SOURCE: Moseley, Ann. “Mythic Reality: Structure and Theme in Cather's O Pioneers!” In Under the Sun: Myth and Realism in Western American Literature, pp. 92-105. Troy, N.Y.: The Whitston Publishing Co., 1985.

In the following essay, Moseley examines Cather's “mythorealistic” approach to her fiction in O Pioneers!

Willa Cather's own definition of realism recalls James's assertion that each writer must be granted his own donnée, for to her realism is “more than anything else an attitude of mind on the part of the writer toward his material, a vague indication of the sympathy and candour with which he accepts rather than chooses his theme.”¹ This definition also implies, however, Cather's non-traditional and perhaps non-Jamesian idea that there are powerful but unknown forces behind the author's choice of this donnée or theme. These forces—mythic, historical, and psychological in origin—combine to determine the writer's choice of...