Noah Lay

American Literature
Mrs. Garner
Spring 2016, 4/4/16

Struggles of Homesteading
O Pioneers!, a story of a Swedish-American homesteading family, was
written by Willa Cather in 1913. Willa Cather was born on December 7, 1873
on a small farm in Virginia which was owned by her grandmother, where her
family had lived for six generations. However, at the age of nine, her family
was prompted to relocate to Nebraska, in light of the deadly tuberculosis
outbreaks in Virginia. They initially attempted to make a living off of the land
by homesteading, but the conditions proved to be unforgiving, and they set
aside that aspiration after eighteen months. The year and a half of farming
in Nebraska, which is where the book O Pioneers! is based, proved to have a
large and lasting influence on Cathers life.
O Pioneers! is a historical fiction centered around the homesteading
lifestyle of the Bergson family.

John Bergson, a shipbuilder by trade,

immigrated from his home country of Sweden to a homestead in Nebraska.

He and his family soon learned that farm life was incredibly difficult. Crops
and cattle were destroyed by the harsh weather, and two of his sons died.
They were constantly struggling to survive financially. Bergson had spent
his first five years on the Divide getting into debt, and the last six getting
out. He had paid off his mortgages and had ended pretty much where he

began, with the land.1 After their fathers death, Alexandra was placed in
charge of the homestead and family.
The book then proceeds to portray the challenges and obstacles of running a
farm and managing a family from Alexandras perspective.

Her constant

struggle to fulfill her fathers instructions and wishes is a central theme of O

Pioneers!. She was often extremely exhausted and discouraged at the way
things turned out.

For example, Lou and Oscar, her brothers,

distanced

themselves from her and Emil, because they hated the decisions she was
making concerning marrying Carl and allowing him to take control of the
property, and they considered Emil to have been subject to unhealthy
influences by attending college.
Lou and Oscars condemnation of their two other siblings revealed a
major aspect that was dysfunctional in the Bergson family.

Her father

entrusted her with the responsibility of keeping the property together as a

whole, but more importantly of maintaining a closely-knit family relationship.
She could see the family falling apart piece by piece and this broke her
heart, as she yearned to fulfill her fathers wishes so desperately.
Throughout her struggles, she found Carl Linstrum to be her most constant
and understanding companion, a companion with whom she could confide
the deepest worries.
Carl rose and looked up at the picture

was still

studying John Bergson's face and Alexandra's eyes followed

1 O Pioneers! by Willa Cather, page 7

his. "Yes," she said, "if he could have seen all that would come
of the task he gave me, he would have been sorry. I hope he
does not see me now. I hope that he is among the old people
of his blood and country, and that tidings do not reach him
from the New World.2
However, her closeness to Carl drove Lou and Oscar even further away from
her, and she even ceased to attend their church to avoid awkward
encounters.

Additionally, Carl left soon afterward to Alaska due to being

pressured by Lou and Oscar to make a successful living as a proof of his

worth.
During the months after these events, Alexandra grew closer with her
friend, Marie Shabata. Marie was exceedingly beautiful and had a cheerful
personality. She was married to Frank, but Alexandra soon learned that their
relationship was unhappy.

Maries father strongly prohibited her from

marrying Frank, but she disregarded his instructions and eloped at the age of
eighteen. Marie and her husband were initially very much in love with each
other, but this was not to last.

Marie was extremely flirtatious even if she

did not intend to be, and this deeply angered Frank. Once, Frank fired an
excellent farm boy because he thought Marie had fond feelings for him. To
Frank, Marie treated the boy too kindly for there not to be any deep
intention. But once the farm boy was gone, his wife did not show any signs
of sorrow and treated the next boy just the same as she had done to the
2 O Pioneers! by Willa Cather, page 67-68

previous boy. Although Marie might not have had feelings for that boy or any
of the others, Frank fumed with jealousy. He began to despise her, and she
in turn let his grudge take control of their marriage.
However, Frank was not the only one to blame for the widening
distance between himself and Marie.

Like any friendship, the relationship

must be mutual, with both parties held responsible for its success or failure.
Marie did not mature adequately from her teenage years to properly respond
to the crisis at hand. She was still living in her own world and she placed her
own wants over Franks. This theme of selfishness was the catalyst of her
affair. If Frank did not grant her the happiness she desired, she would look
for it elsewhere, and she discovered that her passion would be satisfied by
Emil. However, she did not understand things a woman of her age ought to;
rather, she still had a childish and self-satisfying mentality, as evidenced by
one of her conversations with Emil. I can't play with you like a little boy
any more," he said slowly. "That's what you miss, Marie. You'll have to get
some other little boy to play with

Sometimes you seem to understand

perfectly, and then sometimes you pretend you don't.3

Characters like Marie seem perfect - they are the epitome of
youthfulness and happiness.

One often wishes that no harm come upon

character such as these, and if harm did happen to fall upon them, that the
heinous criminal who was the cause of the misfortune be punished severely.
However, this is often not the case. In O Pioneers! the deaths of Emil and
3 O Pioneers! by Willa Cather, page 57

Marie were spawned from their own misconduct. Marie had many faults, too,
though they were not apparent like Franks jealousy - hers were the inability
to flee completely from temptation. There were times when Emil and Marie
seem to have resolved to live their own lives separately, and indeed Emil did
leave her and go to Mexico. But these resolutions did not last. ...two white
butterflies from Frank's alfalfa-field were fluttering in and out among the
interlacing shadows; diving and soaring, now close together, now far
apart...4 In other words, they might have lived apart for a little while, but
they would find themselves together eventually once again.

They acted

based off of impulse and selfishness, without concern for the consequences
that were bound to occur.
Carl Linstrum differs greatly from Emil and Marie in this regard. Unlike
them, he did not act rashly. Rather, he thought of what would result from his
decisions, and he does not seem as attractive as Emil or Marie according to
the societys standards.

He was not particularly smart, successful, or

confident. He did not value things the same way Marie did, who primarily
wanted to be set free from her unhappy marriage with Frank Shabata.
Freedom so often means that one isn't needed anywhere.
Here you are an individual, you have a background of your
own, you would be missed. But off there in the cities there are
thousands of rolling stones like me. We are all alike; we have

4 O Pioneers! by Willa Cather, page 97

no ties, we know nobody, we own nothing. When one of us

dies, they scarcely know where to bury him...5
Whereas the marriage of Marie and Frank can be likened to a sinking
ship, the marriage of Alexandra and Carl that was inferred at the end of O
Pioneers! will probably not result in the same manner. Marie and Frank were
blinded by the positive attributes they had to offer each other, and did not
realize the amount of self-sacrifice that was imperative in a marriage.
Consequently, they had preconceived notions that the other person would
turn out to be the person they wanted them to be.

On the other hand,

Alexandra and Carl understood that marriage is only successful if both the
husband and wife are willing and ready to make sacrifices.

Having

experienced loneliness and emptiness despite being an incredibly successful

homesteader, Alexandra also understood that wealth does not necessarily
bring forth happiness. Additionally, the attraction they have to one another
is not merely based on shallow attributes like physical appearance. All in all,
they understood one another better than Marie and Frank ever did of each
other.
In conclusion, the historical fiction O Pioneers! presents many of lifes
conflicts that we all face in one form or another from a homesteaders
perspective.

Themes of tensions within a family, selfishness, and self-

sacrifice are dotted throughout the book in the lives of various characters.
These are all aspects of life that readers can relate to and have experienced.
5 O Pioneers! by Willa Cather, page 45

Through the descriptive writings of Willa Cather, these struggles are brought
to life and are made vividly real for the reader to imagine.