O Pioneers

Willa Cather’s excerpt from “O Pioneers!” gives the reader a brief glimpse of the hard life of a pioneer. It displays the strength of family out in the wild frontier. In spite of the death of the Bergson’s father they still preserver. Cather writes, “For the first three years after John Bergson’s death, the affairs of his family prospered. Then came the hard times that brought every one on the Divide to the brink of despair”(Cather 489). The family stuck together in the good times, but they also stuck together during the hard times. She writes, “The first of these fruitless summers the Bergson boys bore courageously.”

(Cather 489) The Bergson brothers stuck together after their father had died. They kept the farm going through the tough and unsuccessful growing season. Cather writes, “It was no fault of theirs that that they had been dragged into the wilderness when they were little boys”(Cather 489) Even though they had no choice on coming to this new land, they still work hard to keep the family farm going. Cather is really stressing the importance of the strength of family. It is important that the Bergson boys keep the farm going to support the family, and to honor the wishes of their father. He came all that way to try and make a better life for him and his family.

Ralph Waldo Emerson believes that a man is stronger by himself, fighting for himself. In his writing “Self-Reliance” he says, “It is only as a man puts off all foreign support, and stands alone, that I see him to be strong and to prevail.”(Emerson 322). Emerson is not saying that a man should not have a family and set out to provide for them. He is saying that the man should be there to provide and support for his family. The man is strongest when he does not have to rely on any out side help. When John Bergson died he left the farm to his sons, and they may have to rely on the support of other people forcing them to not be as wealthy or as strong as they would be by themselves.

Cather, Willa. "From O Pioneers ." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 97-99. Print.

Emerson, R. Waldo. "Self-Reliance." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 97-99. Print.