O Pioneers!
by Willa Cather

O Pioneers!: Style 1 key example

Part 4, Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis:

The style of the novel is highly descriptive, emphasizing the way characters' lives are shaped by and represented in their surroundings. Figurative language (similes, metaphors, imagery) and minute details help not only characters but entire scenes come alive for the reader. For example, Frank is outside when he finds Marie and Emil sleeping together and shoots them in Part 4, Chapter 7:

Frank went slowly down to the orchard gate, stopped and stood for a moment lost in thought. He retraced his steps and looked through the barn and the hayloft. Then he went out to the road, where he took the footpath along the outside of the orchard hedge. The hedge was twice as tall as Frank himself, and so dense that one could see through it only by peering closely between the leaves. He could see the empty path a long way in the moonlight[...]