Alexandra Bergson

Alexandra is the main character in O Pioneers! When the novel opens, she is a young girl of twenty, but already overly serious and emotionally strong for her age. She is the eldest of four children; the others are male. Her father wants her to take over the management of the farm when he dies because he realizes she is the most intelligent and capable of his children, even though he would prefer to give the leadership role to one of his sons.

Alexandra is extremely logical and practical in her thought but she can imaginative and innovative when it comes to business. She succeeds where others fail because she takes chances like putting in a new kind of crop and because she plunges ahead regardless of what people in her community think about her. Yet Alexandra has a mystical relationship with the land. Once she decides...