Analysis Of O Pioneers By Willa Cather

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“There are always dreamers on the frontier,” as quoted in Willa Cather’s novel, O Pioneers!. Cather was especially one of these dreamers, as she moved to Nebraska at only nine years old; a move that would transform her world. Cather’s life was changed by her move to the barren state of Nebraska, which was caused by the historical events occurring at the time. The government had just passed the Homestead laws and the Civil War had just ended, causing movement to the West. Cather immediately had a change of emotions in her new environment, so she used writing to express them. In Nebraska, Cather befriended many settlers and immigrants with whom she was infatuated. These elements of influence are evident in all of Cather’s works, but especially in her first great novel, O Pioneers!. This novel is inspired and influenced by her own life experiences, the Homestead laws created in 1862, and the many settlers Cather met in Nebraska.
In Cather’s lifetime, many historical marks occurred that greatly affected her life. The Homestead laws were passed in 1862 by Congress, which made it possible for many people to afford farmland in the midwest and western parts of the U.S. (Wooten 17) Also, the civil war had just ended, causing many people to move west. Besides the chance to get free land from the government, people could also buy land from the railroads for very little money. The railroads were also helping to encourage the settlement of the west. When news of these opportunities reached Europe, many foreign immigrants decided to join in and inhabit the west. In the 1880s, more than one million people began to fill the unsettled lands west of the Mississippi River. (Wooten 17) Much of the land set aside by the Homestead laws w...

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... laws or other influences to head westward, Willa Cather would’ve never become the person that she did. Her family’s move to Nebraska is what sparked her interest in writing in the first place; she needed a way she could document her memories and also express her feelings. Many of Cather’s books are considered to somewhat be a memoir of her life. They’re not completely accurate, but Cather tends to transform people she met in her life into her book characters. Much of her inspiration came from the immigrants she befriended in the newly inhabited region of Nebraska. All of this inspiration and emotion is extremely evident in Cather’s first great novel, O Pioneers!. Not only does Cather make a character extremely similar to herself, but she also makes distinctions between ethnic groups very clear and expresses her feelings toward the Nebraskan land using imagery.

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