The Ode To The Pioneers

Willa Cather is a famous literary woman in America during the first half of the twentieth century. Her novels give high praise to pioneers living in western United States, their pioneering spirit and strong will. She also celebrates the immigrants'hard work in the wild land, their fearlessness in struggling with the nature, and their optimistic attitude in confronting failure. Maxwell Geismar considers her as "a defender of the spiritual graces in the midst of an increasingly materialistic culture" (Mao 1994:93-94). Her representative works, O Pioneers! and My Antonia are nearly the best two novels that speak highly of pioneer spirit. The beauty of her works have attracted many scholars'attention and they usually analyze the two novels from eco-feminism, feminism and archetypal criticism.The two novels contain abundant ethical factors, such as love from family, responsibilities for family, human-nature relationship and individuals'success. This thesis tries to analyze the complicate ethical relationships in O Pioneers! and My Antonia from the perspective of ethical literary criticism. The goal of ethical literary criticism aims to analyze literature and the ethical phenomenon in literature. Li Dingqing, one of Chinese experts on ethical literary criticism, analyzes the ethical factors from human-society, human-self, human-nature and human-other relationships (Li Dingqing 2006:44-52). Because of the ethical factors in Willa Caher's works, this thesis analyzes the spiritual meanings and ethical relationships from the first three aspects. Therefore, people can get Willa Cather's pursuit for spiritual beauty, harmonious human-nature relationship and even her contribution for constructing humanistic spirit. The factors all witness the unique artistic charm of Willa Cather's novels.This thesis contains six chapters:Chapter One introduces the background of writing this thesis, Willa Cather and the plot of O Pioneers! and My Antonia. These are the first two parts of this chapter. The third part of this chapter is the framework of this thesis.The first part of Chapter Two is about the background, development, research method of ethical literary criticism, famous experts of ethical literary criticism and the research home and aboad. The second part of this chapter gives a general literature review on O Pioneers! and My Antonia.Chapter Three analyzes Willa Cather's pursuit of "truth" on human-society relationship. The analysis of family and community highlights her pursuit and praise for keeping a harmonious relationship in pioneer families and communities. Meanwhile it shows us her affection for country life.Due to the pollution of the living environment, Chapter Four discusses Willa Cather's pursuit for "beauty" on human-nature relationship. The analysis of Alexandra's attitude toward land displays Willa Cather's anti-anthropocentrism ideas and her hope for living harmoniously with nature. She also sings high of pioneers'optimistic spirit.Chapter Five studies Willa Cather's ethical thoughts on human-self relationship. Marie in O Pioneers!, Antonia and Lena Lingard in My Antonia represent Willa Cather's ethical principles on human-self relationship. Being an independent and responsible person is her unchangeable ethical pursuit.Chapter Six is the conclusion. This chapter includes information about the main findings of this thesis, its implication, limitations and further research suggestions. From the study of the three ethical relationships, it comes to the following conclusion-the analysis of O Pioneers!, and My Antonia from ethical literary criticism interprets her ethical seeking briefly, namely, harmony, truth, good and sublimation. Meanwhile, Willa Cather presents an ideal world with love, beauty and harmony. And these all come from her belief in ethics. Her ethical thoughts are also beneficial to our constructing a harmonious society.