268 Cather, Willa
describes the country girls as lively and engaging,
having “a positive carriage and freedom of move-
ment,” while the Black Hawk girls lead more sed-
entary lives and are “listless and dull, cut off below
the shoulders.” Jim enjoys the company of the “early
awakened,” vibrant country girls and does not agree
with the townspeople who regard them as “a menace
to the social order.” He predicts that these girls will
be successful in life and someday will become the
mistresses of Black Hawk, but it will take a while for
the conventional values of Black Hawk to change.
Even Frances Harling, a woman ahead of her times
who, on various occasions, has expressed sympathy
for the country girls, criticizes Jim for putting a kind
of glamor over them.
The Vanni tent, a temporary dancing pavilion
for the summer months, is one of a few events to
threaten the town’s social stability. As Jim puts it, at
the tent the country girls and the town boys are on
“neutral ground.” However, much to his disappoint-
ment, the affections that start on the dancing floor
do not develop because the town boys will ultimately
abide by their parents’ expectations and social codes.
Although Jim’s grandparents come across as
more open-minded than most townspeople, they
are conformists, as discussed above, when it comes
to social class. The grandfather does not approve
of dancing, but if Jim wants to dance, he can go to
the Masonic Hall, “among the people we knew.”
Ironically, these are the people Jim avoids socializing
with. When the grandmother discovers that Jim is
sneaking out of the house to go dancing with the
country girls, she is evidently troubled, and when
Jim asks her about it, she says tearfully that people
are criticizing Jim and that it is not fair to his grand-
parents. Thus, Jim’s socializing with the working
class is perceived as an embarrassment to his folks.
Ultimately, Jim, in spite of his criticism of Black
Hawk social conservatism and his strong bond with
Ántonia, Lena, and the other country girls, is not
able to set himself free from those mores. Otherwise,
why does he not ask Ántonia to marry him? When
he sees Ántonia after Larry Donovan has deserted
her, Jim declares his love to her: “I’d have liked to
have you for a sweetheart, or a wife... you influ-
ence my likes and dislikes, all my tastes, hundreds
of times. You really are a part of me.” However, he
moves on with his life and does not see Ántonia
again for 20 years.
Cather must have been well aware of the rigid-
ity surrounding social structure among the prairie
dwellers. She wrote an exceptional novel, full of
nature images and romantic ideas, yet she felt she
could not romanticize the issue of social class.
Maria Ornella TregliaCATHER, WILLA O Pioneers! (1913)
Alexandra Bergson is the central character of Willa
Cather’s O Pioneers!, a portrait of early 20th-century
life on the Nebraska prairie. Despite being the only
girl in a family of four children, her strength of will
coupled with her keen feeling for the land and its
potential lead her father to name her as his successor.
Alexandra makes a success of the land and purchases
the surrounding acreage, including the farm once
owned by her childhood friend Carl Linstrum and
his family, portioning out lots for lease. Frank and
Marie Shabata, a young Bohemian couple, lease the
Linstrum farm. Once married, Alexandra’s older
brothers, Lou and Oscar, are each allotted a tract of
land. Alexandra has plans for her younger brother,
Emil, outside of a career in farming. Emil is the first
in the family to attend college and goes on to study
law. He returns during academic breaks to help
Alexandra tend the land, and it is in doing this that
a fatal attraction forms between Emil and Marie.
Frank discovers the mutual attraction between Emil
and his wife, and in a fit of blind jealousy, he shoots
and kills the couple as they lie in the grass. Alex-
andra blames herself for not noticing the attraction
between Emil and Marie. Her devotion to the land
stemmed from wanting a better life for Emil, but
with his death she finds it not only pointless but
painful to remain on the land. She leaves everything
behind in an attempt to make a new life with Carl
in Alaska.
Elizabeth K. Hallernature in O Pioneers!
Alexandra Bergson, the central and matriarchal
figure of Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! is most closely
associated with nature throughout the novel. In her
early 20s she is chosen by her dying father over her