![]() ![]() ![]() This is partly due to her novel Death Comes for the Archbishop, which dwells on Catholic themes in a Catholic context. I know many who mistakenly believe Willa Cather was Catholic. Cather does not criticize those who lose their culture, but the reader can almost hear her sigh at the inevitable homogeneity that evens out the richness of the various cultures. Having just finished Kristin Lavransdatter, a modern novel of 14 th century Norway, it is hard to believe that O Pioneers! takes place five centuries later on the other side of the world. ![]() The more charming characters are those who keep something of the old country, whether it is the old grandmother who only speaks Swedish and is afraid to use the bath tub, or the barefoot horse doctor who has vision and spells but is perfectly harmless. As the novel goes on, some of the character become more “American”: only speaking English at home, leaving customs aside that attract the neighbors’ attention, and always seeking out the latest must-have invention or fad. She portrays not just Swedish people and customs, but also the neighboring Bohemian, French and Germans immigrants. It centers on a Swedish family migrating to Nebraska at the turn of the century, and their struggles and triumphs, with the land and with the neighbors that surround them. O Pioneers! is the first volume of the Great Plains trilogy by Willa Cather. I believe there is a good deal of the cow in most Swedish girls.” “Now that I think of it, most of my girls have married men they were afraid of. ![]()
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