Allusions To Other Works
- Marie is first described as being dressed as a Kate Greenaway character would be.
- In the first chapter, the children are said to be reading Hans Christian Andersen and "the Swiss family Robinson".
- In the fourth chapter, Alexandra is said to like to read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poetry.
- Many copies of the book are accompanied with the poem, "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" by Walt Whitman, which is said to be where the title comes from.
- The romance between Emil and Marie and their death alludes to the similarly tragic lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe, from Ovid's book Metamorphoses. Clear evidence of this occurs on page 173 where "the white mulberries...were covered with a dark stain", directly corresponding to Ovid: nam color in pomo est.
Read more about this topic: O Pioneers!
Famous quotes containing the word works:
“They commonly celebrate those beaches only which have a hotel on them, not those which have a humane house alone. But I wished to see that seashore where man’s works are wrecks; to put up at the true Atlantic House, where the ocean is land-lord as well as sea-lord, and comes ashore without a wharf for the landing; where the crumbling land is the only invalid, or at best is but dry land, and that is all you can say of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)