Character Analysis
The eldest son of the Hansa family, Ole wants the whole world to know that he is his father's second-in-command. Of course, thinking of himself this way just makes it all the harder when he's around grown men who treat him like a kid and don't listen to anything he says. As we read early in the book,
Outside the tent, Ole stood with his hand resting on one of the oxen. He was disgusted; the older people seemed to have clean forgotten his existence. They never would get done talking—when he, too, might have had a word to put in! (1.2.2.14)
Whoa, pride seems to run in this family. Now just imagine how angry Ole gets when his dad starts giving special treatment to Store-Hans, the younger son. When Per Hansa makes his first trip to the nearby town of Sioux Falls, he decides to leave Ole in charge of the house and to take Store-Hans with him. And for Ole, this is a shocking decision. As the narrator says,
The idea of taking that boy along, and letting a grown man loaf around the house with nothing to do! For the first time his faith in his father's judgment was shattered. (1.2.9.2)
From this point on, Ole and Store-Hans struggle constantly over who's the BMOP (the Big Man on the Prairie).