A common theme throughout American Literature is that strong women characters end up either dead or being punished and Willa Cather is able to break that mold in her novel O Pioneers!. Willa Cather was aware of how women are being viewed in society and portrayed within the popular texts of the time. In the introduction to O Pioneers! true womanhood is described by Barbara Welters as "purity, piety, submissiveness and domesticity" and this was common conception throughout society. (Cather, xii) Alexandra is a character who seemingly defies those stereotypes and Willa Cather uses her as a model for what a woman could become.
The passage I chose from O Pioneers! is right near the beginning of the novel on page ten and that point is the reader's first introduction with Alexandra. Nearly every characteristic used by Cather to describe Alexandra is masculine and has striking comparisons to her male counterpart. The first sentence introduces Alexandra as "tall", "strong", and walking "rapidly". (Cather, 10) These are all generally traits that men have yet Willa Cather makes a point to immediately associate Alexandra with them. This is an attempt by Willa Cather to create a character that she can manifest her own egalitarian beliefs. The male comparisons extend beyond Alexandra's physical characteristics of but to her everyday attire.
Cather describes Alexandra by saying "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 solder)". (Cather, 10) In that day a Woman would never choose to wear an ulster on their personal accord. Willa Cather made it clear that it was Alexandra's choice by saying it was no "affliction" and that she was "comfortable" in it despite the lack of femininity a baggy woolen coat would provide.
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