270 Cather, Willa
Alexandra, Cather’s central character, is allotted
the responsibility early in life of maintaining the
family farmstead. She strives to make a success of
the farm in order to provide her family—herself
and her three brothers—with a sense of security,
including ensuring that her elder brothers, Lou and
Oscar, are given enough land to provide for their
own families. While providing security is impera-
tive, Alexandra primarily strives to make a success
of the land to ensure that her younger brother, Emil,
is granted a life where he will never have to resort to
making a career out of working the land.
Since childhood, Alexandra has assumed respon-
sibility for Emil’s future, looking on him as the hope
for the future—the Bergson with a true opportunity
of succeeding off the farm. She had witnessed the
repercussions that working the land had on the life
of her father, her mother, and her two elder broth-
ers, and she fully intends to save Emil from such
physical and emotional hardship. Once she makes
a success of the land, Alexandra’s efforts serve to
provide for Emil’s education and give him a chance
at a prestigious career in law. Emil shows his appre-
ciation toward Alexandra by returning to the farm
during breaks from his studies, assisting in main-
taining portions of their land that she has leased to
the public—including the land leased to Frank and
Marie Shabata.
Whereas Alexandra’s responsibility pertains to
making a success of the land, Marie’s responsibil-
ity pertains to a sense of guilt over the type of man
her husband, Frank, has become since their initial
meeting. Marie feels responsible for Frank’s change
in attitude and physical appearance. Prior to their
marriage—during their courtship—Frank held his
head high and walked with a light step, but his head
now hangs low, and his walk has become heavy; the
harshness of life now weighs on him. He spends a
majority of his time away from home in an attempt
to make a success of the leased land apportioned to
them by Alexandra. Just as Alexandra’s motivation in
making a success of the land lies outside of herself,
Frank’s motivation rests in his desire to provide a
brighter future for Marie. Frank’s selfless motivation,
however, weighs heavy on Marie; she does not wish
to be responsible for the demise of Frank’s light-
hearted nature, but she is fully aware that his devo-
tion to her is destroying the man he once was. As a
result, she is diligent in her manner toward Frank in
an effort to lift his spirits and transform him back
into the man he was during their courtship.
Because she knows of Frank’s frequent absences,
Alexandra often asks Emil to assist Marie at the
Shabata homestead through tending the grass and
the plants or performing general carpentry work
around the home. His recurrent presence at the Sha-
bata farm eventually leads to an attraction between
Emil and Marie that has tragic consequences.
Alexandra maintains a sense of responsibility for
the murder of Emil and Marie in that she threw
the two of them together by assigning Emil the
task of assisting Marie in her husband’s absence.
Alexandra’s focus has been on the land for so long
that she is ignorant of human nature. As such, she
also maintains a sense of responsibility for Frank’s
murder of Emil and Marie, believing that she pro-
vided the reason for his blind, jealous rage when she
ignorantly placed the two lovers in a position that
invoked intimacy.
Alexandra’s sense of responsibility toward Emil
led to her fixation on the land, a passion that ulti-
mately destroyed the person whose future it was
meant to sustain. Likewise, although Marie’s sense
of responsibility rests in her guilt over the altera-
tion in Frank’s lighthearted nature, her adulterous
actions ultimately lead to the destruction of his life
altogether through incarceration and the knowl-
edge that he caused the death of the wife whom he
adored and whose future he had striven to enrich.
Elizabeth K. HallersuFFerinG in O Pioneers!
Suffering is prevalent in Willa Cather’s O Pioneers!
The Bergsons and the Shabatas—the novel’s two
primary families—are at times both overwhelmed
by and indebted to the land, which ultimately
leads to the demise of all that they have striven to
maintain.
John Bergson, the patriarch of the family central
to the novel, strove for 11 years to make a success of
his land on the Nebraska prairie of the early 20th
century. A series of hardships befell his land and
his family—natural disasters, droughts, deaths. The
emotional toll of his inability to succeed despite