2006. Many writers use a country setting to establish values within a work of literature. For example, the country may be a place of virtue and peace or one of primitivism and ignorance. Choose a novel or play in which such a setting plays a significant role. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the country setting functions in the work as a whole.

The world relies on farmers to provide nutrition for our people and materials for anything from clothes to cigarettes.  In the novel O Pioneers!, Alexandra Bergson, the protagonist, feels a connection to the frontier land she calls her home.  Willa Cather, the author, uses this connection to comment on Alexandra and, eventually, on marriage.

Willa Cather uses literary technique to establish a strong link between her main character and the country setting.  This is done partly through skillful use of diction.  Though the same exact words are not used to describe the woman and her land, Cather chooses words with similar connotations.  These words give the reader a sense of stability and strength, while remaining quiet and calm, all with a positive tone. Imagery is used in a similar fashion.  Cather paints a picture in her readers’ minds of rolling hills and trees waving gracefully in the breeze.  However, imagery further serves to make sure the reader knows the land is not weak.  It can be threatening when mistreated.  Cather shows through vivid description that the land, if it chooses, can wipe out an entire population by refusing to yield crops or giving a particularly harsh winter.  Alexandra is painted in the same way.  She is tall and serene, but will not stand for being crossed. 

The undeniable connection between Alexandra and the land serves as a commentary on all people.  Since the land and Alexandra have been connected in the reader’s mind, any way Cather describes the land or makes it act is automatically translated to Alexandra.  Since Cather thinks of the land and Alexandra well, naturally choices that this character makes are portrayed well. Alexandra chooses self-sufficiency.  She never marries, instead continuing to farm the land and expand her holdings.  Since we as readers like Alexandra, we see this as the right decision.

As Alexandra progresses through life, we see her encountering success, furthering our confirmation that the single, isolated life, living off the land, is the correct choice.  Around Alexandra, husbands and wives struggle, even resulting in the death of Emil, Alexandra’s beloved little brother.  Yet Alexandra, and her beloved country, stand strong.    Cather uses the country setting to show that marriage is not the fairy tale we are told as children.  Self-sufficiency through cultivation of the elegant and sturdy land or some more modern alternative is a much safer, and better, choice.