Darren Felty is a Visiting Instructor at the College of Charleston. In the following essay, he explores O. E. Rolvaag's characterization of the Dakota plains settlers and the internal and external conflicts that ultimately determine their fate.

After publishing the English version of Giants in the Earth in 1927, O. E. Rolvaag was praised by many critics for helping to redefine the novel of the American frontier Originally written in Norwegian and translated by Rolvaag and Lincoln Colcord, the novel dramatizes the vast opportunity the Western plains offered to those daring enough to settle it, but, unlike former plains novels, it does not over romanticize this settlement. Instead, Rolvaag details the harshness of life on the frontier and the destructive effects it had on both the weak and the hearty. Revolving around the conflict between Per Hansa and his wife Beret, who hold widely divergent views on American...