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O Pioneers!

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Cather published her second novel, O Pioneers, in 1913 at the age of 40. Together with My Antonia it is the novel for which she is best known. Years after writing the book, Cather wrote of it " Since I wrote this book for myself, I ignored all the situations and accents that were then thought to be necessary."
The book takes place on the plains of Nebraska in the late 19th Century as the Prairie is settled be Swedish, Bohemian, and French immigrants trying to eke out a living from what appears to be a harsh, inhospitable land. The heroine of the book is Alexandra Bergson who inherits her father's farm as a young woman, raises his three sons and stays with the farm through the harsh times to become a successful landowner and farmer.

The books speaks of being wedded to the land and to place. In this sense it is an instance of the American dream of a home. It also speaks of a strong woman, not in cliched, late 20th Century terms but with a sense of ambiguity, difficulty and loss.

This is a story as well of thwarted love, of the difficult nature of sexuality, and of human passion. There is also the beginning of what in Cather's works will become an increased sense of religion, Catholicism in particular, as a haven and a solace for the sorrow she finds at the heart of human endeavor. Above all it is a picture of stark life in the midwest.

There is almost as much blood-letting in this short book as in an Elizabethan tragedy. Cather's picture of American life on the plains, even in her earliest books, is not an easy or simple one. Some readers may quarrel with the seemingly happy ending of the book. I don't think any will deny that Alexandra's happiness is dearly bought or that it is bittersweet.

I tendend to shy away from this book in favor of Cather's later novels. I feared that it would be conventional and trite. The stereotyping was mine,however. This is a thoughtful, well written story of immigrant life on the plains and of the sorrow pain, and strength of the American experience.

Robin Friedman

Some writers are identified with a particular country or region, others with a specific period in history. Willa Cather is known for both. When I think of her, I think of the prairie states, especially Nebraska, and I think of the days of the intrepid pioneers of the prairies, struggling to make a life for themselves that was tenuous, at best.

Although Cather spent only a few years of her childhood on the vast prairie lands of Nebraska, she returned to those memories again and again in her most powerful and famous fiction, such as My Antonia and The Song of the Lark.

The title of one of her celebrated novels, O Pioneers! is rather unique in that it has an exclamation point at the end of it. Think about it: how many other book titles do you know that have exclamation points? That sense of breathlessness, excitement, and fierce determination which is conveyed in the very look of the title O Pioneers! comes across from the very first pages of this novel.

This is the story of Alexandra Bergson and her family who risk everything they have to carve out a home in the unforgiving Nebraska landscape. Alexandra is forced at a very young age to take on the responsibility for her mother and brothers after her father dies. Before he dies, her father makes Alexandra, his most trusted child, promise to keep the farm and to make it thrive. This she does, although at a high personal cost.

The novel is a short one and moves quickly from decade to decade. It begins with a touching scene involving Alexandra's youngest brother Emil, whose stray kitten is rescued by Alexandra's best friend, Carl. The moment is a sweet one, and all ends well; but this is perhaps the only time in the book that we see problems so easily and satisfactorily resolved.

The land is harsh and brings out both the best and the worst in people. Those with weak wills and weak values often stumble and are sometimes destroyed. The Nebraska prairie is not a place where love and gentle dreams can flourish without interference; young people particularly often find their fondest dreams tossed aside the way the blade of a plow uproots the tender prairie grasses.

There is heartbreak and loneliness in O Pioneers!,but there are also moments of pure exhilaration and veneration for the savage beauty of the land. Alexandra suffers as she tries to keep her vision of what the land can mean for her and her family. Like many of the women in the novels of Willa Cather, Alexandra rises above the ordinary, and continues with dogged determination along the path she has set for herself. The price she pays is high, but we know it is not too high, despite what has been lost. And, appropriately, the last sentence in O Pioneers! ends with this exclamatory sentence:"Fortunate country, that is one day to receive hearts like Alexandra's into its bosom, to give them out again the yellow wheat, in the rustling corn, in the shining eyes of youth!"

Fortunate, indeed!

O Pioneers! is an easy read about a strong woman immigrated to the plains of Nebraska and her struggles and love for the land, a great look at pioneer life and a very intriguing dive into human nature

I read this about thirty years ago in college and it is still my favorite book involving the struggle of man and nature. It is a deeply moving story, written in a simple but elegant style. Read it, savor its brilliance, and be ready to wipe a tear. The poem at the start of the book is absolutley amazing.

I remember reading My Ántonia by Willa Cather years ago, for a high school English class. I can't really remember the book or what I thought about it, but for some reason I always think of it with distaste. Consequently, I wasn't particularly looking forward to reading O Pioneers!, but because it was short and available online, I decided to give it a try. And now I really need to reread My Ántonia because I think that for years I may have been dismissing a gem.

O Pioneers! is an enchanting account of a Swedish immigrant pioneer family struggling to make a living on the Nebraska plains. Recognizing good sense and business talent in his oldest child, a daughter named Alexandra, a father instructs his sons to follow Alexandra's counsel in running the land and, above all, to keep the land. Alexandra is an intelligent, independent woman whose risk-taking and innovation causes the family to prosper. However, her willingness to break with convention is not favored in the rigid Swedish immigrant community, and her two oldest brothers grow resentful of her independence and her desire to give their younger brother opportunities, like college, that the three older children never had.

Willa Cather manages to bring the prairie alive, and, briefly, conveys their beauty and a love of the land. Even though the novel is only around 130 pages (depending on the version), it is long enough to make a reader sympathize with the struggles of the characters and sense their lost loves and dreams before they fully realize the losses themselves. Some themes could be explored in more detail, but the novel is a joy to read and its brevity may be, in part, what makes it so sweet.

For more reviews, visit my blog, Life Off the Shelf.

Willa Cather offers many insights as she informs us of the lives of the Swedish immigrant family the Bergsons in rural Nebraska in the early 20th century. Central to this story is the strength and resourcefulness of Alexandra Bergson, who we first meet in her teens, the de facto leader of her family--much to the consternation of her less able brothers Lou and Oscar. The ever observant author enriches her novel with insightful details that makes her imagined world startlingly real--as the reader thinks to himself "yeah, come to think of it--things are like that!" I think of the ironic observation that the wives of Alexandra's brother loved their husbands with a love tinged with fear. Her description of the dangerous cold of the Midwestern winter at the opining of the novel reminds me of the first Midwestern winters that I endured--and the realization that one could die of exposure much more easily than in Eastern winters. Alexandra's success in business--going way beyond her brothers--reminds me of my own realization that a business once owned by my family would have fared much better if it had been run by my own very clever grandmother instead of her less able brother who had inherited the business.