O Pioneers!

Willa Cather was a famous female writer in the early 1900’s. In 1913 she wrote O Pioneers! It was the first book of her Great Plains trilogy. O Pioneers! Tells the story of the Swedish Bergson family that lives in Hanover, Nebraska. Alexandra Bergson, the main character, inherits the family farmland when her father John Bergson passes away. Alexandra Bergson devotes her life to two things, making a good farmland and the success of Emil Bergson, her youngest brother. In this story Willa Cather expresses three types of literary writing movements which include naturalism, realism, and romanticism. In this essay we will be discussing how Cathers uses these literary movements in her story. The majority of the story, O Pioneers! was written in a…

Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! tells the gripping tale of Alexandra, a farmer on the Nebraska plains and her ordeals as she faces obstacles with her farm life and personal life. The novel expands into further character plots, however, specifically that of Emil and Marie, Alexandra’s brother and his married love interest, respectively. Ending in tragedy, Cather memorializes them with this passage: “But the stained, slippery grass, the darkened mulberries, told only half the story. Above Marie and…

Feminist Critque on O Pioneers! Willa Cather’s, book O Pioneers represents a completely different way of life than traditional life is the early 1900’s . Traditionally, a man’s main job consits of hard labor and a woman’s job involves having children and focusing on home life. Although this happens to be the “norm” of the time, charcters in O Pioneers do quite the opposite. Carl Linstrum, a male character in the novel, does not come across as your “typical” 1900’s man. Another bold…

Cather personally adheres Naturalism in her book O Pioneers! because how She wrote about her and Oscar and Luis’ fight and Emil and Marie’s relationship. Although, Cather prefers Naturalism in her book, the title has a sense of Naturalism. To sum it up I believe Cather uses Naturalism as her life philosophy in her book O’ Pioneers!. However, O’ Pioneers! has the Naturalistic view the title of the book has a romantic view. The Title of the book has the same title as a romantic poem that talks…

From the beginning of “O Pioneers!” readers are shown a complete disregard, or reversal, of gender roles. Gender roles are highly discussed in American literature. Characters in “O Pioneers!” are not shamed for their gender reversals, Alexandra is actually seemed to be praised for being masculine. Alexandra is the character that the audience gets to see gender reversal in. Carl is also described differently than the stereotypical man. While Alexandra and Carl are the most prominent characters…

Cather’s character, Alexandra Bergson, represents her personality; a strong and intelligent young woman. Cather wrote the book, O Pioneers!, to express her life story by using Realistic, Romantic, and Naturalistic views. Naturalism; “philosophical viewpoint according to which everything arises from natural properties and causes, and supernatural or spiritual explanations are excluded or discounted.” The story represents Naturalism in the beginning with the land. Farmers depend on nature to…

Dessen pinpoints the emotions and obstacles Marie has experienced through her love for Emil. For Marie, love for Emil was never expected or convenient, but was spontaneous and burdensome. This is exactly what Dessen describes to be “true love”, one that happens by chance at the worst time possible but is composed of passion and intensity. Dessen even describes the “single, throbbing moment”, where Marie and Emil express this true love in one passionate night under the stars. Although this love…

The novel “O Pioneers!” by Willa Cather takes a naturalistic view on the way of life while incorporating strong independent female aspects. This book contains a story about Alexandra Bergson growing up on a farm with many tough obstacles to overcome like death, loneliness, and heartbreak. Yet, like in every other book, she overcomes them and tells her story. I personally thought the book could have had a better ending, the ending didn’t really give the readers an edge that we all enjoy. Even…

In the book O pioneers! By Willa Cather, there are many themes, from self-sacrifice to how horribly terrible relationships can go. However one of the themes relates most to U.S. history and that is how the book compares how the foreign characters were treated compared to that of real-life immigrants from the late 19th century to the early 20th. During the 19th century and the early 20th, there was a spike in the number of immigrants to America from all over the world. During this time, however,…

O Pioneers! reflected her experience seeing and dealing immigrants. When cather moved to Nebraska she soon learned that most americans, including her own family, were not much interested in "foreigners" Long after she'd left to live in the east, she said: "our settlers.... cautious and convinced of their own superiority, kept themselves isolated as much as possible from foreign influences" (Meltzer 22). She had seen difficulties of immigrants in her early life, the novel portrays the Nebraskan…