Points of View

One of the most compelling things about O Pioneers! is the way Cather can write from different characters' points of view. Although much of the novel is about Alexandra, the reader also comes to understand the others in the book just as well. Even Frank Shabata, the murderer, gets a chance to express his thinking and motivations. Cather delves so deeply into the thoughts of a dying farmer, a lovesick young man, a frustrated married woman, an insane hermit and others that all their points of view are recorded. The reader understands why the farmer trusts his daughter more than his sons with his property, why the young man risks everything for an impossible love, why a woman hates her own marriage and why a hermit won't wear shoes. If the author had not recorded the thoughts of her characters so deeply, their actions would not...