The Business of Farming in Willa Cather's O Pioneers!
Willa Sibert Cather was born in Virginia, December 7, 1873. At the age of nine, Cather’s family moved to Nebraska. Willa fell in love with the country, with the waste prairies of the Nebraska. In her life, Willa worked for different journals and magazines and received many honorary degrees, even the Pulitzer Prize. Her literary life was extremely influenced by her childhood in the wild country. In her life story, I actually didn’t find any trace of doing a business relative to farming, or running a farm on her own. Therefore she doesn’t seem to have practical experience with business of farming. Maybe that’s why she describes it in a general way only, without any particulars.
The Cather’s novel O Pioneers! gives us a realistic picture of people’s life at the end of the nineteenth century. The new incomers, who settled the unfriendly countries of American continent, had very hard times. It was necessary for them to do whatever they were able to, to earn some money or to gain something to eat. As we can see in Cather’s novel, many people were farming. But some of them were not farmers in their country of origin, they just started farming in the new home. Even though they knew nothing about it. Willa Cather describes a history of such people, a Norwegian immigrant family, the Bergsons.
The beginnings in the new world were very tough for the Bergson family. And the situation didn’t seem to get better. They have met several misfortunes that have held their farming business back.
„One winter his cattle had perished in a blizzard. The next summer one of his plow horses broke its leg in a prairie-dog hole and had to be shot. Another summer he lost his hogs from cholera, and a valuable stallion died from a rattlesnake bite. Time and again his crops had failed. He had lost two children, boys, that came between Lou and Emil, and there had been the cost of sickness and death“
This is Cather’s idea of what John Bergson had to fight against. It’s clear, that the whole family felt discouraged and helpless when there was no success coming. They saw many people around them selling their land and giving the farming up. They were going to find their fortune somewhere else. After John Bergson died, his sons also wanted to give up and change the hard work on the infertile land for some job in a town.
...n the trying time of the Great Migration. Students in particular can study this story and employ its principles to their other courses. Traditional character analysis would prove ineffective with this non-fiction because the people in this book are real; they are our ancestors. Isabel Wilkerson utilized varied scopes and extensive amounts of research to communicate a sense of reality that lifted the characters off the page. While she concentrated on three specifically, each of them served as an example of someone who left the south during different decades and with different inspirations. This unintentional mass migration has drastically changed and significantly improved society, our mindset, and our economics. This profound and influential book reveals history in addition to propelling the reader into a world that was once very different than the one we know today.
Mr. Allen also speaks in depth of the farmers. The Farmer’s Holiday occurred when Milo Reno organized Iowan farmers and got them to “refuse to bring food into Sioux City for thirty days, ‘or until the cost of production had been obtained” (86).
In the late nineteenth century, many European immigrants traveled to the United States in search of a better life and good fortune. The unskilled industries of the Eastern United States eagerly employed these men who were willing to work long hours for low wages just to earn their food and board. Among the most heavily recruiting industries were the railroads and the steel mills of Western Pennsylvania. Particularly in the steel mills, the working conditions for these immigrants were very dangerous. Many men lost their lives to these giant steel-making machines. The immigrants suffered the most and also worked the most hours for the least amount of money. Living conditions were also poor, and often these immigrants would barely have enough money and time to do anything but work, eat, and sleep. There was also a continuous struggle between the workers and the owners of the mills, the capitalists. The capitalists were a very small, elite group of rich men who held most of the wealth in their industries. Strikes broke out often, some ending in violence and death. Many workers had no political freedom or even a voice in the company that employed them. However, through all of these hardships, the immigrants continued their struggle for a better life.
... harsh and tragic. Similarly, Hodgins symbolizes a life full of hardships in Portuguese Creek with the death of Elizabeth, for she had been the only good thing that had come out of the war. The positives of the families and communities working together were ultimately overshadowed by the negativity of these same families and communities falling apart; only further showing readers that new beginnings are not a chance for a better life, but center stage for one that is worse.
In the years from 1860 through 1890, the prospect of a better life attracted nearly ten million immigrants who settled in cities around the United States. The growing number of industries produced demands for thousands of new workers and immigrants were seeking more economic opportunities. Most immigrants settled near each other’s own nationality and/or original village when in America.
Ganzel,Bill “farming in the 1930s” Wessels living history farms. 2003. Web. 19 Nov. 2013 http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/farminginthe1930s.html
A major drought, over-cultivation, and a country suffering from one of the greatest depressions in history are all it took to displace hundreds of thousands of Midwesterners and send them, and everything they had, out west. The Dust Bowl ruined crops all across the Great Plains region, crops that people depended on for survival. When no food could be grown and no money could be made, entire families, sometimes up to 8 people or more, packed up everything they had and began the journey to California, where it was rumored that jobs were in full supply. Without even closing the door behind them in some cases, these families left farms that had been with them for generations, only to end up in a foreign place where they were neither welcomed nor needed in great quantity. This would cause immense problems for their futures. It is these problems that author John Steinbeck spent a great deal of his time studying and documenting so that Americans could better understand the plight of these migrant farmers, otherwise known as "Okies." From touring many of these "Hoovervilles" and "Little Oklahomas" (pg. v) Steinbeck was given a firsthand look at the issues and hardships these migrant workers faced on a daily basis. With the help of Tom Collins, manager of a federal migrant labor camp, Steinbeck began a "personal and literary journey" (pg. v), revealing to the world the painful truth of these "Okies" in his book Harvest Gypsies.
Moving from the unpleasant life in the old country to America is a glorious moment for an immigrant family that is highlighted and told by many personal accounts over the course of history. Many people write about the long boat ride, seeing The Statue of Liberty and the “golden” lined streets of New York City and how it brought them hope and comfort that they too could be successful in American and make it their home. Few authors tend to highlight the social and political developments that they encountered in the new world and how it affected people’s identity and the community that they lived in. Authors from the literature that we read in class highlight these developments in the world around them, more particularly the struggles of assimilating
Cather, Willa. O Pioneers!. Eds. Susan J. Rosowski, Charles Mignon, and Kathleen Danker. The Willa Cather Scholarly Edition. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1992.
'For the first time, perhaps, since that land emerged from the waters of the geologic ages, a human face was set toward it with love and yearning'
The 1920’s were the singularly most influential years of farming in our country. The loss of farms following the war, and new agricultural practices resulted in the dawn of modern agriculture in our country. The shift from small family to big corporation during this time is now the basis for how our society deals with food today. Traditional farming in the 1920’s underwent a series of massive transitions following WWI as the number of farms decreased and the size of farms increased.
“I felt suddenly a stranger to all the present conditions of my existence, wholly ill at ease and out of place amid the surroundings of my study.” (Wagner, 654) When the United States is mentioned, there are a few places that immediately come to mind, places like Florida, Nevada, New York and California. There are a lot of places in the middle that often times tend to get left out, though the truth is that these places are the most important. Places like Nebraska and Wyoming are crucial pieces of the nation. Though these places are not necessarily the most popular, they are perhaps the most important. These states are like the common workers of the world, taking on tasks that no one else was willing to. These states are some of the most crucial pieces of the United States simply because they are full of people willing to do the work that all of the other far more glamorous states are not. This is something expertly depicted within Willa Cather’s text A Wagner Matinee, where Cather perfectly depicts just how much internal strength it takes to lead one of these lives. A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather shows the everyday struggle of individuals living all over the Midwestern area of the United States.
Another way that death and loss is evidenced by this novel is when Lennie killed Curley’s wife. When Lennie is in the barn (after killing his new puppy) Curley’s wife came into the barn and came on to Lennie. Lennie not knowing what was happening let her lull him into touching her hair. To Lennie it was like petting any other animal. Curley’s wife became flustered when Lennie became scared and would not let go of her hair. She started to scream and Lennie tried to cup her mouth, which concluded in him killing her. Lennie was truly remorseful after this action. Soon after killing her Lennie can be heard saying to himself, “I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing (121).”
Succeeding the traditional Norwegian migration patterns my Great Grandfather traveled from Norway to America. He arrived in New York then journeyed to Minnesota. My Great Grandfather stayed in Minnesota for the remaining of his life. As a young boy my Grandfather, Christian Olaf Johnson migrated from Minnesota to Karvel Colorado in the early 1900’s during the homestead era, and became a first generation homesteader. After living in Colorado for approximately 30 years, the Dust Bowl hit and due to the harsh effects that the drought had on their living conditions such as starvation my Grandfather made the decision to migrate to California, which is where my family is settled to this day.
Until the 1860s, the early immigrants not only wanted to come to America, but they also meticulously planned to come. These immigrants known as the “Old Immigrants” immigrated to America from many countries in Northern and Western Europe, known as, Sweden, Norway, Scandinavia, Wales and Ireland. Some of them traveled to Canada, but most of them came to the U.S. seeking freedom they didn’t get in their own countries. Ireland had also recently suffered through a potato famine, where the citizens were left poor and starving. Most settled in New York City and other large cities, where they worked in factories and other low-paying jobs. The immigrants caused a great increase in population in these areas. The “Old Immigrants” tried not to cluster themselves with others of their own nationality. They would mostly try to fit in with Americans as best as they could. Many of them had a plan to come to America, so they saved their money and resources before they arrived so they could have a chance at a better life. On the other hand, another group of immigrants began to arrive