Pastoral and Transcendental
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 events that take place in the novel, and in the way that it's written. We call the novel a pastoral, using pastoral as a noun, when we're talking about its style, but we describe the tone of the novel as pastoral, using it as an adjective.
Since pastoral is a pretty general term, though, we need something else to add a little oomph. It's not enough just to say that this novel is about nature, if you don't also mention the way nature is described: lofty, majestic, sublime and omnipotent.
Don't believe us? Well, just stay tuned.
The grandiosity (yes, that's a word) of Cather's pastoral has a lot to do with the way nature gets personified in O Pioneers! That's a fancy way of saying nature takes on human, if not super-human, powers and qualities. Check out this passage, for instance:
For the first time, perhaps, since that land emerged from the waters of geologic ages, a human face was set toward it with love and yearning. It seemed beautiful to her, rich and strong and glorious. Her eyes drank in the breadth of it, until her tears blinded her. Then the Genius of the Divide, the great, free spirit which breathes across it, must have bent lower than it ever bent to a human will before. The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman. (1.5.3)
First, let's talk about how this passage describes the Divide. The narrator portrays it as something pre-historical, which emerged "from the waters of geologic ages." And it sounds pretty awesome, right? To Alexandra, the Divide seems "beautiful," "rich and strong and glorious." And then, the narrator speaks of "the Genius of the Divide, the great, free spirit which breathes across it." What's up with that?
The Divide is described here as a grand, powerful being, a "Genius," in terms that make us think of a divine power. When we talk about O Pioneers! as a pastoral, we can specify that it's a pastoral in which nature is no mere background for human events, but is itself one of the characters. But the Divide is not on equal footing with human beings. As the passage above tells us, the Divide is both freer and more powerful than the humans that populate it, and it rarely bends to a human will.
That's why we also call Cather's writing style transcendental. (Head on over to "Genre" for more on this one.) Though O Pioneers! is not a transcendentalist novel in the usual sense, Cather is definitely inspired by American transcendentalism, including authors like Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau. And the hallmark of transcendentalism is just what we described above: the personification of nature as a grand, yet impersonal being of almost divine proportions.
Realistic
In our section on "Genre," we talk a bit about why O Pioneers! might be considered a realist novel. Well, now's the time to look at the realist tendencies in Cather's writing style. The best place to start with this one is the murder of Emil and Marie. Let's take a look at the following passage:
The story of what had happened was written plainly on the orchard grass, and on the white mulberries that had fallen in the night and were covered with dark stain. For Emil the chapter had been short. He was shot in the heart, and had rolled over on his back and died. […] But for Marie Shabata it had not been so easy. One ball had torn through her right lung, another had shattered the carotid artery. (4.8.3)
Here, the narrator uses a metaphor to describe the evidence of their murder as "written plainly" on the grass. Well, that's also a pretty accurate description of this passage. The narrator doesn't exactly mince words when describing the violence committed against Emil and Marie. In fact, what we get here sounds almost like a coroner's report: cold, objective, to the point.
In other words, this language takes us a bit off guard. Just when we've gotten used to Cather's pastoral, transcendental style, she goes all CSI on us. Well, that's an important detail. Cather's style is anything but dull and one-dimensional, and it's important to note the way O Pioneers! can quickly go from a calm pastoral to objectively describing violence.