O Pioneers! | Quotes

This passage describes Alexandra's strength of character. She is still a young woman, and her father is dying. She is preparing herself to face both her father's death and the task of keeping the farm going, which will fall to her when her father dies.

The narrator describes five-year-old Emil Bergson, who is a sensitive and shy country boy. This brief description is also revealing because, later, Emil will go to college and try to become a city boy himself; he has one foot in each world.

This passage describes something about Ivar's character—he is a wild man who lives peacefully and purely in harmony with nature—that connects to the major ideas about the relationship between humans and nature in the novel. Unlike other humans, Ivar doesn't change his environment to suit himself but, instead, creates a home natural to his environment.

Alexandra has vision and imagination and is capable of living creatively. She is open to new ideas and trying new things, which makes her successful.

Carl Linstrum feels he's never really been able to do anything for Alexandra Bergson, but she tells him it's his friendship and love—things that are intangible—that help her the most. Their deep-rooted, slow-developing relationship carries the friendship and love theme in the novel.

Although Alexandra Bergson is not emotional or sentimental, her first sight of the Nebraska plains inspires in her feelings of deep and enduring love. Because she loves the land, she will settle there, and history will begin.

Alexandra is more connected with nature and with the land than she is with housekeeping. The structure of her house is something practical, but her heart is invested in her land.

Ivar speaks to Alexandra Bergson when he is worried about being locked up in an asylum. He is telling her that most people don't understand or like him because he is different. Alexandra appreciates his differences and his connection to nature and animals.

Carl Linstrum has come from New York City to visit Alexandra Bergson in Nebraska. Alexandra insists he is lucky to be free, but Carl feels his freedom has come with a price. Both characters will ultimately realize that love and companionship between human beings is vital to having a good, meaningful life.

Alexandra Bergson is speaking figuratively of the type of "rent" the settlers of the plains pay as opposed to the literal and expensive rent those living in the city pay. She means there is an emotional and intellectual price to pay for living in the countryside.

Oscar Bergson and Lou Bergson show their true colors as they try to convince Alexandra Bergson that she doesn't have the right to do what she wants with her land because she is a woman. They claim to have done all the work over the years on the land, when in actuality Alexandra made the farm more prosperous after they had already divided the land.

Emil Bergson is in a heightened state of epiphany and awareness, going to see Marie Shabata. He has a revelation in the church that leaves him feeling charged, wild, and immortal.

Alexandra Bergson is coming from sitting in the rain by Emil Bergson's grave. She is heartbroken and feels disconnected from living.

Alexandra Bergson talks to Carl Linstrum about who will inherit her land when she dies, and they have a moment of taking in their own impermanence. She acknowledges that the human ownership of land is a temporary thing.

Now older and wiser, Alexandra Bergson is speaking with Carl Linstrum and looking back on an old conversation they had when they were younger and had not yet learned as much about life.