O Pioneers! Analysis

The Great Plains of Nebraska (a.k.a. the prairie, a.k.a. the Divide) Let's face it: the Nebraska plains don't sound all that exciting. But when it comes to O Pioneers!, the story's setting might j...

Third Person (Limited Omniscient) Let's talk about our new best friend, the narrator in O Pioneers! This narrator really gives us the inside scoop on the novel's characters. In fact, most of...

Get ready, Shmoop-ineers. This is a tough one. First things first. O Pioneers! might be a work of fiction, but its setting comes right out of American history. There were settlers on the Ne...

A great way to get what we mean by pastoral is to read the poetic epigraph to O Pioneers!, "Prairie Spring," which Cather wrote herself. We spend a while talking about this in our section on th...

Pastoral, as we mention in our section on "Tone," has to do with descriptions of nature. So, why are we also talking about it here? Well, O Pioneers! is pastoral both in its attitude toward the...

How many books do you know that have an exclamation point in the title? Probably not too many. A title usually gives the reader some idea what the book is about, but O Pioneers! makes a statement i...

O Pioneers! comes with not one, but two epigraphs. Let's check 'em out. Evening and the flat land, Rich and somber and always silent; The miles of fresh-plowed soil, Heavy and black, full...

If your ideal novel ends with a ride off into the sunset, well, O Pioneers! might just be the book for you. In the end, Alexandra makes plans to marry Carl, her childhood sweetheart, and they decid...

Don't get us wrong. While O Pioneers! has a straightforward plot and won't bog you down with a lot of big words or complex sentence structures, it still packs a hefty punch. The central quest...

Exposition (Initial Situation) There's no place like… Nebraska The exposition spans from the very beginning, when the Divide is almost unlivable, to more prosperous times, when Alexandra has...

Initial wretchedness at home and the 'Call' What can we say? Booker really gets it right on this one. O Pioneers! starts when the Divide is still a harsh, unlivable place, leaving Alexandra wond...

This is where we get to know all the main characters and the important issues in their lives. We see the scene change from stark, inhospitable, depressing to booming, lush and rich. This act ends...

Willa Cather's sexuality (especially its reflection in her writing) remains a popular topic of contention among literary critics. Cather was together with her partner, Edith White, for 40 years. (S...

If you know where to look, sex is all over the place in O Pioneers! But, just as Alexandra's innermost feelings and desires form an "underground river," that only surfaces now and then, sexual th...

Kate Greenaway (1.1.14). The narrator describes little Marie Tovesky as being dressed in the "Kate Greenaway" style. Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) was an illustrator and author of ch...