Womanism In O Pioneers!

Willa Cather (1873-1947) is a great American woman writer in American literary history. She is famous for her portrayal of the frontier life of pioneers in the middle west of America. Cather wrote a series of novels set mainly in Nebraska. Among these Nebraska novels is O Pioneers!, which is a milestone of Cather's literary creation. In the novel she first carried out the exploration of the wholeness of human beings and formed her own writing styles.In O Pioneers!, Cather's woman character Alexandra Bergson, who is not limited to the conventional roles as wife and mother, is constantly engaged in the search for her female identity in a male-dominated society. The intention of this thesis is to analyze comprehensively the protagonist Alexandra in the novel by womanist approach so as to reveal themes concerning female experience.This thesis is composed of three chapters. Chapter I is about Alexandra's search for self-recognition in both social life and emotional life. Chapter II is studying the process of her striving for independence. With her great efforts Alexandra attains finally not only spiritual independence but also economic independence. Chapter III discusses the heroine's search for potential wholeness. After many sufferings Alexandra overcomes the limitations in her personality and appears at the end of the novel sound and whole.Through the depiction of Alexandra's searching for self-identity and self-fulfillment and struggling to achieve a sense of wholeness, Willa Cather created successfully one powerful and heroic woman image, implying her dissatisfaction with women's low status in the society and showing her ideal femininity.