American Literature Henry Adams and Willa Cather

Willa Cather and Henry Adams

Willa Cather was seriously interested in the idea of what exactly makes a person a true artist. Her short stories including The Sculptor's Funeral revolve around this thesis as the author tries to unearth the true characteristics of a real artist. In her attempt to highlight the traits that makes an artist different from the rest of the herd, she examines the conflict between materialism and artistic aspirations that is the single most important factor affecting an artist's life and soul. " ... The story stands as one of Cather's most powerful treatments of the conflict between artistic ideals and materialistic value systems" (Arnold, 1077)

In this story, the author carefully highlights the true spirit of an artist in order to prove that without possessing such a spirit, the artist can ruin his own life thereby doing complete injustice to his artistic talents. Cather maintains that it is only when an artist accepts the fact that he would be misunderstood and that a larger majority of people wouldn't understand his passion for art, that he can rise above these considerations and achieve his artistic goals.

Cather makes it clear that conformity is the most dangerous force in the way of an artist, which must be defeated at all costs, or life of an artist ends in tragedy. Brown concurs: "The burden of 'The Sculptor's Funeral' is that even in death the artist cannot escape the harshness and hostility of his home surroundings where he is fated to be remembered as 'queer' because he never conformed, and because he fled to unfamiliar worlds undreamed of by his family and friends" (Brown 101).

The author achieves her purpose by creating two characters who are passionate about art with the only difference that one had the courage to leave the materialistic world while the other lacked such a spirit. As the result of this, Jim Laird becomes a tragic figure worthy of our pity while the Sculptor becomes a hero, a person we must look up to because he had the courage to follow his dreams without any monetary considerations. Cather believes that an artist shouldn't be concerned about monetary gains because his true purpose in life is to express himself through his art. Poupard asserts: "Cather's passionate idealism and her disdain for materialistic aspiration leave little doubt that, in her view, it was only perfection that should concern the true artist" (Poupard 91).

Henry Adams had similar views on the true character of an artist, which he presented in his autobiography Education of Henry Adams. Being a member of extremely affluent and powerful family, he knew how money was usually the ultimate criterion for measuring someone's success. In his family, creativity wasn't important since no one understood the real worth of a true artist. Henry also realized that apart from his family, almost the entire America in the 19th century was more interested in monetary worth of a person than his artistic values. But he believed that it is only when money was forgotten as a major concern that an artist could achieve his goals.

Henry firmly maintained that a person who follows his dreams is the one who is usually remembered for the longest time. He felt that it was therefore important for an artist to pay close attention to his work and always try to produce his best work without being concerned about money or fame.

Henry chose to give up his family profession of politics in favor of writing. His passion took him to different fields from journalistic writing to reporting and finally to creative writing. His life and the way various events shaped his career form the core of his lengthy autobiography where he seeks to explore the true meaning of being an artist and what kind of a person he should be. From his book, it appears he agreed with Cather on many points including money usually being the sole judge of one's success. Apart from this, Adams also believed that artist must possess a curious mind. "For some things ignorance is good, and art is one of them. He knew nothing, and had not the trained eye or the keen instinct that trusted itself; but he was curious, as he went on, to find out how much others knew."