Cather’s statements regarding love in this portion of the book are extremely pessimistic. The entire novel is filled with failed or unfulfilling marriages between mismatched individuals, and when ‘true’ couples emerges, Emil and Maria or Amedee and Angelique, their stories end in tragedy. Perhaps Cather is attempting to normalize or support Alexandra’s decision to remain single, or perhaps Cather is shedding a light on her own opinions about love. Nevertheless, Alexandra is now facing a new challenge- the loss of her compass, Emil, for it was he that she worked for all these years. Will we see her return from his devastating death as she has dealt with other struggles in the past?
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I completely agree with your point about Cather’s portrayal of love and marriage in O Pioneers. Given the way in which the chapter ending (we are not shown Alexandra finding Emil and Marie), I am also interested to see her reaction to the tragedy, especially in her relationship to Frank. Of course this will be a huge blow to her, as the loss of Emil means the loss of her “project” and her incentive to continued success. It seems to me she would try to fill that void, possibly by rekindling her relationship with her brothers? With Carl? It’ll be interesting to see how the book ends.