Character Analysis
In some ways, the character of John Bergson dominates the whole of O Pioneers! And yet, he's dead before the start of Part 2. Well, that's nothing new—Shakespeare's got something similar going on in Hamlet. And there's definitely something a little ghostly about that portrait of John Bergson hanging in Alexandra's house… (Check out "Symbols" for more!)
Anyway, the point is that John Bergson doesn't really do a whole lot, other than die (in Part 1, no less). Most of what we know about him is reported to us by the narrator, or by Alexandra, in conversation with other people. Well, he does speak at least one time, when he calls Alexandra and her brothers over to his deathbed, to tell them not to ditch the land. And before this, the narrator goes into his head and runs through his thoughts on life.
So what kinds of things does John Bergson think about?
Well, first he reviews his life. His father, back in Sweden, made a fortune for himself as a shipbuilder, but squandered it all on a woman. (In that way, he reminds us a lot of Emil.) So, with nothing coming to him from that end of the family, John took his family to the New World. But, while he has the "Old World belief" that land is good no matter where you get it, he's struggled to make it in the unforgiving prairielands (1.2.5). Up until his dying day, he sees the land as a great "enigma." But hey, at least he passed it onto our girl Alexandra. Someone in this family has got to know what they're doing.