Characters versus Community in O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
In the novel O Pioneers! the author Willa Cather?s vision of Alexandra Bergson is consistent in character treatment with other authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne (Scarlet Letter), and Stephan Crane (Maggie: A Girl of the Streets). In each novel, all authors possess a central character that has an obvious tension between themselves and their community. Unlike the previous authors, Cather?s sympathies lie toward Alexandra. She makes Alexandra seem artificial because she has given a woman (also being her main character) strength and courage, along with power to overcome those who wish to pull her down.
In the novel O Pioneers!, Alexandra Bergson is the novel's central protagonist. Alexandra?s character is a model of emotional strength, courage, and tenacity. As the eldest child of the Swedish immigrant John Bergson, she inherits his farm and makes it profitable. Because Alexandra is best suited to perform the labor of prairie life (mentally and physically), she is a prototype of the strong American pioneer and an embodiment of the untamed American West.
Cather portrays the tension between Alexandra and the community in the first four chapters of the section, entitled "Neighboring Fields." Alexandra, an iconoclast, who challenges the close-minded and petty world of small-town America, in which Lou and Oscar, her older brothers, are in one accord with. To an extent, Alexandra's brothers are bound to tradition, obsessed with popular opinion, and frightened by unconventional thought. Just as Lou and Oscar initially resist Alexandra's vision of the land's future and later her innovative farming techniques, they also ridicule her impulse to treat Crazy Ivar with k...
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...poses. Who is to blame for these tragedies that continue to repeat themselves, tragedies that recycle?
Crane?s handling of Maggie is one that is very American. It leaves the reader without closure of the character. After Maggie?s death her mother wants too forgive her, but it is all too late. Nathaniel Hawthorne?s treatment of Hester Prynne was too be expected because of the society she lived in and of course because her ?mistake? (Pearl) would be with her always reminding the community of what she did. Willa Cather is the only author of these three to give her main character, who just happens to be a woman, a positive role within her community despite the tension between the two.
Bibliography:
Cather, Willa. O Pioneers!. Eds. Susan J. Rosowski, Charles Mignon, and Kathleen Danker. The Willa Cather Scholarly Edition. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1992.
Randall III, John H. "Intrepretation of My Antonia." Willa Cather and Her Critics. Ed. James Schroeter. New York: Cornell University Press, 1967. 272-323.
The small community of Hallowell, Maine was no different than any other community in any part of the new nation – the goals were the same – to survive and prosper. Life in the frontier was hard, and the settlement near the Kennebec Valley was no different than what the pioneers in the west faced. We hear many stories about the forefathers of our country and the roles they played in the early days but we don’t hear much about the accomplishments of the women behind those men and how they contributed to the success of the communities they settled in. Thanks to Martha Ballard and the diary that she kept for 27 years from 1785-1812, we get a glimpse into...
Different components of Willa Cather’s life influenced her novel Lucy Gayheart immensely. Living in the region and the time era that she did, her writing is considered to be local color literature. Many of the events took place in her home state, and Cather also spoke of many different places within the country. This influences the main character because when traveling between two diverse areas, Lucy’s lifestyle and mindset changes stereotypically. Also, there were people in Cather’s life that influenced characters in Lucy Gayheart and that shared many similarities with each other. Her location and her acquaintances have a very parallel structure to the theme and characters in Lucy Gayheart.
O Pioneers brings the works of Fredrick Jackson Turner and Solomon Butcher to life, through Alexandra and her affection for the land, Cather, gives a voice and a human persona to the expanding frontier, showcasing the land's innate ability to shape its own destiny. In O Pioneers, Alexandra symbolizes the spirit of an entire pioneering generation, and embodies the power of the American land itself.
My Antonia, by Willa Cather, is a book tracing the story of a young man, Jim Burden, and his relationship with a young woman, Antonia Shimerda. Jim narrates the entire story in first person, relating accounts and memories of his childhood with Antonia. He traces his journey to the Nebraska where he and Antonia meet and grow up. Jim looks back on all of his childhood scenes with Antonia with nearly heartbreaking nostalgia. My Antonia, is a book that makes many parallels to the sadness and frailty, but also the quiet beauty in life, and leaves the reader with a sense of profound sorrow. One of the main ways Cather is able to invoke these emotions in the reader is through the ongoing theme of separation. Willa Cather develops her theme of separation through death, the changing seasons, characters leaving and the process of growing apart.
One of the many authors who’s works we have read this year is Willa Cather. Cather is an author who in a way I feel I can relate to. Cather not only writes about Nebraska in many of her novels, she is also grew up in Red Cloud, The same town as me.
“Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor is a wonderful example of theme, irony and symbolism in literature. In order to achieve this, the author focuses in on the key personality traits of each of the characters. First introduced, are two families of social classes that are divided by money, yet quite similar in some ways. Mrs. Hopewell, a mother and widow, lives in a neatly defined life of documented social correctness. Her daughter Hulga, who has changed her name from Joy, lives with her mother in only a physical sense. She sees herself above the country by the inheritance of a higher education. In this case, she has a PhD in Philosophy which actually discourages her mother and does nothing to ease her self imposed confinement in the “backwoods” setting. Mr. and Mrs. Freeman are introduced with their daughters Caramae and Glynese. The symbolism of the chosen names is clear, and the author places a great deal of emphasis on them.
...l human character. Writers of American literature have many different opinions on the society. In order for readers to understand an author’s view on the society, they must look at many different aspects including the writer’s life and the time period in which the work was written. Though writers have different theories about the society, they express their philosophies into their work. The town who seem horribly uncivilized, where a son stones his mother, yet they can easily be compared to today's society.
When a writer starts his work, most often than not, they think of ways they can catch their reader’s attention, but more importantly, how to awake emotions within them. They want to stand out from the rest and to do so, they must swim against the social trend that marks a specific society. That will make them significant; the way they write, how they make a reader feel, the specific way they write, and the devotion they have for their work. Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgard Allan Poe influenced significantly the American literary canon with their styles, themes, and forms, making them three important writers in America.
... when his son learns a story of his relations with Ellen and speaks to him about it many years after (Wharton 41). The lesson that he learns is that society is very concerned with the affairs of its members and even his wife had heard the rumors about the two cousins. While May was busy upholding her traditional role as faithful wife, she also was acting within social norms and ignoring his infatuation with her cousin Ellen, and allowing a facade of a strong marriage to continue. The violence presented in this book, while not as obvious as that in The Piano or Medea, is no less intense. May's innocent look but underlying manipulation of Archer's feelings towards her and his feelings of obligation demonstrate a great struggle between the "innocent" May Welland who looks "blankly at blankness" and the "fiery beauty" of Ellen, and both of their desires for Archer.
Brown M. & Crone R. Willa Cather the Woman and Her Works. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970.
In this story Alexandra the only girl in her family gets the land after her father dies. After she gets the land her brothers try to get her to sell it. They think that Alexandra will get married and give her land to a man named Carl. The brothers became greedy and try to hurt Alexandra by telling her “You ought to think a little about your family. You’re making us all ridiculous” and “Don’t
Critical Essays on Alice Walker. Ed. By Ikenna Dieke. Greenwood Press, Westpoint, Connecticut, London, 1999
In her novel, My Antonia, Cather represents the frontier as a new nation. Blanche Gelfant notes that Cather "creat[ed] images of strong and resourceful women upon whom the fate of a new country depended" . This responsibility, along with the "economic productivity" Gilbert and Gubar cite (173), reinforces the sense that women hold a different place in this frontier community than they would in the more settled areas of America.
Kate Chopin is an American writer of the late nineteenth century. She is known for her depictions of southern culture and of women's struggles for freedom. At this time in American history, women did not have a voice of their own and according to custom, they were to obey their father and husband. Generally, many women agreed to accept this customary way of life. Kate Chopin thought quite differently. The boldness Kate Chopin takes in portraying women in the late nineteenth century can be seen throughout The Awakening and other short stories. The following is an overview of her dramatic writing style.