O Pioneers! (1913)

At first glance, this read is a pleasant story; but like the rain, it sinks in and thoughts and understanding begin to grow. This could be the story of many of my ancestors. It could be the story of the independent women who settled the wild land and men. It could be the story of repression endured, of the strength of love, and the agony of failure. So many undercurrents are in this tale, as in life. It was a pleasant story, though it dealt with heartache, failure and depression. It is a love song to the land, and those who love the land. ( )

Story of a family whose members take different courses after the patriarch dies. A main character is the land and it is evoked pretty well. That said, this is a story about taming the land for agriculture with an implicit message that this is somehow a good thing. At first this prairie-taming is indeed heroic. The plot is fairly canned and thus it is not very compelling. There is not enouch depth or complexity in these flat characters to make me care about what happens to them. ( )

The work is known for its vivid re-creation of the hardships of prairie life and of the struggle of immigrant pioneer women. The novel was partially based on Cather’s Nebraska childhood, and it reflected the author’s belief in the primacy of spiritual and moral values over the purely material. Its heroine, Alexandra Bergson, exemplified the courage and purpose Cather felt were necessary to subdue the wild land. The title is taken from Walt Whitman’s poem “Pioneers! O Pioneers!” which, like the novel, celebrated frontier virtues of strength and inner spirit. ( )

3.5
I’m shocked at how much I liked this. Kinda clumsy, but ultimately very moving and full of heart :) ( )

Grit and Determination on the Plains

Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! encapsulates in one brief novel the epic story of America’s breadbasket, the immigrants who settled and transformed it into the vast productive land we know today, the challenges they confronted and overcame, the importance of and strength they derived from shared heritage and community, and the vision of some to see past their present difficulties to a brighter future. And it features as a prime mover, the one with the greatest vision, a woman of strong will, of inner fortitude, possessing the strength to set aside societal convention as she tamed the wild land as her brothers never could, Alexandra Bergson.

In the 1880s, when the novel opens, Nebraska was still a wild land, given to cattle raising. But the U.S. government wanted to spur agricultural development and to that end passed the Homestead Acts (1882), whereby Americans could receive land free with the proviso they had to live on it and cultivate it within five years. Land was also sold to immigrants who poured into the country, particularly from Scandinavia and Germany. John Bergson, the patriarch in the novel, settled near the fictional town of Hanover. John worked himself to death, literary, farming his land and upon his death left the homestead to Alexandra, going against the grain of both the times and old world tradition. He saw that she, not her brothers Lou and Oscar, had the vision and intelligence to build what he had begun into something big and prosperous. By the second part of the novel, which jumps ahead sixteen years, we see that she has accomplished just that, resisting the brothers’ fears of taking on risk and doing things differently than many around them.

Alexandra, apart from running the farm, leads a lonely life. She has recurring dreams of being carried in the arms of a strong man, but keeps her closest male friend, Carl, at a distance, until the end of the novel. She establishes a close relationship with Marie Tovesky Shabata, whom both she and her youngest brother, Emil, have known since childhood. Emil and Marie are near the same ages and Alexandra encourages Emil to help out on the Shabata farm often. Marie is married to a very difficult man, a man at odds with the world, a man who dislikes his neighbors and is disliked my them in return. Emil, of course, falls in love with Marie, who is vivacious and happy, even, and perhaps in spite, of her marital plight. Her husband, among other things, is jealous of Marie and always suspicious of her. In the end, this leads to tragedy, with him killing both Emil and Marie as they talk to each other in an apple orchard. Interestingly, and a reflection of attitudes toward woman, Alexandra not only blames herself for the murders but also Emil and Marie for engaging in an affair (though emotional not conjugal). In short, Marie bears responsibility for her husbands reaction. As a result, Alexandra visits Frank, the husband, in prison in Lincoln and promises to help him secure an earlier release. This aspect of the novel might have modern readers raising their eyebrows.

In the end, Carl returns from Alaska, where he has gone to stake his claim to adventure and riches, to console her, and the two, though unsaid, marry.

Cather writes with a simplicity that will appeal to most readers. Reminding oneself of American origins, in particular how immigrant groups clung together before blending into the American landscape, is a strength, especially given current times. The portrayal of a strong woman able to succeed to the world of business is another strength. However, some readers may be less accepting of certain ideas more in line with traditional expectations for women, especially as they relate to emotional spousal abuse and finger pointing for a crime of a passion. The Signet Classic mass paperback edition contains a fine introduction by Elizabeth Janeway, and for this reason is the recommended edition. ( )