How Does Alexandra's Character Change Throughout The Novel

In the novel O Pioneers!, Willa Cather creates characters that are very realistic and believable. Cather uses many different strategies to make her characters believable. One strategy that Cather uses is developing the characters well from the early stages of the novel. From the very beginning of the novel, we see Emil as a somewhat hopeless character when he is unable to get his cat down from a tree. We see Carl as "the guy next door," who may end up having a romantic interest in Alexandra. We see Marie as an attractive and flirtatious character who draws the attention of men. Cather begins developing all of these characters in just a few pages, but the reader's first impressions of the characters remain true throughout the novel. Emil ends

As the protagonist, much of the story is centered around Alexandra. Because of this, Alexandra is the most developed and three-dimensional character in the book. We see many sides of Alexandra, but something that is apparent early in the novel is that she is a strong character. One of Alexandra's strengths in the novel is her toughness. Even from her physical description early in the story, Alexandra is shown as a tom-boy. "She wore a man's long ulster (not as if it were an affliction, but as if it were very comfortable and belonged to her; carried it like a young soldier), and a round plush cap, tied down with a thick veil" (Cather 2). Cather even makes a point of saying how comfortably Alexandra wears the cap, showing the reader that Alexandra likely is more comfortable when she feels a tough, like a soldier. Not only is Alexandra's appearance tough, but she also displays undeniable acts of toughness and fortitude throughout the story. During Alexandra's argument with her brothers, Lou and Oscar, she stands strong and fights for what she believes. Lou and Oscar may be jealous of Alexandra's success, and they are worried that they will lose their place on the property if Alexandra marries Carl. They suggest that Alexandra should not just be "taking care of" Carl, because in that time, a woman taking care of a man was almost unheard of. Alexandra responds, "Well, suppose I want to take care of him? Whose

Alexandra is has a lot of strength and resolve through the low points in the story, and also stays calm in the high points of the story. At perhaps her highest point in the story, she is extremely composed and keeps doing what she was doing before. After her farm begins to grow, she is having a conversation where she says, "We hadn't any of us much to do with it, Carl. The land did it. It had its little joke. It pretended to be poor because nobody knew how to work it right; and then, all at once, it worked itself. It woke up out of its sleep and stretched itself, and it was so big, so rich, that we suddenly found we were rich, just from sitting still" (Cather 45). Of course the land didn't just grow itself, and it was Alexandra's farming genius that actually made the land grow, but she gives all the credit to the land and continues to farm it as she was before, never getting too excited. At her lowest points, Alexandra doesn't change either. When Marie and Emil, who she has cared for her entire life, are murdered at the end of the story, Alexandra doesn't over react of completely change like some would, but instead she stays the same character we grown to know through the story. She continues to farm her land and still has feelings for Carl, and eventually resolves to marry him. Other consistencies of Alexandra include her respect and