Willa Cather's O Pioneers Research Paper

Another take away from this event is that “right love” is out of harmony and is not one of trying to change the other person; love is pure. This connects to Jean Vanier’s “Becoming Human,” as Vanier also emphasizes in his seven aspects of love, one of them being to empower and understand. In the case of The Lady and Frank, many aspects of love were missing, including those

O Pioneers by Willa Cather sets itself apart from other novels of its time because of what its stands for, feminism. It exemplifies women’s equality, represented by the main character, Alexandra, by showing her survival in a male dominated society. She succeeded in building her female identity and achieved a sense of female attainment by revolutionizing the wild land and struggling for her equal rights with all that surrounded her. This paper focuses on the feminist thoughts and the positive attitude of the image of the strong character Alexandra, who was independent, brave, and optimistic. A spirit like hers, of strength and courage, insisted that she would never be defeated by man or nature.

Ever since the beginning of time, love has played an enormous role among humans. Everyone feels a need to love and to be loved. Some attempt to fill this yearning with activities and possessions that will not satisfy – with activities in which they should not participate and possessions they should not own. In Andrew Marvell’s poem, “To His Coy Mistress,” the speaker encounters an emotion some would call love but fits better under the designation of lust for a woman. In contrast, the speaker of Robert Herrick’s poem, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” urges virgins to marry, to make a lasting commitment in which love plays a

     Breakfast was usually eaten around 10 A.M. It might have consisted of cornbread with butter, cold meat, cider or beer, or maybe coffee or tea. The main meal was eaten around 4:00 P.M. This would be the lavish meal. When it was time to eat the man and his older sons would take their places at the table. The wife would sit next to her husband while the oldest daughter would serve the meal. Any young children would stand, not sit at a separate table and were not allowed to speak. (John F. Warner – pg.50-54)

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.

Meursault deals with others people as if they are only there to please him or they are just taking up his time. As evidenced with his relationship with Marie, Meursault was merely using her for sex because that is what he wanted from her and at that time in his life. He lives from pleasure to pleasure with Marie; he only looks forward to seeing her when he knows he can have sex with her. When visiting day rolls around at the jail he is not as enthusiastic about seeing Marie as you would think he would be after not seeing her for several months. Because he knows he can't have sex with her, it totally cheapens the moment while she talks to him. Meursault drifts off into space basically ignoring her. For Meursault there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for him if he talks to her, the thrill is gone and thus the pleasure has dried up for him.

Love between two genders is one of the most common themes in writing. In literature, love is often praised, appreciated and cherished. Another common theme in writing is the looming specter of inequality between men and women, which has been strongly depicted throughout history and is still worryingly present in the world today. It is extremely interesting to realize that though love is treasured and valued, in most cases, it takes both genders to create love, and those genders are often separated by inequality. Both these themes coincide well together; the clash of love and gender inequality is interestingly captivating. In John Updikes A&P and Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, both stories send a conclusive message to the reader that equality between both sexes in love and attraction is almost impossible; one gender will always be more powerful than the other.

R/s two weeks ago Jacob text Aaliyah and said no one cares about him and he wanted to kill himself.

I feel that we should communicate in person. You can get more detail in person or notice how that person is feeling which you don’t get so much detail over the phone. Plus the internet has had a lot of bad things happen on it over the past few years on email or just social media. Then there is also lots of arguments that start over the internet.

(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

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” examine the complex relationship between a husband and wife. The two works take two different approaches to convey the same message: Marriage is not a fairytale, it requires sacrifice and unselfish behavior in order to work. Relationships are difficult to begin and harder to maintain. Mr. and Mrs. Mallard and Aylmer and Georgiana are two relationships that shatter the surreal perception of marriage and expose readers to the raw truth, marriage is not a fairytale.

In the late 1800’s through early 1900’s women and men were did not “tie the knot” like the women and men do in today’s day. In today’s world, women and men get married because they have many things in common, they are in love with each other, and they choose to get married to one another. In many stories written back then, readers can expect to read about how marriages were arranged and how many people were not having the wedded bliss marriage proclaims today.

None of this deters Marie, for she is strong and satisfied with where she is in her relatiioinship even though she gets nothing emotionally from Meursault. Marie learns just how to be with Meursault, she builds herself up and one day decides that she will not allow Meursault’s little emotional displays stop her from spending the rest of her life with him. Another thing that makes Marie stick out, is that she was the one who ‘proposed’ to him. Sure, there was never any formal proposal, no dropping to one knee or hiding the ring in some angle foodcake, but she was the first to even remotely mention marriage in the relationship. Set in the early 1940’s, the time proves that the woman was still the less superior in any relationship. Never was it socially acceptable to be this forward in a relationship, never could the woman bring up

However, Marie’s neediness also allows her to be extremely loyal. Loyalty is normally a strength, but Marie takes it to another level and makes her loyalty a weakness. Marie visited Meursault in prison and assures him”[he will] get out [of prison] and [they will] get married” (75). Even though Meursault murders someone, goes to jail and is sentenced to death, Marie stays with him almost all the way to the end of Meursault’s life. Most people would not be comfortable getting married to a murderer. However, Marie still wanted to get married to Meursault because

As a convention, marriage for women has been a landmark of success. It is necessary for a woman to enter into marriage to be recognized by the society as successful. The requisites of marriage such as love and affection are often neglected in exchange for some financial value imposed by the husband. In The Story of an Hour it is exemplified in ?a heart trouble? of Mrs. Mallard while in The Girls in Their Summer Dresses points out to Frances? longing to keep her husband in spite of her doubtful interest upon her.