Lured into Love

In the novel O Pioneers!, Willa Cather introduces Marie into the story as the center of attention. By foreshadowing in the beginning of the novel her attraction to everyone around her, one can clearly see how the problems to come have a firm foundation leading to the problems with Marie and her affection towards a common soul, man or woman, and the affect it has on her relationship.

From a common standpoint, anyone could see the affect Marie had on the people around her. The energetic, bubbly, affectionate emotions, in which she had inside, led one to believe that she was always happy. Her concealment of her relationship with Frank Shabata and the happenings at home was extraordinary. The dealings with her and her husband will be later found out, by Alexandra, who suddenly realizes that Marie isn't at all happy with her life. Alexandra also doesn't know the fact that she is making Marie's life harder, day by day. The foreshadowing of this situation, allows the reader to endure the problem in a bird's eye form. Her force on Marie, is a very crucial standpoint in the plot of this novel. Her dedication to the farm, allows herself to become wrapped up in the thought of perfection, therefore letting situations outside the farm escalate.

As quoted from page 112, "Frank was the only one, Alexandra told herself, for whom anything could be done. He had been less in the wrong than any of them, and he was paying the heaviest penalty. She often felt that she herself has been more to blame than poor frank. From the time the Shabatas has first moved to the neighboring farm, she had omitted no opportunity of throwing Marie and Emil together." the reader now knows that Alexandra has no time for the land and no time for anything else but to mourn and began to evaluate the process of how this could have happened. She now understood the affect she had on Marie and Emil. The daily jobs Emil would perform for Marie, the get-togethers with the Shabatas, the visits, the fairs, the overall pioneer life. Everything now began to fit like a puzzle, as to Alexandra's feelings. She felt horrid. Due to Marie's attraction to a person, she had to pay the price. Everyone she met, adored and cared for her, and Emil felt very strong in his love for Marie. The struggle that Marie had to push out of her mind, constantly, was falling in love with someone, while still under a vow, a wedding vow. It made it hard