“from O Pioneers!”

Willa Cather was a pioneer. She moved out to Nebraska with her family when she was nine years old and drew on her first hand frontier experience as inspiration in her writing (Cather 519). She wrote novels based on her experiences in the land and the beauty that accompanied the wild (Cather 519). In "O Pioneers!", Willa Cather drew on her experience with the frontier land and wrote about farming immigrants and the hardships they faced (Cather 488). Because the Wild West was new and Americans had not farmed or lived on the dry flat land, new inventions and farming techniques had to be invented. Because of the lack of water, farming was a challenge west of the Mississippi. To deal with that problem, dry farming was invented when farmers dug deeper into the soil to access deep ground water to keep the roots watered (Divine). Because of the flat treeless land, farmers could not use timber to build their houses or fences to keep their animals in one centralized place. Sod houses and barbed wire were innovatively created as a solution to those problems (Divine). The farmers in the west had a hard time, but they survived through hard work and creativity. Willa Cather's farmers in "O Pioneers" also faced hardship through death and droughts (Cather 489). At their low point, the farmers reminisce about land to the east or any "place that had been proved hospitable" (Cather 489). The sons of the farmers dreamt about working in the cities as bakers as they lacked the "imagination needed" to survive and be happy in the west (Cather 489).

Henry David Thoreau was a supporter of the pioneers as he believed it helped man become "one" with nature as he was forced to survive and tame nature (Harding). Thoreau admired the pioneers due to their "closeness to nature" (Harding). Thoreau took his philosophy seriously and he lived in the woods, alone with nature for two years, two months, and two days (Harding). His experience was not quite that of a pioneer, but he did develop a relationship with nature and the world surrounding him.


Cather, Willa. "from O Pioneers!." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 488-489. Print.

Cather, Willa. "Before You Read." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 519. Print.

Divine, Robert A., T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, H. W. Brands, and Ariela J. Gross. America Past and Present AP Edition. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.

Harding, Walter. A Thoreau Handbook by Walter Harding: pp. 131-173 (New York University Press, 1959). © 1959 by New York University Press. Quoted as "Thoreau's Ideas" in Harold Bloom, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2003. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 20 Feb. 2012.