Analysis Of ' O Pioneers ' By Willa Cather

The Portrayal of the Plight of Women by the Author, In Their Particular Period of Time

Many things influence a person’s overall perception and opinions about the world around them, such as their education, geographic location of upbringing, or religious views. All of these factors, combined with countless others, shape each person into who they are and how they interact with society. The time period a person lives through is another exceptionally important contribution, as it is creates the entire backdrop of their experiences -- socially, economically, and politically. A psychoanalytical look at O Pioneers! by Willa Cather, explains how the social and cultural implications of Willa’s life are transferred to this piece of literature. I believe that Willa Cather created the primary, male characters in O Pioneers! based on the unfortunate experiences she had with men in her early adulthood, which caused these strongly biased characters, while the female characters are given exaggerated positive personality traits.

According to National Geographic, 40% of the Earth today is farmland—soil being manipulated to feed the 7.6 billion human beings on this world. We have taken over this world like ants swarming to a piece of rotting fruit, without much thought to the organisms that have been on Earth long before us. Our lives may be easier in that we do not have to forge for our food or water anymore, but with the stress of today’s world, was the tradeoff worth the natural land? Willa Cather’s novel, O Pioneers! brings attention to the way we choose to use the land, whether it is in our best interests, the land’s, or both. The characters in O Pioneers! demonstrate how in order to maintain a successful relationship with the land we live on, it is necessary to be able to both adapt to the land and mold it to fit our physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.

Women in the nineteenth century, for the most part, had to follow the common role presented to them by society. This role can be summed up by what historians call the “cult of domesticity”. The McGuffey Readers does a successful job at illustrating the women’s role in society. Women that took part in the overland trail as described in “Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey” had to try to follow these roles while facing many challenges that made it very difficult to do so.

Because her father had such a high standing and proud nature within the city, Anna’s romances with the two men were sought to be terminated by both her father as well as these other councilmen. Anna was also accused of stealing from her father, taking money, wine, and sold other possessions of his for a sum of money in order to buy things for herself, and keep her rendezvous with her lovers a secret. “And her father and brother were the ones who discovered, confiscated, and preserved the extremely rare cache of her love letters” (3). This was ultimately the fall of Anna’s character, as her father then attacked her, banished her from his home, and took away her inheritance, which would start the legal battle with her father and other family members for many years to come (2). Anna would take this court case to her grave as it would never be settled, and she would go through many misfortunes while trying to gain the legal right to her inheritance.

Although Alexandra was depicted as a “tall, strong girl,” (p.10) which is typically viewed as characteristics of a male, she was indeed a feminist in Willa Cather’s novel O Pioneers! In the introduction of the novel, an argument arises due to the differences of O Pioneers! in contrast to some of Cather’s other pieces as well as several other novels of that time period. Marilee Lindemann references that “law and custom in most (if not all) Western countries severely limited what are girl might ‘do’, in life as well as in literature (…) thus, in comparison to their male

(50) Her family assumes that she is happy... or perhaps they give it no thought at all. Lou and Oscar have always seen her as the provider rather than as their sister, and because they are the family who are around the most, their views have the most influence on Alexandra’s self-image, which is therefore reduced to a simple person and worker. They never, ever think of their sister as a sister and a woman– she is simply Alexandra, with all that implies in their community: namely, money and success, neither of which are thought of as particularly feminine qualities. She is Alexandra, the one “who read the papers and followed the markets, learning from the mistakes of their neighbors.” (14) Thus, when she begins to court the idea of marrying Carl, they are completely taken aback because all they can think about is that Carl might inherit the land that is “theirs.” During the conversation between Alexandra, Lou, and Oscar, Lou exclaims, “Don’t you know he’d hold of your property?... Our property, our homestead?”like Alexandra was too lost in Carl to think about the probably consequences of her decisions. Both of the brothers are flabbergasted that Alexandra would even consider getting married, especially at her age, because there is no real purpose to an older woman getting married in their eyes as no children can be produced. Alexandra has only made business deals in the past, so when

Although, the book has a lot of naturalistic views because Alexandra Bergson takes over her father's land because he thought she appeared wiser than her brothers. In the book John Bergson said “Alexandra her father often said to himself was like her grandfather which was his way saying that she was intelligent.“ Eventually Lou and Oscar her brother’s could not help anymore with the land. Emil always left but always came

After reading the novel, O Pioneers! it was hard to judge whether it was a tragedy or a triumph. The only way I see it as a tragedy is that Emil and Maria died. I knew, since page six of the book that they were going to be together. It kind of broke my heart to see later on that she had married someone else. But when her and Emil got shot, I thought it may finish as a tragedy. But overall, I would see it as a triumph in the way that the Bergsons finally got what they wanted out of their land. It made them rich. Also, Alexandra and Carl finally married. And being that the whole novel was basically based on the land, they were triumphant in getting what they risked, what they longed for.

O Pioneers!(1993) by Willa Cather begins on a blustery winter day, in the town of Hanover, Nebraska, sometime between 1883 and 1890. The narrator introduces four main character: the very young Emil Bergson; his older sister, Alexandra; her friend Carl Linstrum; and a little girl, Marie Shabata. Alexandra's father, John Bergson, is dying. He tells his two oldest sons, Lou and Oscar, that he is leaving the farmland, and all of what he has accomplished, to their sister.

In the novel O Pioneers! the author Willa Cather?s vision of Alexandra Bergson is consistent in character treatment with other authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne (Scarlet Letter), and Stephan Crane (Maggie: A Girl of the Streets). In each novel, all authors possess a central character that has an obvious tension between themselves and their community. Unlike the previous authors, Cather?s sympathies lie toward Alexandra. She makes Alexandra seem artificial because she has given a woman (also being her main character) strength and courage, along with power to overcome those who wish to pull her down.

There is an Ancient Greek belief that one’s greatest strength is also his or her greatest weakness. In Willa Cather’s, O Pioneers, Marie proves this belief on many different occasions. Marie’s liveliness, which is arguably her greatest quality, acts in turn as her greatest weakness when it becomes a contributing factor to her death. Marie, a beautiful, vivacious Bohemian girl, migrates to the prairie from the city at a young age. She is used to getting attention from everyone everywhere she goes. Her personality, normal in Europe and even the city, is foreign to the plain pioneers on the prairie. She is an oddity compared to them. Because of this, Marie’s vitality gets her into a dangerous love affair with her friend, Emil, and ends up

Even though Alexandra experiences tragedy through the loss of her brother and her best friend, she still gets her happy ending: the novel ends with her and Carl agreeing to marry and live off the land for the rest of their days. If Cather were aiming to criticize Agrarianism, she would have ended the novel immediately after Emil and Maria died.

Willa Cather writes a great novel which called O Pioneers!. It is an American novel which describes how farmers in a small town struggle to have a good live, and how a small farmer family tries to survive at that time. The first chapter is called “the wild land” which shows the readers a big sing about what will come next where people live in a town without water. The first a few pages in the novel are explaining how Alexandra is a strong girl from Hanover stands up for what she believes after the death of his father. The writer shows how the power of nature could affect people lives when the cold and dry weather is around the citizens. However, Alexandra seems to be in love with land because she could see the beauty behind this land while

Alexandra's view on land is a little different, she wants the land because of her father's drive the land he worked so hard to get and do anything with. She wants to carry out his wishes and find a way to keep the farm going, to keep her father's dream alive. Her father basically left the farm