Nov 11, 2009

O Pioneers! | Characters

In having Alexandra participate in the founding of a frontier community, that is, in a realm of experience central to America's identity and archetypally viewed as controlled by men, Cather is not simply substituting female for male but is actively intervening in the myth-making process. Instead of aiming to subdue the prairie, Alexandra tries to awaken it through love and empathy and to work in harmony with it, thereby departing from the familiar pattern of the "conquest" of the frontier. In contrast to the classic American hero in flight from society, she makes her main goal the...