1.  Think about the roles played by some of the men in this novel--Emil Bergson and Frank Shabata, but also more minor characters like Crazy Ivar and John Bergson.  What can you say about their relationships with women?  Their relationships with the land?  How do these men's capacities for relationships differ from those of the female characters, particularly Alexandra and Marie Shabata?

2.  What do you make of Alexandra's resolution, late in the novel, to forgive Frank Shabata and to petition for his official pardon?  How does this decision reflect on Alexandra's, and the novel's, attitude toward sin and responsibility?

3.  The physical terrain of the Nebraska prairie plays a tremendously important role in this novel.  Think about the relationship between the land and its settlers, and compare how different characters interpret the same landscape in very different ways. 

4.  The 1890s, the decade in which much of O Pioneers! is set, was a politically tumultuous time for the American West.  How does this novel portray politics?  How are the larger movements in American history and culture reflected in the microcosm of Hanover, Nebraska?  What does this suggest about reading O Pioneers! as an important social and cultural novel?

5.  How clearly can you distinguish between the narrative perspective and Alexandra's own perspective?  What is the attitude of the narrative voice toward Alexandra?  Does the narrative voice ever disapprove of her? 

6.  What is the novel's attitude toward religion and God?  Think both of the novel's portrayals of organized religion, such as the bishop's coming to confirm local Catholic youths, and any instances of non-organized or informal religion or faith.  What, for example, is the role of Crazy Ivar's religious beliefs?  Consider both the social and the moral functions of religion and faith.

7.  "Isn't it queer," ponders Carl Lindstrum, "there are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves."  At the end of the novel, Alexandra finally responds to this idea: "You remember what you once said about the graveyard, and the old story writing itself over?  Only it is we who write it, with the best we have."  What opinions about human agency and historical forces are being expressed here?  How do they relate to one another?  How do they relate to Alexandra's life story, and to the story of the settling of the West?