O Pioneers!
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| Author | Willa Cather |
|---|---|
| Publisher | |
| Released | 1913 |
O Pioneers! is a 1913 novel by American author Willa Cather. It opens the "Prairie Trilogy" of Cather novels that also comprises My Ántonia and The Song of the Lark.
O Pioneers! tells the story of the Bergsons, a family of Swedish immigrants in the farm country near Hanover, Nebraska, (a fictional town near Glenvil) around the turn of the 20th century. The main character, Alexandra Bergson, inherits the family farmland when her father dies, and she devotes her life to making the farm a viable enterprise at a time when other immigrant families are giving up and leaving the prairie. The novel also concerns two romantic relationships - one between Alexandra and family friend Carl Lindstrum, and another between Alexandra's brother Emil and the married Marie Shabata.
Many copies of the book are accompanied with the poem, "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" by Walt Whitman, which is said to be part of the inspiration for the novel and where the title comes from as well.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The book is divided into five parts, each of which has numerous (unnumbered) chapters.
- Part I - The Wild Land
- On a windy day in Hanover, Nebraska, 17 year old Alexandra Bergson is visiting with her 4 year old brother Emil. Emil's kitten has climbed a telegraph pole and is afraid to come down. Alexandra finds her neighbor and friend Carl Lindstrom, who retrieves the kitten. In the general store, Alexandra finds Emil with Marie, the same age as Emil. Marie's father has brought her from Omaha. Alexandra's father is dying, and he wishes that she run the farm after he is gone. Alexandra then talks her brothers Oscar and Lou into mortgaging the farm to buy more land.
- Part II - Neighboring Fields
- Now sixteen years later, the farms are now prosperous. Alexandra and her brothers have divided up their inheritance, and Emil has just returned from college. The Lindstrom farm has failed, and Marie, now married to one Frank Shabata, has bought it. During a Bergson family get-together, Carl Lindstrom shows up, having failed in a job in Chicago. He is on his way to Alaska, but decides to stay with Alexandra for awhile. There is a growing flirtatious relationship between Emil and Marie, which Carl notices. Lou and Oscar suspect that Carl wants to marry Alexandra, and are resentful that they had to work hard for their farms, but he thinks he can marry into a farm. After this, Alexandra and her brothers are no longer speaking. Then Carl, recognizing a problem, decides to leave for Alaska. At the same time, Emil announces he is leaving for a job in Mexico City. Alexandra is left alone.
- Part III - Winter Memories
- Alexandra spends the winter alone, except for occasional visits from Marie.
- Part IV - Under the White Mulberry Tree
- Emil returns from Mexico City. His best friend, Amedee, is now married, and wants to introduce Emil to a French girl, but Emil is uninterested. At a fair at the French church, Emil and Marie kiss for the first time. They later confess their illicit love, and Emil determines to leave for law school in Michigan. But he can't resist saying one last goodbye. Marie's husband, Frank, finds them, and shoots them.
- Part V - Alexandra
- Carl hears of what happens, and returns. Alexandra feels partly guilty for what has happened, and determines to ask the governor for clemency for Frank. Carl and Alexandra decide to marry, unconcerned with her brothers' approbation.
[edit] Characters in "O Pioneers!"
- Alexandra Bergson
- The main character of the book. A strong-willed and intelligent person. She was given the farm by her father John Bergson and after 16 years turned it into a very prosperous. Alexandra isn't very adept at sensing peoples feelings or her own. It takes her a long time to realize that she loves Carl Linstrum. She also doesn't sense Emil's growing attraction toward the unhappily married Marie Shabata.
- Emil Bergson
- Emil the youngest child of John Bergson grows up in Alexandra's wealth to become an intelligent, handsome, and athletic person. He has the opportunity to go to college which he plans to take. But tragically he begins to fall in love with Marie Shabata who is unhappily married. He leaves for Mexico to try and escape his temptation for Marie. But after a year returns and cannot resist. He kisses her for the first time and before leaving for college says one final goodbye to Marie. But Frank Shabata, Marie's husband, catches them and shoots them both in a bloody rage.
[edit] Major themes
O Pioneers! is often described as anticlimactic.
