O Pioneers!

“The light fell upon the two sad young faces that were turned mutely toward it: upon the eyes of the girl, who seemed to be looking with such anguished perplexity into the future; upon the sombre eyes of the boy, who seemed already to be looking into the past.”

Lost innocence and youth characterize both Carl and Alexandra. Alexandra is “anguished” over the future, while Carl misses the past. This implies that neither character is able to live in the present moment because the present is too difficult and full of struggle. This reflects the struggle to survive in pioneering spaces: There is no time for young people to be carefree, so they either dream of a different future or mourn the pasts they might have had.

“Of all the bewildering things about a new country, the absence of human landmarks is one of the most depressing and disheartening.”

Isolation characterizes the pioneer lifestyle. When a group of people are settling unchartered territories, they are wholly divorced from human communities and human society. This can be “depressing and disheartening”—a constant reminder of their isolation and their enormous undertaking.

“Bergson had spent his first five years on the Divide getting into debt, and the last six getting out. He had paid off his mortgages and had ended pretty much where he began, with the land.”

John’s struggle with debt exemplifies one of the challenges facing homesteaders. Though land is available, land is not free. John put himself into debt that required years of relentless work to overcome because he saw it as an investment in his family’s future. Though John is able to get himself out of debt, his hard work doesn’t earn him more than what he started with. This highlights the cyclical challenges of homesteading and pioneering. It also emphasizes John’s belief that land ownership is more important than concrete financial gains.

“John Bergson had the Old-World belief that land, in itself, is desirable. But this land was an enigma. It was like a horse that no one knows how to break to harness, that runs wild and kicks things to pieces.”

John Bergson’s desire for land ownership is described as an “Old-World belief” because it stems from the history of serfdom. In Europe, most countries had been built on the division between royalty, nobility, and peasants. Historically, people who were not born into the nobility were doomed to toil without any possibility of raising their socioeconomic status because royal titles dictated land ownership and land ownership dictated wealth. America, a country without a monarchy, promised immigrants more egalitarian land distribution and therefore respectability, security, and wealth. However, owning land is different than owning land successfully, which is a challenge John passes down to his children.

“It was no fault of theirs that they had been dragged into the wilderness when they were little boys. A pioneer should have imagination, should be able to enjoy the idea of things more than the things themselves.”

This quote highlights a key element of the pioneer identity: imagination. Pioneers must think of new ideas and solutions when relying on traditional ideas fails. What’s more, pioneers rarely see the results of their hard work. Instead, their gratification must necessarily come from their dreams and goals. This is difficult for people like Oscar and Lou, who are not pioneers by nature.

“There is something frank and joyous and young in the open face of the country. It gives itself ungrudgingly to the moods of the season, holding nothing back. Like the plains of Lombardy, it seems to rise a little to meet the sun. The air and the earth are curiously mated and intermingled, as if the one were the breath of the other. You feel in the atmosphere the same tonic, puissant quality that is in the tilth, the same strength and resoluteness.”

This description of Hanover’s beauty and verdancy opens Part 2 with hope. It contrasts with the descriptions of Nebraska in Part 1, highlighting the development of the homesteads into fruitful and successful farming communities. What used to be considered uninhabitable land has now transformed into “something frank and joyous.” Through their successful farming, the citizens of Hanover have come to appreciate nature rather than view it as an antagonist.

“The old wild country, the struggle in which his sister was destined to succeed while so many men broke their hearts and died, he can scarcely remember. That is all among the dim things of childhood and has been forgotten in the brighter pattern life weaves to-day, in the bright facts of being captain of the track team, and holding the interstate record for the high jump, in the all-suffusing brightness of being twenty-one.”

This characterization of Emil is important in two ways. First, it identifies the wide chasm between what used to be a life full of struggle and what is now a life of success. Second, it differentiates Emil from his siblings, whose memories of hardship he doesn’t share. Emil is more well-rounded than his siblings because their struggle and sacrifice have enabled him to live a more secure life filled with possibility and choice.

“You know that my spells come from God, and that I would not harm any living creature. You believe that every one should worship God in the way revealed to him. But that is not the way of this country. The way here is for all to do alike. I am despised because I do not wear shoes, because I do not cut my hair, and because I have visions. At home, in the old country, there were many like me, who had been touched by God, or who had seen things in the graveyard at night and were different afterward. We thought nothing of it, and let them alone. But here, if a man is different in his feet or in his head, they put him in the asylum.”

Here, Ivar shows a clear understanding of his difference from the rest of the community. Ivar is not ashamed of his way of life, but he knows that other people find him threatening because he does not wish to conform to societal norms. This quote emphasizes the consequence of tight-knit and interdependent farming towns: Any difference is seen as dangerous to their wellbeing. Despite the fact that Ivar is a long-standing citizen of Hanover, people there judge him harshly.

“The conversation at the table was all in English. Oscar’s wife, from the malaria district of Missouri, was ashamed of marrying a foreigner, and his boys do not understand a word of Swedish. Annie and Lou sometimes speak Swedish at home, but Annie is almost as much afraid of being ‘caught’ at it as ever her mother was of being caught barefoot. Oscar still has a thick accent, but Lou speaks like anybody from Iowa.”

Hanover is a town built by immigrants, but those immigrants have different perceptions of their roots. Some characters are confident in their languages and accents, while others internalize xenophobia and feel that their accents set them apart from other Americans. In this quote, Cather emphasizes both the beauty of American diversity and the complex identity formation of immigrants and their descendants.

“‘And now the old story has begun to write itself over there,’ said Carl softly. ‘Isn't it queer: there are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years.’”

Carl’s commentary about the cyclical nature of stories speaks to Cather’s work as an author. Many theories of literature center on the idea that all stories are essentially the same. For example, Carl’s return to Hanover follows the ancient “hero returns” narrative. Similarly, subplots of complicated family dynamics and unrequited love are hardly unique to the pioneers in Cather’s novel. This passage links these patterns of repetition to the natural world and thus emphasizes humanity’s place within it.

“No, I’m afraid of giving you a shock. You’ve seen yourself for so long in the dull minds of the people about you, that if I were to tell you how you seem to me, it would startle you. But you must see that you astonish me. You must feel when people admire you.”

Carl’s outspoken admiration of Alexandra is a marker of his difference. Many people in this time period would have considered speaking so openly with a woman improper, and in a tough farming community, any intimacy could be perceived as frivolous. Carl’s open communication with Alexandra also emphasizes the deep connection between Carl and Alexandra. While many people, including Alexandra’s own family, take advantage of her, Carl speaks for those who give Alexandra the empathy and respect she has earned.

“Lou turned to his brother. ‘This is what comes of letting a woman meddle in business,’ he said bitterly. ‘We ought to have taken things in our own hands years ago. But she liked to run things, and we humored her. We thought you had good sense, Alexandra. We never thought you’d do anything foolish.’”

This quote is startling in the context of the Bergson family dynamics. Despite Alexandra’s ingenuity and work ethic, Lou doesn’t respect her role as the leader of their family and doesn’t appreciate what Alexandra has sacrificed for her family’s stability and prosperity. This lack of respect flows from the patronizing view of women as natural followers: Lou blames Alexandra for being a woman, even though she has subverted every gender norm and stereotype. Furthermore, Lou accuses her of foolishness even though Alexandra has done nothing except maintain a friendship with Carl. This implies that Lou has always worried about having a woman in the role of head of his family.

“Hard on you? I never meant to be hard. Conditions were hard. Maybe I would never have been very soft, anyhow; but I certainly didn’t choose to be the kind of girl I was. If you take even a vine and cut it back again and again, it grows hard, like a tree.”

In this quote, Cather explores Alexandra’s upbringing through the symbol of a hardened tree. Alexandra has undergone traumas and challenges that forced her to be tough. This toughness helped establish the family’s security, but it didn’t foster affections between the Bergson siblings. As a woman, Alexandra subverts the expectation that she’ll be agreeable, warm, and nurturing. Instead, Alexandra had to lead her family the way a man in this time period would have. This quote also reveals that decades-old resentments have been brewing in the Bergson family—a fact that foreshadows further family conflict.

“‘What good comes of offering people things they don’t need?’ Alexandra asked sadly. ‘I don’t need money. But I have needed you for a great many years. I wonder why I have been permitted to prosper, if it is only to take my friends away from me.’”

Here, Alexandra identifies her central internal conflict. Success has not provided Alexandra with happiness. She has worked tirelessly for the people she loves, but the people she loves keep leaving her. This emphasizes Cather’s message that security doesn’t directly lead to happiness or even satisfaction.

“She seemed to feel the weight of all the snow that lay down there. The branches had become so hard that they wounded your hand if you but tried to break a twig. And yet, down under the frozen crusts, at the roots of the trees, the secret of life was still safe, warm as the blood in one’s heart; and the spring would come again! Oh, it would come again!”

This quote emphasizes the important symbolism of the seasons. Winter is difficult but provides characters with time for serious self-reflection. In addition, no matter how difficult the winter is, spring inevitably follows. This promise gives characters like Marie hope for the future and a way of enduring the harsh Nebraskan winters.

“Alexandra felt that he would like to know there had been a man of his kin whom he could admire. She knew that Emil was ashamed of Lou and Oscar, because they were bigoted and self-satisfied. He never said much about them, but she could feel his disgust. His brothers had shown their disapproval of him ever since he first went away to school. The only thing that would have satisfied them would have been his failure at the University. As it was, they resented every change in his speech, in his dress, in his point of view; though the latter they had to conjecture, for Emil avoided talking to them about any but family matters. All his interests they treated as affectations.”

This quote reveals the conflict between Emil and his brothers. Emil has enjoyed a more privileged life than his brothers, which fills them with resentment. Having never had the privilege of education, Oscar and Lou don’t respect Emil’s path in life. This emphasizes the rural distrust of education and institutions. This quote also reminds the reader that Emil grew up without a father figure. Alexandra loved and admired her father, but Emil only has stories about John Bergson. This reveals Emil’s loneliness and the isolation that comes with being a second-generation American forging a new path without the support of family.

“Yes, there would be a dirty way out of life, if one chose to take it. But she did not want to die. She wanted to live and dream—a hundred years, forever! As long as this sweetness welled up in her heart, as long as her breast could hold this treasure of pain! She felt as the pond must feel when it held the moon like that; when it encircled and swelled with that image of gold.”

In the aftermath of her kiss with Emil, Marie despairs of seeing him again but nevertheless chooses to embrace life. Marie’s realization suggests that pain is important because it teaches people how to appreciate the good times in their lives. This idea relates to the interaction between farmer and land: Bad years are necessary for farms to flourish because nothing worth having comes easily.

“He felt as if a clear light broke upon his mind, and with it a conviction that good was, after all, stronger than evil, and that good was possible to men. He seemed to discover that there was a kind of rapture in which he could love forever without faltering and without sin.”

Emil resolves to love Marie without “sin,” even though it is not possible for him to be with her without breaking fundamental social codes. Emil’s decision is emotional. His best friend has just died tragically, the woman he loves has told him she loves him, and he is about to embark on a new chapter in his life. This quote foreshadows Emil’s death because it is this impulsive idealism that gets Emil into trouble.

“His unhappy temperament was like a cage; he could never get out of it; and he felt that other people, his wife in particular, must have put him there. It had never more than dimly occurred to Frank that he made his own unhappiness.”

Cather characterizes Frank’s unhappiness as a cage, implying that Frank’s cage could have opened. This symbolic cage also implies that Frank feels stuck in his unhappiness. Ultimately, Cather advocates for the idea that happiness is a choice. Alexandra feels empathy for Frank in the aftermath of Emil’s death, but Cather establishes that Emil and Marie’s murders were avoidable if Frank had developed skills to manage his unhappiness.

“But the stained, slippery grass, the darkened mulberries, told only half the story. Above Marie and Emil, two white butterflies from Frank’s alfalfa-field were fluttering in and out among the interlacing shadows; diving and soaring, now close together, now far apart; and in the long grass by the fence the last wild roses of the year opened their pink hearts to die.”

In this quote, the white mulberry tree and butterflies symbolize Marie and Emil’s deadly love. The personification of the roses—a common symbol of love—echoes the trajectory of the relationship; they doom themselves in the act of “opening their hearts” (i.e., revealing their love). The mulberry tree is the physical scene of both the couple’s love and their deaths. The butterflies flutter around as a pair. The color of both the tree and the butterflies—white—symbolizes Frank and Marie’s innocence, and the presence of plants and insects implies that Frank and Marie’s love was natural, if not socially acceptable.

“When the eyes of the flesh are shut, the eyes of the spirit are open. She will have a message from those who are gone, and that will bring her peace. Until then we must bear with her. You and I are the only ones who have weight with her. She trusts us.”

Ivar’s observation reveals that Alexandra’s grieving process is crucial to her character development. Alexandra must deal with her pain to see her life with clarity, which parallels the novel’s depiction of the balance between good and bad. This quote also reveals that Ivar is a loyal friend to Alexandra, who has successfully protected him from the harsh judgments of her family and community. Alexandra feels lonely, but she is not wholly alone; she has people in her life who respect her and watch out for her best interests.

“Ever since Emil died, I’ve suffered so when it rained. Now that I’ve been out in it with him, I shan’t dread it. After you once get cold clear through, the feeling of the rain on you is sweet. It seems to bring back feelings you had when you were a baby. It carries you back into the dark, before you were born; you can’t see things, but they come to you, somehow, and you know them and aren’t afraid of them. Maybe it’s like that with the dead. If they feel anything at all, it’s the old things, before they were born, that comfort people like the feeling of their own bed does when they are little.”

In this quote, Cather reconfirms Alexandra’s connection to nature. In her grief, Alexandra does not comfort herself with the idea that her brother is in heaven. Rather than rely on religion, Alexandra turns to her own version of spirituality. The rain, a physical and natural occurrence, provides Alexandra with comfort and inspiration; Alexandra’s connection to nature is steadfast and only heightened when tragic things happen in her life.

“Frank was the only one, Alexandra told herself, for whom anything could be done. He had been less in the wrong than any of them, and he was paying the heaviest penalty. She often felt that she herself had been more to blame than poor Frank.”

Alexandra’s empathy for Frank partly reflects her habit of finding solutions when tragedy strikes. With Emil and Marie dead, the only person she can make amends with is Frank. Furthermore, she can understand Frank’s reaction more than she can understand Emil and Marie’s affair. This empathy for Frank reveals that Alexandra has internalized social standards of propriety more than her subversive character would imply.