Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Talk About Daddy Issues
As we discuss elsewhere (see Alexandra's "Character Analysis"), the figure of John Bergson continues to haunt his family, especially Alexandra, long after his death. Symbolically, he does this through the portrait of him that's left hanging in Alexandra's house.
First, let's review Bergson's story. (Also, take a look at his "Character Analysis.") John's father was a wealthy shipbuilder, and John would have been an heir to his fortune, if dad hadn't gone and squandered everything on a lady. This left John no choice but to take his wife and children to the New World.
Though John, as the narrator tells us, believes that "land, in itself, is desirable," he's met with a new land that's just plain harsh. He never manages to break its code. In fact, he dies trying. But that's not before he puts his daughter, Alexandra, in charge of keeping the land and the family together.
Alexandra spends much of her life trying to live up to her father's orders. In terms of keeping the land together, she succeeds beyond what he could ever have imagined. But when it comes to keeping her family together, she fails; she ends up estranged from her brothers, Lou and Oscar, and Emil ends up dead.
In the novel's conclusion, though, Alexandra is finally able to break free from the burden placed on her by her father, and begins to live her own life.
The Ghost of A Pioneer Past
Throughout the novel, it's John Bergson's portrait that continues to communicate the weight of this burden. Let's take a look at some examples.
When Carl is driven off by Lou and Oscar, and Emil leaves for Mexico, Alexandra really feels that she's failed her father:
Carl rose and looked up at the picture of John Bergson. "But I can't, my dear, I can't! I will go North at once. Instead of idling about in California all winter, I shall be getting my bearings up there. I won't waste another week. Be patient with me, Alexandra. Give me a year!"
"As you will," said Alexandra wearily. "All at once, in a single day, I lose everything; and I do not know why. Emil, too, is going away." Carl was still studying John Bergson's face and Alexandra's eyes followed his. "Yes," she said, "if he could have seen all that would come of the task he gave me, he would have been sorry. I hope he does not see me now. I hope that he is among the old people of his blood and country, and that tidings do not reach him from the New World." (2.12.10)
In this passage, both Carl and Alexandra seem to be pleading their cases before John Bergson. Carl admits his weakness, his inability to stand up to Lou and Oscar. Alexandra admits her failure to keep her family together.
In another instance, John Bergson's portrait acts like a mirror, showing Emil in the shadow of his dead father. Check it out:
[Emil] studied Alexandra's face for a long time in the lamplight. It had never occurred to him that his sister was a handsome woman until Marie Shabata had told him so. Indeed, he had never thought of her as being a woman at all, only a sister. As he studied her bent head, he looked up at the picture of John Bergson above the lamp. "No," he thought to himself, "she didn't get it there. I suppose I am more like that." (4.3.4)
Emil is just a kid when he father died. So it's safe to say that this portrait if just about the only way he has of knowing what his father looked like. Here, he begins to realize that he looks like his father, while his sister looks different, "handsome," but not like their dad.
This also lets us think that Emil has inherited more than just his looks from his father, but also his personality. In fact, this is something Alexandra herself notes, earlier on in the novel:
"It's curious, too; on the outside Emil is just like an American boy—he graduated from the State University in June, you know—but underneath he is more Swedish than any of us. Sometimes he is so like father that he frightens me; he is so violent in his feelings like that." (2.4.6)
In general, John Bergson's portrait is a reminder of the previous generation—the true pioneers, in the strict sense of the word. But its ghostly presence in the novel also lets us know that his generation has some unfinished business with the present one. In some cases, his demons come back to create problems. But in other cases, as with Alexandra, the burden of his legacy is lifted up and thrown off, making way for something new.