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Willa Cather’s Pioneer Fiction

By : James Holan – Copyright (c) 2010 James Holan

There are many things that can be learned from Willa Cather’s pioneer based fiction. For the most part the fiction does not necessarily focus on the aspects of pioneer life as a whole but instead the aspects of pioneer life in regards to women. Specifically, the hard work, family hierarchy, and utter views of sexism women faced in the pioneering days.

Hard work is something that is predominant throughout the novel. The reader can see the family working extremely hard in order to make the land yield to them. For the most part it is the ingenuous nature of the lead character, Alexandra. From the very beginning of the novel she is described as “a tall, strong girl…[who] walked rapidly and resolutely, as if she knew exactly where she was going and what she was going to do next.” This description shows the reader that she is a somewhat masculine example of a woman; she is strong and walks without the typical timid nature seen in literature of the day. As the novel progresses Alexandra shows the reader that she is the hardest worker, constantly out on the land finding new ways to make it yield a crop. She is very creative and, as the story suggest, this is the reason her father choose to disobey typical family hierarchy in the novel as is the next example.

When pioneers were first settling in different parts of the country it was the standard preceding for a father to leave his land to his oldest son. Willa Cather defies this stereotypical preceding by having Alexandra take the farm from her father. Within the novel this happens as Alexandra’s father is on his death bed. He bequeaths the farm to her even though she has two older brothers because he believes she will be the better influence on the farm, “Alexandra, her father often said to himself, was like her grandfather; which was his way of saying that she was intelligent.” By doing this, typical pioneer life is defied but the reader also learns what typical pioneer life was like. It was a male dominated place where women were expected to hold certain chores and men were expected to hold more manual labor positions. This also leads into the sexism that is seen in the novel. It comes from the two brothers who are angered by the change in typical hierarchy. Thus, the reader sees their grudge play out in the novel, they will eventually except it to a degree, however.

In Willa Cather’s novel, Oh Pioneers, the reader can gage what pioneer life was like by looking at the way the main female character it treated throughout the novel. The utter sexism that is seen by her brothers, the hard work that she put into the farm to make it finally yield a crop, and the structure of the family hierarchy that her father defied, shows what it was like during pioneering days.
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