Susan B. Anthony once said, “Independence is happiness,” in O Pioneers this is not the case. In O Pioneers, Cather shows how being independent can make you extremely lonely. Throughout the book, the main character, Alexandra, demonstrates how lonely she truly is, even though she is very strong and independent. This shows how being independent can lead to loneliness, even if you are extremely happy with what you are doing. The symbolism of the houses swaying in the wind, trying not to be pushed over by the loneliness that comes with independence. Emil is a great example of loneliness and independence going hand in hand. He traveled all the way to Mexico, but still longed for Marie and could not think of anything or anyone else. Alexandra defines …show more content…
“One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away.”(Cather,1) Each house is the person who lives inside it, they stand alone on the enormous prairie. The wind, that causes the houses to shift and sway, represents loneliness, trying to knock over the independent people of the divide. Many times throughout the book it talks about the wind trying to push the houses down. “But the great fact was the land itself, which seemed to overwhelm the little beginnings of human society that struggled in its somber wastes.”(Cather,1) The land takes over so much of their lives, it makes it a great struggle to do much else. If you owned a farm you were trapped in a constant circle of farming. It consumed your life, growing lonelier and lonelier as the days drew …show more content…
Emil and Marie had a conversation after they kissed at the fair. Marie told him she was happy with Frank and Emil should leave Hanover, so he could everything behind. “Not everything. I can’t leave you behind.”(Cather, 91). Emil knew leaving would not solve his problems. If he left his loneliness and longing would only get worse. Emil had lots of things other people didn’t, but he did not have the one thing he wanted most of all. Marie. His love for her ended up getting him and Marie, his love killed by Frank. Through Emil, Cather proves that just because you are independent and away from everyone you know, you will still be
Today, women and men have equal rights, however not long ago men believed women were lower than them. During the late eighteenth century, men expected women to stay at home and raise children. Women were given very few opportunities to expand their education past high school because colleges and universities would not accept females. This was a loss for women everywhere because it took away positions of power for them. It was even frowned upon if a woman showed interest in medicine or law because that was a man 's place not a woman’s, just like it was a man 's duty to vote and not a woman 's. The road to women 's right was long and hard, but many women helped push the right to vote, the one that was at the front of that group was Susan B. Anthony.
...turned east onto the gravel country road and then onto the track which led back to the old house with the rusted hogwire strung around it and the stunted elm trees standing up leafless inside the rusted wire.” (125). In this line the fence represents the emotional wall that the brothers have erected to keep everyone out. Then Victoria comes and gives their house homey touches and they realize that they can’t keep everyone out forever. “Now the wind started up in the trees, high up, moving the high branches. The barn swallows came out and began to hunt leaf-bugs and lacewinged flies in the dusk. The air grew soft.” (301).
As he slouches in bed, a description of the bare trees and an old woman gathering coal are given to convey to the reader an idea of the times and the author's situation. "All groves are bare," and "unmarried women (are) sorting slate from arthracite." This image operates to tell the reader that it is a time of poverty, or a "yellow-bearded winter of depression." No one in the town has much to live for during this time. "Cold trees" along with deadness, through the image of "graves," help illustrate the author's impression of winter. Wright seems to be hibernating from this hard time of winter, "dreaming of green butterflies searching for diamonds in coal seams." This conveys a more colorful and happy image showing what he wishes was happening; however he knows that diamonds are not in coal seams and is brought back to the reality of winter. He talks of "hills of fresh graves" while dreaming, relating back to the reality of what is "beyond the streaked trees of (his) window," a dreary, povern-strucken, and cold winter.
After moving to Rochester, NY in 1845, the Anthony family became very active in the anti-slavery movement.
“To think I have had more than 60 years of hard struggle for a little liberty, and then to die without it seems so cruel.” (Susan B. Anthony)
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) is considered one of the most influential figure in the women’s suffragist of her generation and has become an icon of the woman’s suffrage movement. Anthony is known to travel the country to give speeches, circulate petitions, and organize local women’s rights organization. Anthony was born in Adams, Massachusetts. After the Anthony family moved to Rochester, New York in 1845, they became active in the antislavery movement gaining more supporters across the country. In 1848 Susan B. Anthony was working as a teacher in Canajoharie, New York and became involved with the teacher’s union when she discovered that male teachers were paid more than female teachers a month. Her parents and sister Marry attended the 1848 Rochester Woman’s Rights Convention held August 2Anthony’s experience with the teacher’s union, antislavery reforms, and Quaker upbringing, established ground for a career in women’s rights reform to grow.
Willa Cather’s O Pioneers presents the land as symbolic and vital to the course of the plot. As a force of nature, so powerful that it can crush the efforts of any settler in a fleeting moment. This display of supremacy presents itself in the opening lines of Cather's novel, in which she introduces the land as not only the setting but an active character within the story. When Cather’s states, “One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away,” she incarnates the spirit of the settlers within the land. As the novel progresses, the idea that one must be a force equal in strength to the land is apparent in the protagonist character of Alexandra Bergson.
However, other characters are forced into isolation for reasons that are not in their control. The actions of another cause them to experience loneliness. The story begins with Robert Walton writing to his sister, Margaret, about his voyage to an undiscovered place. In these letters, as the voyage gets underway, he writes of his loneliness. Letter II states, ?
Cather’s text clearly depicts the physical strains of daily life in Nebraska as opposed to life within more populated parts of the world. A Wagner Matinee gives just a small insight into the working life on a Nebraskan farm. Most individuals in the most popular parts of the world do not understand precisely how difficult it is to live a life that consists completely of physical labor. As the narrator describes what he remembers of his life on the form, he very distinctly recalls the physical pain he felt from working. “I became in short...
Isolation often creates dismay resulting in an individual facing internal conflicts with themselves. Ann experiences and endures unbearable loneliness to the point where she needs to do almost anything to
The best example is Lena Lingard, an immigrant worker who aspires to become a designer. As she says so herself, “‘ For Mrs. Thomas, the dressmaker. She is going to teach me to sew. She says I have quite a knack. I’m through with the farm. There ain’t any end to the work on a farm, and always so much trouble happens. I’m going to be a dressmaker’” (Book II, Part IV). In this passage, one sees her making her aspirations clear— she wants to become a dressmaker, and she does this so by accepting a job at Mrs. Thomas who in return will teach her how to sew. This shows independence as she is not afraid to chase her dreams unlike the stereotypical 19th century woman who would marry, have a family, and never have the will to follow their dreams. Her path to independence does not stop there as she states that, “‘...I don’t want a husband. Men are all right for friends, but as soon as you marry them they turn to cranky old fathers, even the wild ones. They begin to tell you what’s sensible and what’s foolish, and want you to stick as home all the time. I prefer to be foolish when I feel like it, and be accountable to nobody’” (Book III, Part IV). In this passage, Lena thoroughly explains why she does not want to marry which reflects her independence even more. Here, she states that she does not want to be told what to do and what not to, showing her desire for free will. She also states that she does not want to be accountable to anybody which does not show loneliness, but shows her individualistic capacity, making her a strong and independent female character in the book. As the book progressed, Lena progressed and her independent nature became fruitful as Jim entails, “...Lena Lingard, for whom people had always foretold trouble, was now the leading dressmaker of Lincoln, much respected in Black Hawk… she kept her head for her business and had got on in the world” (Book IV, Part
Stephen Marche Lets us know that loneliness is “not a state of being alone”, which he describes as external conditions rather than a psychological state. He states that “Solitude can be lovely. Crowded parties can be agony.”
Loneliness is the sadness resulting from being forsaken or abandoned. John Steinbeck brought up the theme of loneliness in many characters in Of Mice and Men. Crooks, Curley?s wife, and Candy expressed the theme of loneliness in many different forms throughout the story. Early in the novella George said, life working as ranch hands is about the loneliness of living, for these people finding friendship seems to be impossible. Crooks expressed feelings of loneliness throughout Of Mice and Men.
A magnanimous amount of motivation for the tenant farmers was generally found in the self, in an individualistic manner. As "gentle (winds) followed the rain clouds," furthering the magnitude of the dust storms, the survival of the farmers and their families soon became doubtful. The men would sit in "the doorways of their houses; their hands were busy with sticks and little rocks... (as they) sat still--thinking--figuring." The adversity represented by the weather was hindered by the idea that man could triumph over nature--over the machine--and retain a sense of self-identity.
The two live in the Midwest, which Cather describes the entire time as a place that is constantly dreary, the weather and life here seems to become a part of the people, “Men