Willa Cather's O Pioneers !

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Willa Cather’s’ novel O Pioneers! (1913) Indicates a perfect example of the Romanticism of the 20th century. Pioneering, as we all know, has shaped the United States as it is today. But why did this age stand out from the rest? In order for survival during this pioneering age, Cathers’ main characters rely on their gut feelings. Cather gives a reader the taste of the present lifestyle and points out the faults of people who are not willing to trust their own self. While people are criticized for their failures, many people tend to lean towards the easy way out, which is to roll with others. In this novel, Cather provides the main character Alexandra with the unique personality, exposing her success from the extent of trusting a gut feeling…show more content…
The first type includes the ones who fight the land. With the struggle of farming, some of the homesteaders pressure the land and try to shape it. Other types of characters, Cather describes as cowardly, yet she includes the brothers thoughts in her description to signify that these cowards are smart for leaving the territory considering there is no opportunity on the land. Alexandra Bergson, Cather’s strongest and main character, is one of the few who succeeds by staying because she puts her faith in her father’s property. She is the type of character that works with the land rather than against it. In preserving the importance of having a feeling towards this land, she is able to succeed. The narrator explains the importance of Alexandra’s role with the land by stating, “For the first time, perhaps, since that land emerged from the water geologic ages, a human face was set towards it with love and yearning”…show more content…
Cather uses gut feelings to describe the characters Emil and Marie. Marie and Frank Shabata used to have a healthy marriage. It was clear from the start that Maries father did not approve of this relationship, feeling that it would not last. Her father was a stern old man who disapproved of the engagement between Frank and Marie stating, “Why don’t he go to work like the rest of us did” (56). In the end, the old man was right. Marie would fall in love with someone different than Frank as stated in the scene lying next to Emil just before her death, “I was dreaming this, don’t take my dream away”
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