Willa Cather's O Pioneer

The psychological strength of Alexandra is clearly visible when her dying father entrusts her with the family's land. According to father, she is supposed to be take care of the family's estates when he dies. The father seems to have developed more confidence in Alexandra in comparison to her other brothers, Lou and Oscar. It is for this reason that he makes a will stating that the Alexandra would be the caretaker of the family's estates once he dies. Surprisingly, the father's trust in her seems to pay-off when she manages to preserve the land three years after his death during a famine (Freud 23-25). The great strength of the female character is demonstrated in this portion of the story when she manages to intellectually apply her abilities to preserve the family's estates. The crafting of this character by the author to exhibit great personality to earn the trust of…… [Read More]

Willa Cather Willa Sibert Cather Was Born

Willa ather

Willa Sibert ather was born in Winchester, Virginia, in the year 1873. She lived in Virginia until she turned nine years old at which point she moved to the Nebraska prairie, to the borough of atherton, which bore her familial namesake because so many members of ather's family already lived here. This move to the prairie and her subsequent period of growing to adulthood on the prairie would be extremely influential in her later life and writing. Indeed, even when she was working as an editor in New York ity, it would be the prairie that would provide her main inspiration for writing material in such novels as o Pioneers! And My Antonia. Although, as one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century, her beginnings may seem quite humble, indeed, nonetheless, she achieved much in the subsequent years following the end of her childhood. She attended…… [Read More]

Willa Cather Lost Lady Was

Mrs. Forrester is the most affected of all.

Changes happen irremediably to the whole town. People remaining in the old word are further and further drawn apart from people going along with the new order, till there is no way of communication between the two left. usiness is treated from a much broader angle, companies develop in a higher speed in terms of tome and space. "Cather's A Lost lady is written towards the end of the Age of Reform, as Hofstadter termed it. This is an age when the small-town gentry, the bankers and lawyers, are being swept aside by the inevitable growth of a national rather than a regional elite. They feel their status collapse during the 20th century as the national ceiling on wealth rises significantly."(Smith, J.N, (www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/lostlady/about.html)

There is also the nuance between black and white, which role is played by Neil Herbert, the nephew of…… [Read More]

Willa Cather's Paul's Case by the Turn

Willa Cather's "Paul's Case"

By the turn of the twentieth century, America had established itself as an important world power. Not only had the U.S. grown into the world's largest agricultural producer, the establishment of the first transcontinental railway had helped fuel the industrial revolution. By 1900, major oil fields were being tapped, allowing the United States to dominate the world's petroleum markets.

The early years of the 1900s also saw the emergence of the automobile industry with the establishment of the Ford Motor Company in 1903; the proliferation of telephones and electricity; a boom in urban construction with large industries attracting migrant populations in search of employment and a better quality of life; and a boom in the steel industry, with the world measuring the strength of a nation's economic activity by the number of tons of steel produced.

In the 1880s, Andrew Carnegie had constructed the world's largest…… [Read More]

Willa Cather My Mortal Enemy

Mortal Enemy, by Willa Cather [...] how Cather uses symbolism in the novel. Imagery forms the backbone of this story, and opens up the characters to the reader.

MY MORTAL ENEMY

Cather uses imagery throughout this novel to indicate and realize the characters, as well as their reactions to each other. Early in the novel, we learn quite a bit about Myra and her personality from this compelling small piece of imagery: "Her sarcasm was so quick, so fine at the point -- it was like being touched by a metal so cold that one doesn't know whether one is burned or chilled" (Cather 14). The imagery conveys Myra's sarcasm perfectly, making it real and tangible to the reader who immediately pictures a cold and sharp piece of metal. It also clearly indicates how young Nellie felt at experiencing her sarcasm, she did not know whether she was burned or…… [Read More]

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…… [Read More]

Sculptor's Funeral by Willa Cather and the

Sculptor's Funeral," by illa Cather, and the essay "Art for Art's Sake," by E.M. Forster. Specifically, it will discuss how these two pieces reflect each other.

ART IN LITERATURE

Great art is never produced for its own sake. It is too difficult to be worth the effort (George Bernard Shaw 1909).

George Bernard Shaw's dry outlook on art directly opposes the thoughts of E.M. Forster's essay, but his acerbic look at art may have more to do with illa Cather's short story than most of us would care to admit. Most people do not appreciate the effort that goes into continually creating art. Some can do it, some can dream of it, and some, like the townspeople of Sand City, can only find fault in anything they cannot do or do not understand.

Daily life in the small town of Sand City is ordered and normal, very different from the…… [Read More]

Modernism in Willa Cather's a Lost Lady

Modernism in Willa Cather's A LOST LADY

Lost Lady, by Willa Cather, like other modernist novels describes a society in transition from one culture to another, and the idealization of the past that occurs as individuals struggle with new mores and times. This was, in fact, Cather's first modernist novel. It is a classic novel about life in on the Great Plains, and about the materialistic world that supplanted the old frontier. It is about nostalgia for a world that is dying.

In the novel, which is set in the small railroad town of Sweet Water, the finest family is that of the Forresters. Mrs. Marian Forrester is renowned as a wonderful hostess. She and her husband represent the old culture. Mr. Forrester is a retired, wealthy railway man, and Mrs. Forrester is his beautiful, much younger wife. She is a strong, beautiful woman in a pastoral setting. Her husband…… [Read More]

Reviewing Great American Writers Like Willa Cather Caroline Lockhart

American Literature -- Unit

do see the concept of the new woman and new man in our culture today?

Yes to some degree, the concept of the new woman and new man can be detected in modern (2016) society. omen are at the forefront of literary and social life. omen have come a long way in terms of their "autonomous selfhood, sexuality," and right to participate in the same social events as men. omen now are a big part of the American workforce; women were no longer locked into the domestic realm of the American household, and today a huge majority of women work (at least part time) outside the home.

The new man as reflected in the readings is also similar to today's male, but not to the same degree as the new woman. I agree with Carolyn Lockhart that men were not transitioning into mature, modern people like…… [Read More]

Cather a Quote From a

This reveals the more liberated ideals of the west and of the pioneer culture. First, Alexandra envisions herself "being lifted and carried lightly by some one very strong. He was with her a long while this time, and carried her very far, and in his arms she felt free from pain." The masculine figure takes the place of the gossamer female angel. She is about to be subsumed by the ethereal lover. "hen he laid her down on her bed again, she opened her eyes, and, for the first time in her life, she saw him, saw him clearly, though the room was dark, and his face was covered." Here, gender roles are again reversed as they are in the previous passage when the man is the angel. The man is now being veiled, his "face was covered." Veil is usually used to conceal the woman's but not the man's…… [Read More]

Fitzgerald Hemingway and Cather I'm

Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Cather share a bond when it comes to style and framing fiction with language. ords are not simply meant to describe a character or scene; they can help round the story through how they are arranged. Fitzgerald illustrates how language can blossom around particular aspects of characters and ideas. Hemingway and Cather demonstrate how short, concise sentences can enhance a scene by increasing tension. Style emerges as an afterthought but as we study it, we realize it is a deliberate act that is so subtle that most readers overlook it when it comes to reading. Nouns and sentences are structured in a way that helps the reader make an emotional connection with the reader. These writers have different styles but this does not make one better or worse than the other. The variety we see in them represents the vast capability of writing styles around the world.…… [Read More]

American Literature Jewett Chopin and Cather

Country of the Pointed Firs," by Sarah Orne Jewett, "The Awakening," by Kate Chopin and "My Antonia," by Willa Cather. Specifically, it will show the development of the complexity, or the straightforwardness, of the point-of-view. Point-of-view is often as difficult to pinpoint as the characters of great novels. Sometimes, the point-of-view in a novel can shift and change, but the bottom line is -- point-of-view is a compelling way to keep the reader interested in the story, while telling more about the characters. Thus, point-of-view is a central part of the telling of a tale, and that is one of the most important techniques a writer can use to get their point across to the reader.

Point-of-View in Three Works

Point-of-view is one of the devices used to make or break a novel, and these three pieces all use point-of-view effectively and quite differently to set the stage, tell the…… [Read More]

Antonia Compare Two Characters Willa

Thus, while one character had a targetable aim, the other, Antonia, had a symbolic purpose for Jim's life.

Antonia's role in the novel goes beyond that of encompassing the pure nature of childhood. It represents a clear window of strong powerful women. Better said, "This extremely influential character represents a positive compromise with feminist ideals. She is independent and strong while still living as a wife and mother" (Giglio, 2006). In this sense, Antonia is the embodiment of the successful woman, still not the average successful woman. This is largely due to the fact that the expression of her achievements is not always considered to be the common desire for women those days. Still, the symbolist part of this side of the character reflects in fact the social reality of that era and from Cather's point-of-view, it is a fair and clear recollection of her past.

Jim's complex character can…… [Read More]

English Short Story

illa Cather and Herman Melville both explore themes of psychological and social isolation in their short stories. In Cather's "Paul's Case," the title character is a vibrant young man whose passion and creativity is constrained by his pitiful life in Pittsburgh, where his only solace is his work as an usher. Melville's protagonist Bartleby in "Bartleby the Scrivener" lacks the joie du vivre that Paul possesses. However, both of these protagonists plummet toward death as the only foreseeable relief from the terrible injunction of life. Their approaches to death are different, though. Bartleby is wholly unlike the young Paul, who feels regret the instant he realizes the "folly of his haste," (Cather para 65). On the contrary, the senior Bartleby remains fully resigned to self-abnegation throughout his adult life. hereas Paul believes that if he only had money, he could be free from the clutches of his past and embrace…… [Read More]

Woman Who Has the Qualities

This meant that men held positions of power and authority in all the public spheres including economics/business, politics/the law, and the bearing of arms. Men also possessed social status that women did not have, enabling the perpetuation of a patriarchal society.

y applying Freudian psychoanalysis and feminist theory, I will analyze the personality of the independent, strong, risk taker, and smart Alexandra ergson in Willa Cather's O Pioneer! As Smith points out in Freud's Philosophy of the Unconscious, the psychoanalytic model lends insight into the underlying psychic forces promoting personal and collective change. With regards to a singular female like Alexandra ergson, psychoanalysis takes into account the protagonist's family background, tracing her ego development across the course of her lifetime starting with childhood. The significance of my research is that it studies the possibility of female's success in life under certain circumstances and refutes the outmoded opinion that suggests the…… [Read More]

Importance of Humanities in the Professions

Humanities

Importance of the humanities in the professions:

A comparison of "Paul's Case," Muriel's Wedding and Andy Warhol's rendition of Marilyn Monroe

The modern concept of 'celebrity' is that anyone can be famous, provided that he or she embodies an ideal of glamour, using material trappings like clothing and possessions to show his or her 'specialness.' This is a common method of 'selling' a particular product in business.

The idea is paradoxical -- on one hand, celebrities are special, on the other hand the media suggests everyone can be a celebrity and 'famous for 15 minutes' if they buy the right item.

This can be seen in "Paul's Case" by Willa Cather, about a boy who feels as if he is above his classmates.

Paul desires to have a celebrity-like status, based upon his perceptions of himself as having innately refined tastes.

But this costs money, and Paul is unwilling…… [Read More]

Death Comes for the Archbishop

Latour takes several steps to repair the damage done to the church by the moral misdeeds of rogue priests and, to a certain extent, the American and Mexican governments. Latour dispatches Valliant to Albuquerque and, in Valliant's travels, he performs sacraments and admonishes a priest for gambling with parish funds. Latour, for his part, helps rescue Magdalena from the abusive uck Scales and orders the founding of a girl's school - another important symbol of permanence and the church's commitment to the community. Latour also replaces Gallegos, a corrupt priest who drinks, gambles and left his parish in a "scandalous state," with Father Valliant (p.83).

Latour's house cleaning continues throughout the story, as he is determined to conquer the book's moral setting, as he conquered its natural setting. Perhaps Latour's greatest triumph is when he forces Father Martinez, who had become a "dictator to all parishes in Northern New Mexico"…… [Read More]

Paul's Case Flowers and Dress

Thus, the fact that illa Cather employs flowers in her story does not necessarily suggest that Paul is different, and for symbolic value to emphasize the contrast between difference and similarity in the story. Paul's desire for flowers certainly emphasize his difference as he wears them when it seems less than appropriate, and their presence as a symbol is emphasized by the fact hat they accompany his major steps in the story (going to the suspension hearing, his meetings with Charley, his trip to New York, and his death), as well as the way they are used to contrast similarity or "everyday things" (Cather 19).

In addition to flowers, Paul's interest in dress and his dress itself can easily be seen as a sign of his homosexuality. Like the flowers, however, it can also quite easily be explained as a characteristic and symbol of his difference. In contrast to the…… [Read More]

Setting the Story

Yellow allpaper and Paul's Case: Emancipation of Mental Captivity

The two texts, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow allpaper and illa Cather's Paul's Case, portray the main characters with hysteria. Both cases are reactions to the pressures put on them by their families as well as the society. They seem to build mental barriers that cannot be brought down, so called safe heavens, escape from harsh realities and this puts them on a self-destruction course. The narrator in The Yellow allpaper is the main character, an upper middle class woman confined to domesticity and "women's role. The text reveals her inner struggles and from her eye, the reader is able to see her plight. Similarly in Paul's Case, the main character has personal issues that are products of the society he lives in. He is motherless, thin pale and dreamy adolescent who rebels from his conventional surroundings in Pittsburgh. The major…… [Read More]

Money The Adolescent Perspective as Depicted in

Money:

The adolescent perspective as depicted in the short stories of Joyce, Faulkner, and Cather

The search for higher social status as a form of personal fulfillment and self-definition all mark the coming-of-age stories of James Joyce, illiam, Faulkner, and illa Cather, despite the distinct differences between the three male protagonists created by the authors in their seminal short stories "Araby," "Barn Burning," and "Paul's Case." All three short stories feature a young protagonist whose illusions of finery and higher class status are shattered. Because these aspirations are also often connected to sexual desires, this fall from grace is particularly difficult for the young men to tolerate.

In "Araby," the young male protagonist becomes enamored with a young woman who seems innocent, above his own class, and charming. hen she professes to wish to go to the Araby bazaar but cannot because she must go on a retreat with her…… [Read More]

West Women During the Time

Cather's snapshot of life in the west, and in Nebraska, was colored by her prejudices and experiences as someone who understood the experiences of white women.

Most of the issues that arise in Alexandra's life were universal human experiences such as loss and death. The romance between her brother and a married woman show that both men and women suffer from restricted gender roles and norms. There were ways that marriage was inadequate and inappropriate for the needs of men and women, and so, gender was not the only factor restricting people's lives in the west. The lawlessness that reigned in the west was both beneficial and detrimental to people's lives, as it allowed them to be free of intrusions on their lives by foreign officials and eliminated bureaucracy. At the same time, it meant people could take the law into their own lands, and not see justice.

There were…… [Read More]

Paul and Trevor These Stories Tell Us

Paul and Trevor

These stories tell us that there are as many kinds of rebellions as there are rebels - in different strata of society and in different times. Some rebel against the external world, some, against the inner world, although all rebellion is inherently internal or inner.

Trevor seems to have become a rebel because of peer pressure, especially among the poor. Gangs form because there is nothing more gainful or meaningful to do, as in the case of Womrsley Common Gang of London. The young, especially, must acquire a sense of identity and belonging, no matter what identity or belonging it is. Trevor submits himself to the humiliation of initiation, especially because of his shy nature. He has relished the bright idea of burglarizing the rickety house of Old Misery and it becomes his passport to leadership in this thugs' association. Life is as simple but unsatisfying and…… [Read More]

American Lit Definition of Modernism and Three

American Lit

Definition of Modernism and Three Examples

Indeed, creating a true and solid definition of modernism is exceptionally difficult, and even most of the more scholarly critical accounts of the so-called modernist movement tend to divide the category into more or less two different movements, being what is known as "high modernism," which reflected the erudition and scholarly experimentalism of Eliot, Joyce, and Pound, and the so-called "low modernism" of later American practitioners, such as William Carlos Williams. Nonetheless, despite the problems of reification involved with such a task, I will attempt to invoke a definitions of at least some traits of modernism, as culled from the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics:

First, [in modernism] "realization" had to replace description, so that instead of copying the external world the work could render it in an image insisting on its own forms of reality... [and] Second, the poets develop…… [Read More]

Antonia the Main Character of the Novel

Antonia, the main character of the novel My Antonia.

My Antonia

The magnum opus, My Antonia is a well-composed masterpiece by the eminent author illa Cather who is well-known for her scholarly depiction of life in the frontiers (Back cover). The distinguished novelist in her masterwork My Antonia has portrayed the strong personality as well as the persisting qualities of a young Bohemian girl named Antonia who migrated from United States to settle down in Nebraska.

This marvelous account addressing various issues has been narrated by one of the characters named Jim Burden who is portrayed as the childhood playmate of the protagonist of the novel named Antonia. According to Jim Burden, Antonia was the eldest daughter of the Shimerda's and a healthy as well as a happy girl with the most beautiful eyes that were "big and warm and full of light, like the sun shining on brown pools…… [Read More]

Trip to Chinatown Hello Dolly One

Trip to Chinatown / Hello, Dolly!

One might not ordinarily associate comedienne Carol Channing with formidable erudition, but the Broadway premiere of Hello, Dolly! In 1964 would manage to unite them both thanks to the participation of Thornton ilder. ilder remains persistently underrated in the canon of American drama, partly because his own achievement had originally derived from fiction -- yet an examination of ilder's own notebooks reveals that his own successful stage plays were frequently based on his own critical and scholarly engagement with the most abstruse sort of Modernist texts. ilder would claim that his sprawling 1942 comedy The Skin of Our Teeth, which would win that year's Pulitzer Prize, had been based on James Joyce's Finnegans ake (which presumably would have come as a great surprise to Tallulah Bankhead, who starred in ilder's play). Yet it is my contention that among the many learned influences upon ilder's…… [Read More]

Various Authors

Fiction:

Fou Stoies and thei Elements

A peson eads fiction fo many easons. Often times, as Richad Wight suggests, one chooses to escape one's life, and discove new ealities and states of being. Fiction is pehaps the most poweful medium that can tanspot a peson outside of eveything peviously known, as fiction challenges not only one's intelligence, but also one's imagination. Due to this eason, fiction is hee to say, so to speak, unchallenged in its complexity by such things as television o othe eceational activities, as compute o video games. The following pages will engage fou stoies in ode to descibe just how inticate a witten wok of fiction can be, and will examine vaious pats of these stoies in ode to link them to ways of thinking and daily existence.

An Act of Vengeance by Isabel Allende

This shot stoy by Isabel Allende is tuly a melange of…… [Read More]

Truman Capote the Life the

I had to go into town on Saturdays to the dentist and I joined the Sunshine Club that was organized by the Mobile Press Register." He goes on to tell about entering a work of writing on the children's page publication, which he had called "Old Mr. usybody." The first installment of his writing appeared in a Sunday edition under his real name, which was Truman Streckfus Persons. The second installment never was published after the townspeople figured out he in actuality ' was serving up local scandal as fiction'. (Compote in Interview)

Capote and Writing Technique

When asked the question of "Are there devices one can use in improving one's technique? Capote answered by stating, "Work is the only device I know of. Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them.…… [Read More]

Playing in the Dark & Art on

Playing in the Dark & Art on my Mind

Toni Morrison's Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination and ell Hooks' Art on My Mind: Visual Politics are both works of nonfiction that center on the idea of cultural identity and its politics related to art and literature. Hooks is, of course, a forerunner in the critique of African-American culture and Art on My Mind closely examines the world of creating art in an environment that is overly concerned with politics having to do with identity. Hooks has long been known as a writer that is deeply interested in what is happening with the black community and what struggles that community faces. She examines in her book how art can be something that is empowering for the black community, however, she is discouraged by the lack of interest by critics to non-white art. Morrison, likewise, wants to empower…… [Read More]

Paul's Case Faust -- in

Paul is rather lazy. He does not like to flatter other people, since he sees himself as superior to others, thinking he possesses greater refinement and culture. In contrast to another young man in the story, the young man who marries a serious woman to discipline his appetites, Paul has no desire to do so.

"It was at the Theatre and at Carnegie Hall that Paul really lived; the rest was but a sleep and a forgetting." (paragraph 29) --The last part of this quotation (in italics) is a sneaky reference to a poem by William Wordsworth, called "Intimations of Immortality." Look up this poem and determine what Wordsworth says about the various stages of life. How does this relate to Paul's story?

Paul lives in a fantasy world, not in the real world. His fantasy life leads to his death. The reference to sleep and forgetting suggests that he…… [Read More]

Moves West What Significance Is

There is another important aspect of Jim's returning to the West. With each visit, he rekindles the friendship he shared with antonia, and this is very important to him, too. Theirs is a lifelong bond that cannot be broken, and this is a steady theme throughout the novel. Jim and Antonia have always loved each other, but their love is much more than a romantic bond. They enjoy the true and lasting bond of friendship, and it does not splinter even though their lives change dramatically as they grow older. Again, Jim hopes to remember the girl of his youth, and by doing that, he hopes to hold on to his own youth as well. At one point after visiting antonia again, he muses, "In the course of twenty crowded years one parts with many illusions. I did not wish to lose the early ones. Some memories are realities, and…… [Read More]

Purple Lady a Lost Lady

In short, it's mentally and emotionally taxing to grow up believing physical abuse is warranted, objectification of women is normal, and whatever a man says happened, happened. Thankfully, in later chapters, Celie slowly starts to become disabused of these ideas.

In A Lost Lady Mrs. Marian Forrester is an aristocrat. And, therefore, she is not subjected to some of the personal atrocities that Celie is subjected to (i.e., Mrs. Forrester's babies are stolen from her and presumably murdered by her stepfather). Nevertheless, like Celie, Mrs. Forrester lives in an era where men objectify women. Like Celie, she is something to be possessed.

"If she merely bowed to you, merely looked at you, it constituted a personal relation. Something about her took hold of one in a flash; one became acutely conscious of her, of her fragility and grace, of her mouth which could say so much without words; of her…… [Read More]

Robert Frost's Poetry Robert Frost

hile the poems are no doubt universal, we can see elements of Americana sprinkled throughout them. Cultural issues such as decision-making, the pressure of responsibility and duty, and the complexity of death emerge in many poems, allowing us to see society's influence on the poet. In "The Road Not Taken," we see how life is filled with choices. Because we are American, we are lucky enough to experience freedom but this does not always come without difficulty. ith this poem, the narrator explains how decision-making can be trying because we never actually know how things are going to turn out. Nevertheless, we must make choices and get on with our lives. In "Stopping by oods," the narrator encounters a similar type of conflict in that the pull of our fast-paced American lives makes him or her want to stay in the woods for just a little while to enjoy the…… [Read More]

EE Cummings Modernist Poet

Modernist literature refers to a literary period from the first half of the 20th century, one that reacted to the external influences of an increasingly industrialized society, and one that was becoming more and more globalized. This was a population of people who had been hardened and drained by two world wars. This was a population of people who were pondering the future of humanity, human existence, the human condition and their place in the world. When compared to the romantic period, modernism appears edgier and less serene. The romantic period had more of a focus on the natural world and the experience of being; modernism focused more on the inner self, seeing more of a decline and fraught fragmentation with the external world. From a literary perspective, the period meant a subversion of typical norms: modernist prose and poetry played with structure and form in ways that readers weren’t…… [Read More]