Returning To The Nebraska Prairie

As one of the foremost American women writers of the modern world, Willa Cather has exerted great impact on American literature. Her early life on Nebraska prairie has made her a nature-lover and this period of life is indispensable in the development of her ecological consciousness. The novel O Pioneers! is regarded as Cather's first novel of the frontier. Cather's genuine love for nature and her concern for the relationship between nature and pioneers are clearly expressed in the novel.Initially, this paper illustrates the self-expression of pioneers in the natural world. The prairie possesses a two-fold nature. When pioneers struggle to dominate it with violence and aggression, it is infertile, harsh and intimidating. When they treat it with deep love and care, the sleeping prairie is conjured into a prosperous Garden of Eden. Pioneers have their self-expression on the farmland of the prairie. As another form of self-expression, gardens are prevalent in Cather's works. Garden is a middle ground positioned between home and prairie. Their love for the garden reflects their genuine love for nature. Then it is pointed out that traditional views on nature and women are subverted in the novel. Under the pen of Cather, nature is depicted as a person rather than being mere background. Instead of being a home angel, the representative woman pioneer Alexandra becomes the proprietor of the farmland and finds her true self in nature. It is she who discovers the land's power and conjures up an Edenic farmland with her genuine love and creative force. The entire novel is imbued with the ideal pictures that human beings coexist harmoniously with nature. The harmony is displayed in the description of nature and characters.In Cather's imagined natural world, women traditionally debased as"the other"are striving for their own identity through their identification with nature. Both nature and women should be elevated from their debased status. In the process of fighting against the harshness of the prairie, pioneers realize that they are plain members of the entire ecosystem. Rather than controlling or dominating nature, they live in harmony with species surrounding them.