to Charles because Charles' chewing him out helped him see the errors of his ways, because he realized the Ingalls family were reliable enough for the loan, or was it in exchange for keeping his secret about the books?
- Strawman Has a Point: The show clearly thinks that Sprague's business decisions make him a complete monster and assumes that the viewer will automatically agree. No moral or ethical allowance is made for the possibility of sympathizing with his enforcement of the clear and objective terms of his contract with Mr. Hanson, his reluctance to make high-risk loans with insufficient collateral, and/or his declining of a strongarm donation solicitation in an amount to which even Miss Beadle was a bit sheepish about admitting. The townsfolk of Walnut Grove really do presume to treat him like an ATM from the moment he rides into town, and they seem to take personal offense that he's operating a business rather than a public charity.
- Values Dissonance: Laura keeps meeting with a male stranger she knows nothing about, at a place where nobody can see them, and even does the equivalent of getting in a stranger's car when he drives her home in his buggy. It's a plot device so that nobody reveals to her that his friendly companion during fishing time is the cold-hearted new banker, but nowadays, with Stranger Danger increasingly acknowledged, Laura's family would have wanted to know this stranger and would have figured out that it's Sprague much sooner.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/LittleHouseOnThePrairieS2E3EbenezerSprague
Go To
