If you know where to look in O Pioneers!, there's some serious gender bending going on. Think back to the first physical descriptions of Alexandra and Carl. Alexandra is portrayed as sturdy, "handsome," with a look of "Amazonian fierceness," while Carl, on the other hand, is slender, with a mouth "too sensitive for a boy's" (4.3.4; 1.1.7; 1.1.12). It's almost as if their future hook-up is foreshadowed in a reversal of (traditional) gender characteristics. So what's up with that? Well, O Pioneers! seems to portray the American frontier as a place in which gender roles are looser and less defined, more open to ambiguity.
Questions About Gender
- Is O Pioneers! a feminist novel, or does it shy away from taking a stand on those issues?
- The novel seems to focus on the gender-bending qualities of Alexandra and Carl more at the beginning than anywhere else. How important is this gender-bending to the whole plot?
- The topic of gender and property ownership is one of the main things that drives the Bergson family apart. What are the different arguments raised for justifying rightful claim to the land?
Chew on This
O Pioneers! portrays the frontier as a place where gender norms and roles are more open to reinterpretation, as exemplified by the relationship between Alexandra and Carl.
O Pioneers! takes a feminist stance towards the position of women in American society, by portraying a woman who is unafraid to exercise her freedom to dispose of her property and time as she sees fit.