| There are few female authors that have had an impact on literature as great as that of Willa Cather. Not only was she an exquisite author, but she broke through into writing during a time when few female authors were successful. Known as one of the most important woman writers since the founding of the United States, Willa Cather has been ranked among the best writers such as Henry James and Hemingway. This thesis is to exploreCather' s concept of self-fulfillment as reflected in her three pioneernovels written in her earlier years. According to Clayton' s ERG theory (existence, relatedness & growth), it is divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, a discussion is made of woman' s workingconditions. In 0 Pioneers! , My Antonia and The Song of the Lark, Catherdepicts a lot of traditional women. They center on their husbands and children. They are just housewives. However, pioneer women dig into theman' s sphere- the land, and they achieve self-fulfillment throughhardship and sacrifices. They have wider room to put their abilities to full use.Chapter Two deals with Cather' s concept of marriage. Cather describes, with youthful enthusiasm, the independent, resolute, vigorous pioneer women, who, instead of finding life' s fulfillment in marriage under maleprotection, choose to marry a friend or a partner. As an extension of friendship, their marriages are the sensible, successful, and unconventional ones which, as well as constituting an integral part of their autonomy, stand in sharp contrast to other dominant patterns ofmarriage in Cather' s fiction, the traditional marriage and the doomed passionate unions in the patriarchal societies, in which they live.The third chapter mainly puts emphasis on the need for growth. Through hardship, attaining recognizable identity and the need for knowledge,Willa Cather' s protagonists have some commonplaces that lead to theirsuccess. It is these characteristics that today's woman should also learn in order to achieve self-fulfillment.
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