Common Themes In Willa Cather's Novel

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Themes of Willa Cather's novels O Pioneer! and My Antonia. People have made many critical responses of Willa Cather's novels. Two of her novels, O Pioneer! and My Antonia, have similar themes. Comparisons between the two novels will reveal characterization, hardships and adaptions, and how gender roles are defeated. First of all, characterization reflects in both stories because they both incorperate "love of the land" (Cather). O Pioneers! is a story of a girl that is basically lonely after the death of her mother, father, and later, her younger brother. She works her land so much that she learns from it and it ends up thriving, unlike how it began; My Antonia is about an immigrant girl and her family who moves to Nebraska and, despite all the unfortunate events in her life, Antonia is still determined. The women in both the novels work on their land and overcome many obsticles, even with all the curves and sharp turns life threw at them. Both Alexndra and Antonia are described by "rising above the common lot" (Cather).…show more content…
In O Poineers!, John Bergson, Alexandra's father, and the rest of the family suffers from extreme hardship within their homestead. "From 1872 on, a series of natural disasters occured in te region annually" (Literature). Though her father never really adapts to the land, later on after his death, Alexandra does adapt and "built up her farm" (Pioneers). Not only is Alexandra left to adapt to the stubborn land, but also the departure of her only two friends, Carl and Emil (who is also her brother), and later, Emil's death. As well as in My Antonia, Antonia is going through troubles herself with her father's death (a suicide), the abandonment of her fiance, and the bith of her daughter who is not within wedlocked. At the end, Alexandra and Antonia both found their peace and
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