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O Pioneers! by Willa Cather is the story of Alexandra Bergson, her family, and her community in Nebraska in the late 1800s. Their relationships to each other is tempered by the environment of the Great Plains. Hard times in the beginning of the book cause many to leave the community to try elsewhere, including Alexandra’s good friend Carl Linstrum. Alexandra's relationship to or with Carl provides much of the dramatic interplay of the story. Carl returns to Nebraska several years later when Alexandra is about forty years old to find that she has prospered on the plains, where he has not done so well elsewhere. Their friendship remains strong and there is talk about them marrying. Alexandra's brothers did not like the idea of a man taking advantage of Alexandra and taking the land out of the family. I find it interesting that in the society portrayed, a woman is allowed to prosper and make important decisions for a family; but when all is said and done, the land divided equally, the men still lay claim to what she has built over the years simply because they are men. The brothers convince Carl to leave and life on the plains continues. People in the community are married (Amedee) and buried (Emil, Alexandra's younger brother). It is this last that Carl reads in a newspaper and comes to see Alexandra. Estranged from her brothers and after many years of struggling to learn the land, Alexandra feels free to marry Carl and rest. O Pioneers! is a love story interwoven with the complexities and hardships of life on the Great Plains.