earticle

영어

O Pioneers!, the first novel in Cather's renowned “prairie novels,” is a portrait of the relentless efforts of a female pioneer to cultivate the rich, forbidding Midwestern prairie and convert it into a fertile farmland in the novel. Cather does not explore a human-centered development of nature, but a nature-centered one. She depicts Alexandra as a truly ecological heroine. The character comes to realize the “self,” cares for others, and harmonizes with nature through an ecological relationship with nature. Crazy Ivar who biocentric Alexandra cares for lives himself with nature as a “deep ecologist”. Cather attempts to find a solution to the environmental destruction and ecological crisis of modern society, and takes nature as an element of an eco-vision. At the same time, she suggests the possibility of coexistence between humans and nature, even in a modern materialistic society. And furthermore, Cather explores a way of life that is harmonized with nature and the earth by restoring the primitive power of life, and also provides a completely new model for tackling the present questions of the worldwide ecological crisis.