O Pioneers!
O Pioneers! is a 1913 novel by American author Willa Cather, written while she was living in New York. It was her second published novel. The title is a reference to a poem by Walt Whitman entitled "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" from Leaves of Grass (1855).
This article is about the book written by Willa Cather. For the 1992 movie, see O Pioneers! (film). For the 2009 opera, see O Pioneers! (opera). For the Walt Whitman poem, see Pioneers! O Pioneers!Author
English
1913
United States
Print (hardback & paperback)
Literary criticism[edit]
Since its publication, scholars have written about Cather’s novel O Pioneers! and analyzed the characteristics of its content. They have done so by using different points of view or literary lenses that guide their understanding of the text and how they examine each of its parts.
One example of some literary criticism of the novel is by Helen Fiddyment Levy. Their work is called “Damming the Stream: Willa Cather” and they examine multiple works of Cather’s—including O Pioneers!—in regard to how they communicate the American landscape and show female empowerment.[5] Concerning O Pioneers! specifically, Levy considers how Cather invokes the Nebraskan environment through the story of the main character Alexandra. Levy goes further to explain how Alexandra is unlike other women of the time and is empowered to be more. They state this is evident in not only her appearance but in other things like her lack of marriage status and her intelligence over men like her brothers.[5]
Another example includes Bruce Baker II’s “Nebraska Regionalism in Selected Works of Willa Cather”.[6] Like the other example, this article critiques a multitude of Cather’s works. Baker, however, analyzes O Pioneers! and Cather’s other works based on how they discuss and depict the Nebraskan landscape in their text. Regarding O Pioneers! specifically, they state from the very beginning that the landscape is depicted as hard to work and unforgiving. When Baker brings Alexandra into the discussion, her character is also analyzed according to how she relates to the land and has cultivated her family’s farm to be successful. Even as they close their discussion on O Pioneers! to discuss another work of Cather's, their closing remark involves commenting on the symbolism of the landscape of Nebraska and how its meaning can transcend to anyone and anything.[6]
Background[edit]
Cather had moved to New York, and wrote the novel in part while living in Cherry Valley with Isabelle McClung.[7] She completed it at the McClungs' home in Pittsburgh.[8]
