A Close Reading Analysis of Willa Cather\'s O Pioneers Essay

When reading Willa Cather's "O Pioneers!", one can get lost easily inthe world of the Divide. What is nice about this story is that thenarrator spectates the story so we see everyone involved, and howtroubling their lives can be, and how happy they can be aswell.Following deeper analysis while reading Neighboring Fields multipletimes, one could conclude that a strong theme from this book is selfsacrifice. From the vocabulary to the mood of the novel, the themeweaves itself deeply into the story, barely being seen. The land of thedivide is described thoroughly through character thought, action, andthrough how it effects their everyday lives. At first glance, the land seems to be flourishing. The effort thatCather made to describe the land in detail was apparent. It seemspeaceful and when I imagine what the narrator is speaking about, I seeluscious fields full of different color grasses that sway gently backand forth in the warm breeze of summer. It is a complete turn-around ofhow life was a few short years back. If you are to flip a couple ofpages back, times were looking very tough for the Bergsons. Manyneighbors were foreclosing on their homesteads, people were leaving thedivide, and it seemed as if Alexandra and her family would have to packup and move as well. Now, people are doing quite well with very littledebt and their future's looking bright. A few pages later in the book,Alexandra tells Carl that the people of the divide did not figure outhow to work the land, it was as if the land decided one day to startworking for them. Life was seemingly perfect right away as this sectionbegun. Everything seemed to be plentiful, with little to no unemploymentthroughout the divide. The labor does not seem intensive, and peopleseem to really be basking in the wealth the land has brought them. InThe Wild Land, when I began to read this passage a second time, I pickedup on a particular quote that struck a chord...