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The Heart
of History: O, Pioneers! by Willa Cather
by Marilyn
Green Faulkner
“The history
of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.” This
famous line tells us everything we need to know about O, Pioneers!
Willa Cather’s poignant, powerful masterpiece is a perfect example
of her subtle artistry. In a dramatic departure from the fiction
writers of her day, Cather chose the humble, poor settlers of the
prairie as her subject matter, rather than the more powerful members
of society. By examining the heart of a pioneer woman and the lives
of her family, Cather sheds a unique light on the history of a nation.
Like all of
Cather’s great novels, the genesis of O Pioneers!, can be
found in the experiences of her youth. In 1881 Willa Cather’s family
left their home in civilized Virginia and settled in Red Cloud,
Nebraska. The great prairie divide, terrifying in its vast spaces,
made an indelible impression on nine-year-old Willa. Her keen mind
recorded every detail of the lives she saw unfolding around her
on the frontier. She felt the uneasy coexistence of the stern Scandinavians
with the volatile French and the exotic Bohemians. Hours were spent
listening to the older settlers recall their first forays into the
wild new land and their attempts to build a world of order in the
chaos. After a successful career as a journalist and editor, she
mined those memories to create a new kind of fiction.
Pioneering had
traditionally been viewed as a kind of a battle between the land
and its conquerors, who were invariably male. Instead, O Pioneers!
takes a deep, almost mythological approach to the subject. Here
is no conquering hero, battling savages and subduing nature, but
a woman who tames the beast through her love and intelligence. Cather’s
heroine, Alexandra Bergson, has one great passion, and it is not
another human, but the great, unconquered prairie. After her father’s
death she assumes management of the family farm. Though her brothers
are ready to give up and return to city life, Alexandra sees that
a new world requires a new way of thinking. She knows the land can
be made to yield its riches if only she can discern its secrets.
Cather’s description of Alexandra’s feelings toward the land read
like a love story, with the land personified as the beloved:
“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 strong and glorious. Then the
Genius of the Divide, the great, free spirit which breathes across
it, must have bent lower than it ever bent to a human will before.”
(44)
Juxtaposed
on this great story of pioneering is the very human tragedy that
plays out between Alexandra’s brother, Emil, and the Bohemian girl,
Marie. Cather’s sweet, compassionate portrayal of the lovers and
their dilemma refuses to make a villain of any participant. The
great strides taken in colonizing the new land are balanced by the
stumbles and falls of its individual inhabitants. Yet Cather does
not leave us feeling discouraged by human weakness, but rather encouraged
by the strength of those who strive to overcome, and the continuity
of the new life they build. “We come and go,” she reflects, “but
the land is always there.”
Alexandra Bergson
is a woman I am glad to know. Cather closes the novel by saying
of her and her beloved land, “fortunate country that is one day
to receive hearts like Alexandra’s into its bosom, to give them
out again in the yellow wheat, in the rustling corn, in the shining
eyes of youth!” (210) As the fortunate descendant of courageous
pioneers like Alexandra, I marvel at the vision and courage they
displayed in a world as different from their own as the moon is
from mine. Cather’s novels offer an insight into the hearts that
first fashioned the life we take for granted. The pioneers of our
nation worked a great labor of love, and Willa Cather recaptures
their passion in a tribute worthy of their sacrifice.
O Pioneers!
is the Best Books Club selection for January.
Best Books Club
Reading List 2002
January O
Pioneers! Willa Cather
February Possession
A.S. Byatt
March Cranford
Elizabeth Gaskell
The House
of Mirth Edith Wharton
April Angle
of Repose Wallace Stegner
May The
Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux
June The
Once and Future King T.H. White
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© 2001 Meridian
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