The Emigrants (3 page)

Even Karl Oskar’s material success is tainted. First, he never fully understands the emotional impact of his leaving his own aged parents in Sweden. By the same token, he is slow to grasp the irony of his statement to Kristina that his children one day will thank him for taking them to America, when in fact they grow up to marry into other ethnic groups and leave Karl Oskar behind much as he had left his own parents. Furthermore it is ironic that the period of Karl Oskar’s rising prosperity on his Minnesota farm corresponds to the general time of Kristina’s death. It is after Kristina’s passing that Karl Oskar seals his fate by questioning God for the second time in his life.

In addition, it bears mentioning that a recurring motif in Moberg’s nonfiction writings was his admiration for the spirit of enterprise he saw in Americans. Yet he was equally as shocked by what he perceived as their callous individualism and lack of sympathy for the less fortunate in society.
¹⁸
No character better embodies these traits than Karl Oskar, whose qualities of diligence and practicality are counterbalanced by his impatience with and lack of understanding for Robert, the incurable dreamer. Karl Oskar is also skeptical about Native Americans because he considers them lazy.

The Emigrant Novels should be seen, in short, in their full realistic light. They are stories of blighted hopes as much as of personal fulfillment. Of all Moberg’s characters, only Ulrika and Jonas Petter gain a kind of lasting happiness. Most of the others (from Inga-Lena to Kristina) succumb soon after their arrival here or long before their time. In the end, Karl Oskar remains, old and lonely, residing in Minnesota in body only.

Moberg saw at firsthand the difficulty of ever totally adapting to a new culture. He remained forever Swedish, perhaps despite himself. And in his novels he dramatized the problems of adaptation. Still, more than any other Swedish writer he succeeded in bridging the gap between the Old and New Worlds, between Sweden and Minnesota. The great resurgence of ethnic interest among Swedish Americans and their relatives in Sweden, which began in the 1950s and 1960s, was triggered largely by the Emigrant Novels.

Moberg strove to debunk the old heroic myths of Swedish history. But in his tales of the immigrants to Minnesota, he succeeded in his own right in creating a significant popular image. The figures of Karl Oskar and Kristina, the ultimate commonfolk, speak so powerfully to our imagination that they assume a dimension larger than life. Like many other contrasts in his life, this ironic twist would have hit home with Vilhelm Moberg and appealed to his literary sensibility.

Moberg’s writing style has been a subject of discussion since the 1960s when critic Gunnar Brandell denied him a place among the great creative artists of modern Swedish literature. According to Brandell, Moberg wrote a solid everyday prose that did not adequately express shades of difference or depict characters in sufficient depth. Moberg lacked “lyrical resources,” Brandell concluded.
¹⁹

Since that time several writers have defended Moberg’s writing style. Gunnar Heldén pointed out Moberg’s strengths in dealing with three central motifs in classic lyricism: nature, love, and death.
²⁰
Sven Delblanc described Moberg’s prose style as
en poesi i sak,
that is, a style that pays steady attention to small details, thus creating a harmony and poetry of everyday life without reliance on the neat turning of phrases or on striking images.
²¹
Finally, Philip Holmes explained Moberg’s use of alliteration, phrase-pairs, and repetition in his prose. These devices allowed Moberg to slow his narrative tempo and to strive “for clarity and fullness of expression.”
²²

Holmes described the Old Testament and the medieval Swedish laws as major influences on Moberg’s writing style. Moberg strove in his prose to produce the thought patterns of rural people from the nineteenth century. Although unlettered, these people were confronted with and forced to sort out a new world of impressions and complicated emotions. Moberg’s task was to give a realistic voice to his characters. His success in finding this voice speaks for his creativity.

Roger McKnight

Gustavus Adolphus College

NOTES

1
. Magnus von Platen,
Den unge Vilhelm Moberg. En levnadsteckning
(Stockholm: Bonniers, 1978), 310.

2
. Vilhelm Moberg, “Där jag sprang barfota,”
Berättelser ur min levnad
(Stockholm: Bonniers, 1968), 29–46.

3
. Von Platen,
Den unge Vilhelm Moberg,
9.

4
. Moberg, “Från kolbitar till skrivmaskin,”
Berättelser ur min levnad,
119.

5
. Moberg, “Romanen om utvandrarromanen,”
Berättelser ur min levnad,
292.

6
. Moberg, “Romanen om utvandrarromanen,” 293, 298.

7
. Moberg, “Romanen om utvandrarromanen,” 294. For similar comments in English, see: Moberg, “Why I Wrote the Novel About Swedish Emigrants,”
Swedish Pioneer Historical Quarterly
17 (Apr. 1966): 63.

8
. Gunnar Eidevall,
Vilhelm Mobergs emigrantepos
(Stockholm: Norstedts, 1974), 19–20.

9
. For discussions of Moberg’s research methods, see Philip Holmes,
Vilhelm Moberg
(Boston: Twayne, 1980), 110–32; Ingrid Johanson, “Vilhelm Moberg As We Knew Him,”
Bulletin of the American Swedish Institute
(Minneapolis), no. 11 (1956); Bertil Hulenvik,
Utvandrarromanens källor: Förteckning över Vilhelm Mobergs samling av källmaterial,
ed. Ulf Beijbom (Växjö: House of Emigrants, 1972).

10
. Don Josè [pseud.], “Vilhelm Mobergs amerikabagage nära att gå till Europahjälpen,”
Svenska Dagbladet,
June 4, 1948, p. 11.

11
. Sven Åhman, “Vilhelm Moberg ser på USA,”
Nordstjernan,
May 26, 1949.

12
. Gustaf Lannestock,
Vilhelm Moberg i Amerika
(Stockholm: Zindermans, 1977), 36. Much of our knowledge of Moberg’s life in America is derived from the two men’s correspondence and from this volume.

13
. For works in English detailing Mobergs impressions of America, see Moberg,
The Unknown Swedes: A Book About Sweden and America, Past and Present,
ed. and trans. Roger McKnight (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1988); McKnight, “The New Columbus: Vilhelm Moberg Confronts American Society,”
Scandinavian Studies 64
(Summer 1992): 356—88. Moberg expressed many of his opinions in letters to Lannestock; these letters are now in the House of Emigrants in Växjö, Sweden, and are referred to in “The New Columbus.” See also Lannestock,
Vilhelm Moberg i Amerika
(in Swedish). My comments here and five paragraphs below are based on these works.

14
. Moberg,
Min svenska historia
(Stockholm: Norstedts, 1971), 1:14.

15
. Sigvard Mårtensson,
Vilhelm Moberg
(Stockholm: Bonniers, 1956), 202.

16
. Sven Delblanc, “Den omöjliga flykten,”
Bonniers litterära magasin
42, no. 6 (Dec. 1973), 267.

17
. Rochelle Wright, “Vilhelm Moberg’s Image of America,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 1975), 34—40.

18
. McKnight, “The New Columbus,” 384.

19
. Gunnar Brandell,
Svensk Litteratur 1900–1950: Realism och Symbolism
(Stockholm: Förlaget Örnkrona, 1958), 261.

20
. Gunnar Heldén, “Vilhelm Mobergs lyriska resurser,”
Emigrationer: En bok till Vilhelm Moberg 20-8-1968
(Stockholm: Bonniers, 1968), 215–29.

21
. Delblanc, “Den omöjliga flykten,” 266.

22
. Holmes,
Vilhelm Moberg,
126.

Introduction to
The Emigrants

Begun in Sweden and completed in California, this first volume of the Emigrant Novels appeared in 1949 with the Swedish title
Utvandmrna.
It was published in English in 1951 as
The Emigrants.

Nineteenth-century Swedish emigration to America took place in three principal phases: individual, group, and mass migration. Group emigration was most common between 1845 and 1865 as powerful forces, so-called push factors, led many commoners to abandon Sweden. Typical push factors were famine and religious persecution. Most group emigration consisted of from fifteen to two hundred people who banded together to start farming or religious settlements in America.

Moberg’s first words say that
The Emigrants
is the tale of one such group. Aside from their general dissatisfaction, the individuals in this group have little in common, however. Instead each person is motivated by a different push factor: crop failure, persecution by the civil authorities, religious dissent, personal problems, social ostracism, and unfair employment practices. In this sense, the group from Ljuder parish represents a convenient imaginative microcosm of one era in Swedish emigration.

While Moberg carefully traced the background of each of the novel’s figures, he left no doubt as to the tale’s main character. Karl Oskar Nilsson has all the potential for material success on the American frontier. He is young, strong, hard-working, and knowledgeable about farming practices. Yet in defying his father and the local authorities in Sweden he becomes a marked man. When he later curses God, Karl Oskar is in disfavor with the Almighty as well.

In Robert and Kristina, Moberg presented foils to Karl Oskar. Robert’s daydreaming and his interest in books contrast to his older brother’s attention to practical detail. Kristina’s attachment to her home in Småland puts her ideas at serious odds with her husband’s firm belief in their American future.

The Emigrants
is a tightly woven story that met with immediate success in Sweden and America. Nevertheless troubles surrounded the book in the early years after its publication. A group of conservative Swedish educators, churchmen, and legislators objected to the vulgar language in the novel, especially the expressive idioms used by Ulrika. This group, led by an Uppsala writer named Ebbe Reuterdahl, also charged that Moberg’s novel slandered the good name of Smålandish emigrants.

Moberg returned to Sweden for a face-to-face confrontation with his critics. He argued that the realism of his narrative dictated the use of straight talk and believable characterization. During the ensuing “decency debate,” or “Reuterdahl feud” as it was known in Sweden, four thousand Swedes signed a petition against the novel. Moberg reported that one protester went so far as to burn the book in his furnace while singing the Swedish national anthem, “Du gamla, du fria” (The old and the free). Certain church groups in Swedish America joined the protest action.

By the mid-1950s the protest had run its course. Moberg noted that even Swedish church groups were among those present in Karlshamn, Sweden, in 1959 for the public unveiling of the statue of Karl Oskar and Kristina. A replica of that statue now stands in downtown Lindstrom, Minnesota.
¹

R. McK.

NOTE

1
. Moberg discussed this interlude at some length in “Romanen om utvandrarromanen,” 317–25. See also Ebbe Reuterdahl,
Vem har rätt? I litteraturfejden Moberg-Reuterdahl
(Uppsala: Författarens Förlag, 1951).

Bibliography for the Emigrant Novels

Compiled by Vilhelm Moberg

Pehr Kalm: En resa i Norra Amerika. I–III. (1753–1761.)

Carl Aug. Gosselman: Resa i Norra Amerika. (Stockholm 1835.)

Hans Mattson: Minnen. (Chicago 1890.)

Johan Bolin: Beskrifning öfwer Nord-Amerikas Förenta Stater. (Wexiö 1853.)

Ole Rynning: Beretning om Amerika. (Kristiania 1838.)

Gustaf Unonius: Minnen från en sjuttonårig vistelse i Nordvestra Amerika. I–II. (Uppsala 1862.)

Emeroy Johnson: Early Life of Eric Norelius. 1833–1862. (Rock Island 1934.)

Oscar N. Olsson: The Augustana Lutheran Church in America. Pioneer Period 1846–1860. (Rock Island 1934.)

N. Lindgren: Handlingar rörande åkianismen. (Wexiö 1867.)

E. Herlenius: Åkianismens historia. (Stockholm 1902.)

———. Erik Janseismens historia. (Stockholm 1900.)

M. A. Mikkelsen: The Bishop Hill Colony. (Chicago 1892.)

George M. Stephenson: The Religious Aspects of Swedish Immigration. (Minneapolis 1932.)

L. Landgren: Om Sectväsendet. (Härnösand 1878.)

Joh. Schröder: Vägvisare för Emigranter. (Stockholm 1868.)

H. Hörner: Nyaste Handbok för Utvandrare. (Stockholm 1868.)