SOURCE: Harvey, Sally Peltier. “O Pioneers!” In Redefining the American Dream: The Novels of Willa Cather, pp. 33-41. Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1995.

In the following essay, Harvey discusses the concept of the American Dream and its role in Cather's O Pioneers!

The quest to define self that fails in Alexander's Bridge proves decidedly more successful in Cather's next three novels, O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and My Ántonia, all of which depict the American Dream in a more positive light. It is as if, after exploring what was not fulfilling in the American Dream, Cather, unwilling to reject it totally, manages a swing toward optimism. In these novels, she seems to seek out ways in which success might be fulfilling. Her protagonists all achieve some version of the standard dream, but they also gain a sense of self-fulfillment; in doing so, they seem to...