American Law In Willa Cather's O Pioneers

The "American Law" is an allusion Willa Cather used in the novel O Pioneers!. The women 's rights back in the early 1900s weren 't very good, compared to their rights currently. Also think about about why she used the Allusion "American Law", specifically women 's rights in the book. The American Law that was show in the book was about women 's rights. In the book it said “You don 't have to go if you don 't want to. A third of the place belongs to you by American law, and we can 't sell without your consent. We only want you to advise us. How did it use to be when you and father first came? Was it really as bad as this, or not” (Cather 114)? What this is telling us it that Mrs. Bergson doesn 't have to move because she owns one third of

Women couldn 't vote, until 1920 when the 19th amendment was passed . They couldn 't own a credit card in their name until 1974. Until about 1950, the ladies weren 't allowed to smoke in a public place. The women 's rights have drastically changed in the past 90 years. Now they can work if they are pregnant, and they can also work a forty hour weeks. They can serve in the Military, and also go to college! Now women can support their own family. (Crumrin) Cather used American Law in the novel O Pioneers! To show us that women had a few rights but very little. That told us it was very difficult without a male figure in the household. I also think she alluded to the American Law because she asked her mom on page 114, because she wanted to see if it was is this hard to live back in the 1800s. Alexandra wanted to find out if the women 's rights back then were better or worse. All in all, the women 's American Law made it really hard, but manageable because women had only a couple rights and freedoms during this time period. In these last couple of paragraphs We talked to you about the American Law, and why we thought Willa Cather used in as an allusion in the book O Pioneers! Wow! The women 's freedoms have drastically