85 pages • 2 hours read
Willa CatherO Pioneers!
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1913A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Part 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 5: “Alexandra”
Part 5, Chapter 1 Summary
The narrative flashes forward three months. Signa is worried that she can’t find Alexandra during a storm, so Ivar rides off to find her. Alexandra is in the cemetery visiting her father’s grave. Alexandra tells Ivar that the rain comforts her because she envisions it nurturing her dead loved ones. Ivar assures her that Emil is in heaven, even though he privately doesn’t believe this.
Alexandra wishes to be free of pain. She decides to visit Frank in prison, where he is serving a 10-year sentence after giving himself up to the police in Omaha. Alexandra feels empathy for Frank:
[She] had grieved for him. He was in a strange country, he had no kinsmen or friends, and in a moment he had ruined his life. Being what he was, she felt, Frank could not have acted otherwise. She could understand his behavior more easily than she could understand Marie’s (103).
Alexandra never questioned Emil’s friendship with Marie because Marie was married, but now she realizes that she didn’t see Marie in her totality. After Emil’s funeral, she wrote a letter to Carl informing him about what had happened. Carl has yet to respond to the letter, which makes Alexandra feel even more resolved to live life on her own.
Part 5, Chapter 2 Summary
Alexandra visits the prison where Frank is serving his sentence. She tells the warden her story and asks him to take care of Frank. She meets with Frank and tells him that she believes her brother and Marie were more to blame than Frank. Alexandra notices that Frank has changed: “There was scarcely anything by which she could recognize her handsome Bohemian neighbor. He seemed, somehow, not altogether human. She did not know what to say to him” (107). Frank insists that he didn’t mean to kill anybody. Alexandra vows to petition for Frank’s release.
Alexandra receives a telegram from Carl informing her that he has arrived in Hanover.
Part 5, Chapter 3 Summary
Carl never received Alexandra’s letters but heard about the murder in an old newspaper. Carl explains to Alexandra that he will have to return to work eventually but that he wants her to join him. Alexandra reveals that Oscar and Lou blame her for Emil’s death; they accuse her of educating Emil so much that he acted immorally. This new conflict has freed Alexandra; she feels she can be with Carl without concerning herself with Oscar and Lou’s opinion.
Alexandra admits she blames Emil and Marie for what happened. Carl observes, “There are women who spread ruin around them through no fault of theirs, just by being too beautiful, too full of life and love. They can’t help it. People come to them as people go to a warm fire in winter” (110). Alexandra agrees to marry and travel with Carl but doesn’t want to leave Hanover forever; she is too much a part of the land, and the land is too much a part of her.
Part 5 Analysis
In the final three chapters of O Pioneers!, Cather provides a nearly happy ending for Alexandra as well as new angles to her characterization.
Alexandra feels sympathy for Frank and blames Marie and Emil for their own deaths (though she is sad that they are gone). This reaction reveals that Alexandra has internalized societal codes much more than the reader might imagine given her subversive characterization. Though Alexandra is not married, she holds marriage to as high a standard as other people in her community; she doesn’t blame Frank because Emil and Marie violated Marie’s marriage. Furthermore, Alexandra feels bad for Frank because he is an immigrant far from home and lives in a town where Marie is popular but where he is not well regarded. Alexandra believes Frank has sacrificed more for Marie than Marie ever did for him. This empathy comes from Alexandra’s own loneliness. As an immigrant herself, she can understand how that deepens Frank’s isolation. Her sympathy for Frank emphasizes how lonely she truly is; she relates more to Frank than to her beloved little brother or her best friend.
Forgiveness is the major sentiment of Part 5. Alexandra forgives Frank for killing Emil, and she forgives Carl for his absence during her time of need. Carl’s return is the closest Alexandra can come a happy ending. In Carl, Alexandra has a partner who respects, admires, and understands her. Though they decide to go away together, they plan to return eventually because Alexandra simply cannot be away from her land—it would be like being away from herself. Hanover is where her family is buried and where all her toils have turned into success, but Alexandra’s connection with her farm is deeper than any sense of security. Alexandra has always been in tune with nature, which is why she was able to farm the land when others failed to. Alexandra is the personification of the land, and the land is a reflection of Alexandra. Ultimately, no matter what happens to her or what losses she endures, Alexandra will always find fulfillment on her farm.
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