O Pioneers
Land is the central motif of Willa Cather's O Pioneers! Land becomes a symbol of personal and political empowerment, and it also connects past, present, and future as land is transferred through multiple generations. Land is more than just an "image in the mind" for central characters like Alexandra. Land is linked to identity, family, and livelihood. However, land does serve a symbolic as well as a practical role for all the characters. Land is much more than ground beneath the feet; land is the lens through which the characters view the world. For instance, land helps measure the passage of time: "he years seemed to stretch before her like the land; spring, summer, autumn, winter, spring; always the same patient fields, the patient little trees," (Part IV, Chapter 5). Land serves an almost religious function for Elizabeth, who had "believed in the land" just as her father did (Part IV, Chapter 3). Especially for female characters in O Pioneers! like Marie and Alexandra, land serves multiple symbolic functions as the means by which to transcend patriarchy, the means by which to provide for their families, and the means by which to represent the figurative landscapes of life.
At the opening of O Pioneers! Marie is a "stranger in the country," and her family is described as having come from a far-off land, Bohemia. Therefore, land is a key to understanding both personal and cultural identity throughout the book as Marie's knowledge of the American landscape deepens. For Marie, land in Nebraska becomes associated with belonging, acculturation, and adaptation. Land also becomes an ironic form of liberation for Marie, who is at heart a free spirit. She "ran away from the convent school" to get married, something that likely seemed adventurous at the time (Part II, Chapter 4). Furthermore, Marie fantasizes about traveling as when she envisions what Mexico might look like as she thinks about Emil.
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" Too, if language affects place, and place affects language, the one cannot escape Cather's great admiration for the complexities of nature. The future, Cather's Alexandra knows, is with the land, with seeing the complex interaction (what we would call biodiversity) ever working, and what pastoral mysteries might mean to humans if they could synchronize with the rhythms of nature (Garrard, 2004, 54). She had never known before how much the
The psychological strength of Alexandra is clearly visible when her dying father entrusts her with the family's land. According to father, she is supposed to be take care of the family's estates when he dies. The father seems to have developed more confidence in Alexandra in comparison to her other brothers, Lou and Oscar. It is for this reason that he makes a will stating that the Alexandra would
Willa Cather: O Pioneers! Willa Cather's O Pioneers! was her second published novel, although she, herself, preferred to consider it her first. She believed it was the first work in which she truly had found her own voice. The novel concerns homesteaders in Nebraska in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The protagonist is a woman, Swedish by birth, who has brought her land up to rich production and brought prosperity
This reveals the more liberated ideals of the west and of the pioneer culture. First, Alexandra envisions herself "being lifted and carried lightly by some one very strong. He was with her a long while this time, and carried her very far, and in his arms she felt free from pain." The masculine figure takes the place of the gossamer female angel. She is about to be subsumed by
This meant that men held positions of power and authority in all the public spheres including economics/business, politics/the law, and the bearing of arms. Men also possessed social status that women did not have, enabling the perpetuation of a patriarchal society. By applying Freudian psychoanalysis and feminist theory, I will analyze the personality of the independent, strong, risk taker, and smart Alexandra Bergson in Willa Cather's O Pioneer! As Smith
Willa Cather’s 1913 novel O Pioneers! was the first of her Great Plains trilogy. It was also one of the first American novels to depict the pioneering feminism of a main character. The heroine in Cather’s novel is Alexandra Bergson, the daughter of a Swedish immigrant. She is left the family farm in Nebraska when her father dies—and as others are giving up the prairie life she is determined to
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