Project Blog #8 - Willa Cather “from O Pioneers!”

Although Willa Cather's "O Pioneers!" is a rather long novel, the overall theme and plot of the story is very interesting and rather heart-breaking. The short excerpt reminded me of the story "The Grapes of Wrath". Because the novel focuses on a drought that effects a family and ultimately tears them apart, it can be said that struggle and perseverance were highly demonstrated by the main character, Alexandra. She is left with a tough decision after her father dies and leaves the farmland to her and her brothers. Emil, her brother, advises her to move from Nebraska in hopes of finding more prosperous land. Being the independent, strong, well-rounded, self-reliant, and dedicated young woman she was, she stuck to her gut instinct, which later resulted in promising crops in the future.

When compared to the philosophies of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, "O Pioneer" more strongly reflects the ideas of Thoreau. The setting of the novel played a strong role in the overall theme played in the story. Nature had a lot to do with the character's actions and thoughts. Thoreau highly valued nature and it can be seen in the following quote by Thoreau, "unhandselled nature is worth more even by our modes of valuation than our improvements are," (Goodman). I think that Thoreau saw nature as something precious and natural. Like in "O Pioneers" the characters of the novel rely on nature, like the land, seeds, and rainfall, as an important part of the measure of success they feel in life. The drought proved to be very hard on the family in the end. In the latter quote, Thoreau points out that the natural, beautiful picture of nature is single-handily the most valuable thing in our life. I think that "realistic" concept "O Pioneers" demonstrates with the importance of nature only further signifies the imp

act such beauty really plays on families lives, more so then than now. Unfortunately, technology has almost wrapped its hands around natural beauty and replaced it with man's loathed items. This work from Cather helps further preserve the wonder held in nature.


Willa, Cather."O Pioneer." American Literature. Columbus: Mc-Graw Hill, 2009. 488-489. Print.

Goodman, Russell, "Ralph Waldo Emerson", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)