What Is The Character Of Per Hansa By Beret Hansa

Per Hansa is a very optimistic person who always sees the good in situations. He seems to always be in a good mood and has a great work ethic and never seems to sit down. He is a very able-bodied man who always thinks things are possible. He tries to avoid all problems that he and his wife have. He was the one that wanted to leave his homeland of Norway in order to come and make a life in America. Per will do anything for the better of his people and his family. He becomes sort of like a business man which included selling potatoes and furs to other groups of people. He is very much a person who cherishes material goods.

Beret Hansa- Beret Hansa, Per's wife, is the complete opposite of her husband. She is someone who never wanted to come to America in the first place. She sort of represents the hard times that people face in the new world. She suffers from homesickness and depression throughout the book. She contemplates suicide, and grows mentally ill for some time. In addition, she cannot let go of her traditional Norwegian ways including her morals/religion, and following the law, which her husband doesn't find as important. She feels as if she keeps committing sins.

2. What do you believe is the driving force behind the settlers, in other words what would drive a person to go into the vast emptiness of the American prairie? What are they hoping to find?

I believe that the biggest driving force behind people moving to the American prairie was mostly based on hope that they would better their lives and become prosperous. Which was basically what Per Hansa's hopes were. He thought he could build this amazing thing on this new claimed land of his. I think most of them don't realize the hardships that come alo...

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...ries of the Dakotas in the 1800’s. Identify 3 key hardships and or challenges the pioneers faced.

Life on the prairies of North Dakota sounds very difficult and does not sound like something that I would like to experience. Some of the major hardships that I identified throughout the book included fear, weather, economic wealth and depression. There seems to be many ups and downs that are created from living on the prairie during that time. I feel like Beret represented many of the downs while Per represented many of the ups. The weather played a major role in the book considering it took the lives of two major characters. Also the constant fear that someone, more specifically the Native Americans would come and harm them. Per's struggle for economic wealth was a reoccurring theme/struggle which made him seem power and money hungry which he essentially was.