Farm Life: "The Octopus" and "O Pioneer"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how "The Octopus" and the "O Pioneer" serve as eye-openers for our social and economic status. It looks at how Cather's and Norris' works do not serve as merely entertainment; both serve as instigators of public-awareness, and concern for the environment. It discusses how both works show how powerful the influence of environment could be and how lessons are learned not only through people, or experiences, but by the little, ordinary factors that would greatly affect our very lives.

From the Paper:

"The protagonist of the story prospered because she heeded her father's wishes and respected the land. However, this accomplishment did not bring her any satisfaction. In the second part of the fourth chapter, Alexandra Bergson expressed her discontent with the seemingly hard toil. She argued that all her hard work would only amount to nothing if she could not give Emil the freedom to live the life he chose to live. It is only a great irony that Emil, granted with the freedom to live any kind of life he chose, was in his own way, unhappy. He yearns to be more than what he currently is. His desire lies beyond the frontiers of what he already has."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cather Willa O Pioneer Constant Reader.com. Retrieved Nov 29, 2006 from< http://www.constantreader.com/discussions/
• Cather Willa O Pioneer . Page by Page Books . Retrieved Nov 29, 2006 from http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Willa_Cather/O_Pioneers/
• Cather Willa O Pioneer. SPARKNOTES. Retrieved Nov 29, 2006 from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/opioneers/
• Norris, Frank . " Conclusion" . Literatureclassic.com. Retrieved Nov 30, 2006 from http://www.literatureclassic.com/conclusion/html.
• Norris, Frank "The Octopus". Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved Nov 30, 2006 from < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Octopus_(Frank_Norris)

More papers on Farm Life: "The Octopus" and "O Pioneer":

• Book Review # 101994 : "Human Relationships and the Land in "O Pioneers!"
• Book Review # 106664 : "The Octopus"
• Analytical Essay # 44895 : "The Structure of Symbolism in Poe and O'Connor"

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