| Willa Cather (1873-1947) is one of the most significant American writers in the twentieth century, standing uniquely in modern American literature. She published twelve novels, two volumes of short stories, many essays and poems. Among her best known works are the "Nebraska Novels", including her masterpieces O Pioneers! and My Antonia, which manifest a mirror of the frontier's era.Cather is popular with both common and professional readers. The study on her has been thriving and many critics have analyzed her novels from different literary angles. This thesis takes the perspective of feminism to discuss the images of women as reflected in O Pioneers! and My Antonia. In the process of textual exploration, the heroines are interpreted, differing greatly from the weak and dependent women characters, to embody the pioneering spirit and heroic values as they are positioned at the center of the narrative of settlement.Chapter One mainly discusses the literary significance of feminism and its relation with Willa Cather's literary writing. Chapter Two and Chapter Three focus respectively on the two remarkable and impressive female protagonists, Alexandra in O Pioneers! and Antonia in My Antonia, who are independent, self-reliant, pursuing their freedom, their destiny, their happiness, and their self-value. In this sense, the two texts can be viewed as a whole, which suggestively indicates that Cather is reliving her own past through writing her books. Through a detailed analysis of the protagonists in the two novels, this thesis attempts to investigate Cather's sincere concern over women's predicaments as well as her unremitting efforts to undo women's predicaments.
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