In Willa Cather’s “O! Pioneers” the setting itself melds into a quiet but omnipotent and omniscient main character alongside other central characters such as Alexandra, her brothers, and her neighbors. The land is not just the backdrop for the action, but it is symbolic and vital to the plot since it not only reflects the events of the characters but also drives the plot since it is the land that keeps Alexandra independent and dreaming—even if she is hopelessly tied to it for more fundamental and realistic reasons. The opening lines offer one of the most important quotes from “O! Pioneers” by Willa Cather as they introduce the land as a character that is closely allied with the violent and passionate forces of nature. The land is the setting, yet it has the ability to obliterate all of the other players in the text at any point. “One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away” (1). The town must hold itself down in the face of such a force and as the novel progresses, the idea that one must be a force equal in strength to the land and it’s potent cohort, the role of nature in “O! Pioneers”, is apparent as the representation of these two forces is strong and overwhelming.
Throughout the novel “O! Pioneers” by Willa Cather, one beings to understand that human beings are seen as second-order creatures in the presence of the vast, mighty land and thus it is impossible for the reader to forget that the human struggles represented in the text are only minor squabbles when viewed in the context of the land in which they take place. The protagonist, Alexandra, is often allied with the earth through the narrator of “O! Pioneers” by Willia Cather and the descriptions. There are several event in “O! Pioneers” in which her relationship to the land is expressed by images of the earth and her own person. Unlike other characters in “O! Pioneers”, her connection with the land is as timeless as the earth itself and thus this connection is revealed through personification of the earth and nature.
Throughout the novel the reader is never allowed to forget that human beings occupy a subordinate position to the mighty force of the land and its friend, Nature and no summary of “O! Pioneers” by Willa Cather is complete without an examination of this idea. The town of Hanover is not described in any sense that would set it apart as a pioneer achievement” and rather is described as a lonely place carved out of the earth and forced to struggle with its dominating forces. “The homesteads were few and far apart; here and there a windmill gaunt against the sky, a sod house crouching in a hollow. But the great fact was the land itself, which seemed to overwhelm the little beginnings of human society that struggled in its somber wastes. It was from facing this vast hardness that the boy’s mouth had become so bitter; because he felt that men were too weak to make any mark here, that the land wanted to be let alone, to preserve its own fierce strength, its peculiar, savage kind of beauty, its uninterrupted mournfulness (8). Instead of serving as markers of human progress and mastery of the land, the “windmill gaunt against the sky” and the homesteads that are scattered and “few and far apart” reveal the desolation and loneliness on the face of the wide and unforgiving land.
In “O! Pioneers” by Willa Cather, the land is seen as a character in this description and is personified and given inner-thought more than many of the “real” characters are. For the most part, the central characters in the novel act according to prescribed systems of behavior or thought and there is not much description lent to their inner turmoil. The land in “O! Pioneers” by Willa Cather, however, is a desiring manic force; it wasn’t to be “left alone” and thus the landscape that its inhabitants occupy is “left alone” in the sense that there is the image and symbol of isolation and infertility. With these symbols in “O! Pioneers” one could also suggest that the land wished to “preserve its fierce strength” meaning that it is a sentient being, one that saves up emotion and can engage in long “uninterrupted mournfulness.” While the human characters are confronting their daily struggles, there is not the same sort of strong emotion connected to their affairs. The emotion and psychological realism in this American novel can be found more in the land’s description that even Alexandra’s inner thoughts.
The land is moody, inconsistent, and prone to unyielding fits of temperament and few characters aside from Alexandra and crazy Ivan seem to understand the meaning and beauty of such an inhospitable display of behavior. At once, the character of the land is seen as brooding and hardly enigmatic or sympathetic to the plights of her inhabitants. In “Winter Memories” the sorrow of Alexandra is mirrored by the land, which is described as icy and impenetrable, “The hedgerows and trees are scarcely perceptible against the bare earth, whose slaty hue they have taken on. The ground is frozen so hard that it bruises the foot to walk in the roads or in the ploughed fields. It is like an iron country, and the spirit is oppressed by its rigor and melancholy. One could easily believe that in that dead landscape the germs of life and fruitfulness were extinct forever”(133). At other times, however, the land is capable of great humor and rich personality, as it is personified as playing games with its human inhabitants in one of the important quotes from “O! Pioneers” by Willa Cather, “The land did it. It had its little joke. It pretended to be poor because nobody knew how to work it right; and then, all at once, it worked itself. It woke up out of its sleep and stretched itself, and it was so big, so rich, that we suddenly found we were rich, just from sitting still” (60).
It would seem that the human characters that seem to view the land as a fellow being are most reflected by it. To clarify, consider the way in which the seasons mirror the events in Alexandra’s life. Most obvious would be the fact that in her deep sorrow over the family tragedy it is winter and death is foremost on her mind, making it easy to see how the “dead landscape” is reflected by human events. It is also interesting that others seem to notice the similarities in character between Alexandra and the land. At one point, the narrator remarks, “Of all the bewildering things about a new country, the absence of human landmarks is one of the most depressing and disheartening” (26). This image echoes, particularly at the end of the novel when one sees that the characters—all of them to varying degrees are the “disheartening” landmarks that permeate the landscape. They are landmarks that are capable of violence and jealousy and are not connected with the land; rather, they are oddities jutting up from its surface—unnatural eyesores. Conversely, in spring, “For the first time, perhaps, since that land emerged from the waters of geologic ages, a human face was set toward it with love and yearning. It seemed beautiful to her, rich and strong and glorious. Her eyes drank in the breadth of it, until her tears blinded her. Then the Genius of the Divide, the great, free spirit that breathes across it, must have bent lower than it ever bent to a human will before. The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman”(44). The land, as a character, seems to shine and become more bountiful because it is noticed and in this way it is clear that the connection between Alexandra and the land are deep—one influences the other.
Other essays and articles in the Literature Archives related to this topic include : Realism in American Literature •American Literature in Historical Context : 1865 to Roosevelt
