O Pioneer Blog-Willa Cather

Well, "O Pioneer" was shorter than I thought it was. It was very short and did not provide a lot of detail. The family in the story is in a lot of despair because there is a drought and there was a loved one that died, which made everything harder for them. Reading some of the background history, I find that the father was only forty-two years old and he was sick and dying. He had three four children, one girl and two boys. He debated for a long time, considering one of the boys would be his most obvious choice when was trying to find out who he should leave the family farm too. He decides in the end to entrust the farm to his daughter, Alexandra. After three years of doing a good job, there is a bad drought. The family becomes pioneers basically and they lived off the land and struggled to grow enough food. The times were hard and ultimately the remaining children wished they could go and live with their uncle who owns a bakery in Chicago. My favorite line from the excerpt in the story is, "A pioneer should have imagination, should be able to enjoy the idea of things more than the things themselves." To me, that quote says that they know what they have, but they have hope for what they could have for the future. So, they are very motivated. I think that their ideas are like Thoreau's mainly because of their motivation. All of them were motivated for the future to change and they wanted to have a better outlook on life. Even though they both went through struggles, they never once gave up hope, and that is a common theme they share. The dreams of Henry David Thoreau and the children in "O Pioneer" are strong. Even though they did not create the problems they were handed, they made the best out of them that they could and took their future into their own hands.

Cather, Willa. "Willa Cather O Pioneers! Criticism." ENotes - Literature Study Guides, Lesson Plans, and More. Enotes.com. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <http://www.enotes.com/o-pioneers-criticism/o-pioneers-willa-cather>.

Willa, Cather."O Pioneer." American Literature. Columbus: Mc-Graw Hill, 2009. 488-489. Print.