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O
Pioneers Study
Guide
A Viewing Guide
for the 1992 Hallmark Film
Summer
1900
29.
What happens when the lights go out at the church festival?
30.
What does Frank go looking for after the lights come back on?
What does he find?
31.
What happens to Emil’s best friend, Amedee Chevalier?
Why might this make Emil think about “snatching happiness”
32.
A procession of men in the area are riding to the crossroads to meet the
church bishop coming for a rare visit. They will welcome him and escort him to the church.
Why does Emil go with them?
33.
Where does Emil find Marie? What
happens?
34.
Frank returns home and spots Emil’s horse.
What does Frank look for in the house?
35.
What do you think Frank sees from the upstairs window?
36.
Frank grabs a gun and does what?
37.
What does Frank Shabata do after he uses the gun?
38.
What does Ivar say when he finds
Marie and Emil?
Fall
1900
39.
Why does Alexandra decide to visit the prison at Lincoln, Nebraska?
40.
Why does Alexandra blame herself for what happened?
41.
‘Forgiveness heals. Blame keeps
hurts open.’ What is Ivar thinking when
he says this?
42.
What does Frank say as soon as he sees Alexandra?
43.
Why does Frank ask, “You can’t trap a free little bird, can you?”
44.
Why is Alexandra going to work to get Frank pardoned by the governor?
45.
When Alexandra arrives home, who is there to greet her ?
Why is he there?
46.
Will Alexandra ever leave Nebraska? Why? Will she
return?
47.
Why might Alexandra draw comfort from her words, “We come and go, but
the land is always here”?
48.
Why does Alexandra say, “I think when friends marry, they are safe.”
Do you agree?
49.
Ivar is portrayed as being a spiritual guide of sorts in the story.
Look at question #11 and its answer.
How do those words foreshadow later events?
Cather
published the story in 1913, but the novel’s setting is the 1890s in Nebraska.
The vast land offers possibility and peril for the pioneer settlers who
tackled the prairie and tamed it into rich farmland.
Elements
to look for in O Pioneers!:
·
Naturalism
and Realism:
patterns - seasons, romances, life and death, images
metaphors - birds, the land
Themes:
* carving an
identity/forging a nation
* the life cycle—hardness
of life
* romance/love—are we
destined to be with certain people?
* the land as a powerful
natural force that demands its own way
Structure:
watch for time shifts
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