O Pioneers By Willa Cather Summary

Alexandra dealt with criticism not only from other farmers but even from her own brother’s. Lou turned to his brother. "This is what comes of letting a woman meddle in business," he said bitterly. We ought to have taken things in our own hands years ago. But she liked to run things, and we humored her” (Cather). She only wanted the best for their family and to respect her father’s wishes but her own brother’s doubted her time and time again. Even though she did not have full support of her family she knew that she was going to stay on their land and that they would eventually begin to prosper again.

Throughout most of history women generally have had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men. Wifehood and motherhood were regarded as women's most significant professions. Since early times women have been uniquely viewed as a creative source of human life. Historically, however, they have been considered not only intellectually inferior to men but also a major source of temptation and evil. Colonial women faced the harsh realities of childbirth, housework, and serving their husbands because it was tradition. The ways of the ‘old country’ culture was forced upon a new one, disallowing any room for new ideals. Although constrained by society Colonial women have had their part in shaping America.

Empowerment, an elevation in status within a family or wagon train, was relatively rare for women, specifically within the confines of gender roles. Granted there are always outliers, such as Sessions, who spearheaded her own travel and mended her own wagon, the vast majority of women remained constrained to caring for children and cooking. (159) For example, the authors Fisher and Smith delineated the division of labor: physical work – mending wagons and hunting – for men and homely tasks – child-rearing and cooking- for women. (106, 149) This dichotomy in spheres maintained itself once the families arrived in Oregon. The women maintained their homelier jobs such as baking pies (85) and caring for children (76), while men took to

Towards the end of the 1800s and into the beginning of the 1900s, the roles of women in society and in the family began to change drastically compared to what it had been in the past. Women were now allowed to own land, vote, and do more than cook and clean. Willa Cather and William Faulkner portray the roles of women in the early 1900s in their short stories, “Neighbor Rosicky” and “A Rose for Emily.” These short stories were both published around the year 1930. Because of what was happening in the US at the time, these stories are very good examples of the ways women were treated at this time.

As Martha Ballard writes in her diary, "A womans work is never Done as the Song says and Happy is shee [sp] whose strength holds out to the end of the rais [race]." Women, like Ballard, contributed useful and skilled labor, though it was often derided, mocked, or overlooked. However, the work of women varied greatly, due to location, social class, race, time-period, and more. This essay will focus on two very different groups of women, early female settlers of the Chesapeake area during the seventeenth century and the Native American women of the Iroquois Confederacy, spread across northeastern New York and Ontario during the same time period. Through the analysis, the necessity of the study of women 's work will become evident; it aids historians in understanding women 's past: including gender perceptions, the myriad of experiences faced by different women, and the changes over that occurred over time.

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.

Life on the frontier was very difficult for both genders. Many of the pioneers traveled a lot, and other pioneers would settle to make homes. A normal day of a pioneer involved working most of the day, whether it was farming, hunting, household

Alexandra maintains the stereotypical concept of what is the white southern feministic racist. All of the attributes sort of melt together and perpetuate one another. She retains her feministic way by getting Calpurnia, the black helper, to do all of her physical labor for her. An example of this behavior is present in the scene in which Alexandra arrives at the Finches’ house and commands Calpurnia to take her suitcase and her belongings upstairs so she can retain the feministic southern air about her. The prejudice attitude she has is also being passed down through the family. In one scene Scout beats up her annoying cousin for calling Atticus a “nigger-lover”. The only thing Alexandra does is getting on to scout for fighting and telling her it is unladylike to fight (Richards).

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.

To understand the pioneer women of the 19th century American West,

Her sole purpose was to submit to a man (her husband, usually). Whereas for men, they act on their own, speak their mind, dress as they appropriately please, and keep their wife under control. However, in the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin,

Ever since the case involving Tom Robinson, Alexandra has questioned everything she’s known and felt about the “negroes.” Sure Calpernia is alright and Helen seemed like a nice person, but what about the rest? Alexandra’s mind was a beehive; running with thoughts and questions2. Alexandra had always heard awful things about the “negroes” and how disgusting they were from a great majority of the community, but Atticus didn’t think so and neither did a few others. The trial of Tom Robinson and Atticus have helped her see how wrong they were treating them, but there was absolutely no way she would voice her own opinion out loud in fear. She is a lady, and she had her place in society. A political leader is definitely not what a lady is supposed to be.

Typical gender roles and inequality for women are illustrated in other 19th century Russian literature by authors such as Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Mikhail Lermontov and Nikolay Karamzin. In Alexander Pushkin’s novel Eugene Onegin, Tatyana’s family sends her off to Moscow to find a husband, even though she would rather remain in the country. Once she is married however, “Young ladies flocked to her intently,/ And old ones welcomed her with smiles,/ Men bowed to her more reverently/ And sought her glance across the aisles” (Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin, Ardis Publishing, p.202). Tatyana settles into her role as an obedient wife just like her mother did, and she is widely respected as her husband’s wife because she’s obedient and doesn’t have “A single blemish of the kind/ That London’s fashionable classes/ In their fastidious slang decry/ As vulgar” (Pushkin, p.202). Women were expected to find a suitable man to marry, and then they had to obey