O Pioneers! Reflection Blog

"O Pioneers!" is the tale of the struggles of the pioneers who settled out West in the hopes

of becoming wealthy farmers. The men soon discover that the land that they have settled is no longer

the rich and fertile land that it once was and that by having one bad season for the crops could ruin

your chances of every becoming a successful and wealthy man in America. The men in this novel have

experienced the bad season and are now in debt and have no way to save their farms and must leave

the land that they thought would save them. "The settlers sat about on the wooden sidewalks in the

little town and told each other that the country was never meant for men to live in; the thing to do

was to get back to Iowa, to Illinois, to any place that had been proved habitable"( Cather 489).

The men were defeated but they tried the world of the pioneer that Emerson and Thoreau became

fans of themselves living away from the corrupt area of society and the government that only help

itself and not the people who it was suppose to protect. Emerson and Thoreau believed that the life

of a pioneer was much better because they could avoid corruption and make their own rules and

society to live by. The people of the West and the Plains were more connected to nature since their

lives depended on the crops themselves and the land. The pioneers hunted some of their food they

lived in a mix of Indian ways of life and the civilization they left to find money. Thoreau and Emerson

would have been angered when the bank foreclosed on the people because they believed the government

should stay out of the business of individuals. "A steady job, a few holidays, nothing to think about, and

they would have been very happy"(Cather 489). This statement is one part that Emerson and Thoreau

would have argued they believed that the society in the cities were corrupted and hurt the people and

these pioneers did not know about the awful working conditions of the time, which would have changed

their views most likely of moving back into the city. Emerson and Thoreau believed that nature gave

people happiness and Cather is saying that happiness is money and stability, which is partly true but

to be happy you have to enjoy what you do and see around you. If they move into the towns with no

trees or grass and just building they are not going to be anywhere near as happy as they were in the

West.

Cather, Willa."O Pioneers!" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.489. Print.