"O, Pioneers!," A Classic American Love Story

"O, Pioneers!" may seem like an outdated story of a time most people can't relate to; but it is in fact a classic American love story that still holds true today. It isn't a typical love story, of a man and a woman romantically falling in love, but of the American people falling in love with, well, America. Willa Cather illustrates to her readers the American frontier, casting the land as a main character in her dramatic novel spanning over twenty years. Most people are more connected to their cell phones and computers than they are to the trees outside their window, Cather personalizes the land in a way that could make any urban American want to visit her beloved Nebraska. She also discusses many gender issues that we still deliberate today. In these ways, Cather brings the old West into our homes, still relevant nearly a century later.
In Cather's work "O, Pioneers!," she writes about the land of Nebraska as one of the most complex characters. Her writing is simple, and easy to digest, making the West as accessible as an old friend. Although Cather didn't use many literary devices in her writing, the personification of the land itself helps the reader to wrap their head around this foreign place. Many of her readers today live in a fast paced world, whereas Cather brings a slowed down version of life, illustrating why the land was so important. One day she and her brother stopped at a river, where "under the overhanging willows of the opposite bank there was an inlet where the water was deeper and flowed so slowly that it seemed to sleep in the sun. (Page 112)" The characters had no TV shows to get back to, no cell phones interrupting nature's sounds; they had only the land and each other to rely on. Sometimes the pioneers would be subjected to the land's stubborn wishes. "It was still a wild thing that had its ugly moods, and no one knew when they were likely to come, or why. (Page 14)" I'm sure many readers know a person in their life that this quote describes. Willa Cather used her simple writing style and personification of the land to make a foreign era in time relatable to any reader today.
Another big issue in the book was the history long struggle over the roles of men and women. Back then; a woman at the head of the house was an tolerated but not always respected. Today, we still have problems with gender issues in the workplace. When the head of a household realizes his daughter is more intelligent and technologically savvy than his sons, he thinks to himself that "He would much rather, of course, have seen this likeness (to his grandfather's smarts) in one of his sons, but it was not a questions of choice. (Page 16)" Cather's character Alexandra is relatable today because women can identify with her strong will and success as a protagonist, but we can also relate to the hierarchy of the genders in the issues of money, inheritance, and work. When Alexandra wants to marry a man who has no property of his own, her brothers remark, "This is what comes of letting a woman meddle in business. (Page 92)" Although her brothers and the reader are well aware of the successes Alexandra had in farming, they disregard her at a moments notice.
For most people today, working the land to stay alive doesn’t mean anything. Willa Cather manages to bring this way of life to us while still touching on important issues dividing us today. Cather writes, “The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman, (Page 38)” and even today a love for this country can be found by reading about the pioneers of old.


Cather, Willa. O, Pioneers!. New York: Fine Creative Media, Inc, 2003.