O Pioneers! 269two older brothers, Lou and Oscar, to take over
the family’s ailing Nebraska farm upon his death.
Alexandra’s strong will and intelligence in matters
dealing with the land is evident to her father, for she
had always followed the current market and learned
from both the errors and the successes of the neigh-
boring farmers. She wholeheartedly accepts the
task out of respect for her father’s wishes but also
as a means of ensuring a better life for her younger
brother, Emil. She is adamant that Emil be given the
opportunity that she and her older brothers did not
have—the opportunity to better himself through a
college education. Alexandra knows that making
a success of their farm will ensure a future for Emil
that does not involve working the land.
After the death of their father and the sub-
sequent death of their mother, the Bergsons face
hardships on the farm as a severe drought sets in.
Alexandra feels herself drawn to the land more than
ever at this time as she recognizes the beauty it holds
under its hardened exterior. She regards the land as
a living element that needs devotion and under-
standing to flourish, and she thinks of its history as
beginning in the heart of a man or a woman. Those
whose land had not prospered, she thinks, simply
lacked the desire or the capacity to regard the land as
anything more than something that could or could
not be controlled. Alexandra refuses to give up on
the land as those around her are doing and instead
decides to put her trust in its capabilities. Ever per-
severant, rather than selling off the farm as Lou and
Oscar advise, she borrows the funds to purchase the
foreclosed and abandoned farms that surround her
property. This decision proves fruitful as the drought
comes to an end and the land prospers. As a result of
her inherent attachment to the land, she is attuned
to what is best for it and ultimately finds success as
a female head of a farming community. With this
accomplishment, however, comes the loss of that for
which she pursued success in the first place—Emil’s
future.
It is not only nature as it pertains to land that
dominates in the novel but nature as it pertains to
humans as well. For all her foresight in making a
success of the family farm, Alexandra is so deeply
involved with what is best for the land that she is
oblivious to the acts of human nature that surround
her, most notably that of a deep and requited attrac-
tion between Emil and Marie, a childhood friend of
the Bergsons who is now the wife of the neighbor-
ing farmer, Frank Shabata. It is Emil’s and Marie’s
attraction borne out in a painfully silent desire
for one another that Alexandra only recognizes in
retrospect as a natural development of their time
together. On Emil’s breaks from college, Alexandra
asks that he tend the areas surrounding the Shabata
farm, as she has leased the farm to Frank, and per-
form simple chores for Marie. As a result, Emil and
Marie interact on an almost daily basis. Alexandra
does not presume impropriety since Marie is a mar-
ried woman, and she does not suspect that Marie or
Emil would violate that marital bond. But human
nature takes over as the temptation of their desire
proves unbearable, and they give in to their love for
one another. It is human nature as well that brings
on the overpowering feelings of betrayal, jealousy,
and anger that lead Frank to blindly kill Marie and
Emil when he finds them embracing in the field.
Alexandra partially blames herself in not recog-
nizing the human nature of a budding love between
these two young people, and she discovers that she
has devoted her life to the land at the expense of this
recognition, even to the extent of denying herself a
personal life. Although she is attuned to the needs
of the land, it is human nature that wins out in the
end as Alexandra leaves behind all that she has
strived for to marry Carl Linstrum, her childhood
friend and lifelong confidant, and travel with him
to Alaska. She realizes, however, that she can never
truly leave the farm behind, for her heart is entwined
in its beauty and will always remain with the land.
Elizabeth K. HallerrespOnsibility in O Pioneers!
The theme of responsibility in Willa Cather’s O
Pioneers! is exemplified by two female characters in
the novel—Alexandra Bergson and Marie Shabata.
Alexandra’s responsibility revolves around making
a success of the family homestead, whereas Marie’s
responsibility revolves around the guilt she associ-
ates with marriage. The degree of responsibility felt
by each woman, however, has devastating effects on
their own lives as well as on the lives of others.