Translated from the Norwegian into English, O. E. Rolvaag's "Giants in the Earth" narrates the saga of pioneer life on the American prairies. It is a saga that has the sanction of official ideology and the authority of a religious edict: to go on an "errand into the wilderness," explore and subdue the frontier, which was the "basic conditioning factor" of American experience, and, in so doing, cultivate a new civilization. In this article the author looks at the novel's character, Beret, and her struggle for Americanization.