This thesis examines pioneer women's seeking of the self from eco-feminist perspective in O Pioneer ! (1913) and My Antonia (1918) authored by Willa Cather, a foremost American novelist, short story writer, poet as well as a successful journalist, critic, and editor in history of the 20th century American literature. In novels such as O Pioneers! and My Antonia, Cather portrayed the lives of Old World immigrants, especially female immigrants, their struggle to survive, their spirit of fortitude

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... and self-reliance on the American Mid-western frontier. Cather's fame centers on her celebration of rural American in her time, especially Nebraska, and her nostalgia for pioneering values. As women in the pioneer times, face the problem of survival on the prairie, they dig into man's sphere-the land, and achieve the ideal of self-identity. The heroines in Cather's novels partly represent the real life of the pioneer women in American history. During the pioneering times in American history, that uncultivated land in American west and mid-west possessed a magic power which had attracted many people. Pioneer women hold positive attitudes towards their life and achieve self-fulfillment in the hard natural environment.