Immigration and O' Pioneers!

The basis for Willa Cather's novel, O' Pioneers!, is that of Norwegian and Swedish immigration to the United States in the 19th and 20th Centuries. The main characters of the novel, the Bergson family and their community, are struggling Swedish farmers in the state of Nebraska. For the purposes of a contextual discussion, the Bergsons and their community will be grouped as "Scandinavian" because typically these communities were composed of both Swedish and Norwegian immigrants.

Immigrants came to America to escape religious persecution of the Lutheran Church and to make fortunes through land ownership---one of the typical ideas of manifesting destiny in the "American Dream." John Bergson, Alexandra's father, is an example of such an immigrant. Cather's narrator describes the typical struggle for such a man, "In eleven long years, John Bergson had made but little impression on the wild land he came to tame. It was still a wild thing that had its ugly moods; and no one knew when they were likely to come, or why" (Cather 20). The land is described as a living organism with "moods" that the people that struggle to farm it have to endure as they would that of animals or organisms.

The violence of nature that settlers had to endure on the Western frontier was extreme. One Norwegian immigrant, Jon Torstein-Rue, used his knowledge of the Old World and applied to the difficulty of his New World. Torstein-Rue made and used skis to carry the mail in the harsh climates and over the Sierra Nevada mountains when no one else could do it (“Norwegian immigrants”). In the novel, the narrator describes Bergson's costs at the violent climate, “One winter his cattle perished in a blizzard,” (Cather 20).

Despite the hardships of the new land, many immigrants sought out their fortunes. One website reported that, “Between 1820 and 1920 over 730,000 people emigrated from Norway to the United States,” (“Norwegian immigrants). Carl Wittke writes that, “The Norwegians are a strong, resolute, stubborn people. Practically all are Lutherans, and combine a Lutheran piety and sense of duty with a strong desire for material advancement. They are thrifty and eager to acquire a homestead (“Norwegian...”).” This description of the Norwegian resolve, strength and stubbornness could easily fit the description of Alexandra, the novel's protagonist and matriarch. Cather writes that when Alexandra read on Sundays, “Her mind was slow, truthful, steadfast. She had not the least spark of cleverness,” (Cather 61). While the quote could be interpreted as derogatory, Cather alludes to the resolve and steadiness that Alexandra possesses that allows her to “plow through” the difficulties of farming on the frontier.

When Alexandra's brothers want to quit farming and move, Alexandra convinces them to stay. Alexandra asks her mother to tell them of the conditions that her family endured when they first moved here, perhaps to inspire more resolve into her brothers. Alexandra asks her mother, “Was it really as bad as this, or not?” She answers, “Oh, worse! Much worse!” Mrs. Bergson goes on to say that there were “Drouth, chince-bugs, hail....people lived just like coyotes,” (Cather 60).

The struggle that Scandinavian settlers, like that of the fictional Bergsons, went through on the Western frontier was amazing and helped carve an America that more closely resembled the mythic American Dream.





Works Cited

Cather, Willa. O' Pioneers! Random House: New York, 1992.

"Norwegian immigration to the U.S."
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAEnorway.htm Accessed 1/20/10

"Swedish immigration to the U.S."
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAEsweden.htm Accessed 1/20/10