Although Cather used some Romanticism showed through her characters, I believe she tried to stay mainly on using Naturalism.
At the beginning, Cather shows how the drought had affected others, how it showed many farmers grief. John Bergson had much done to him and his farm. “One winter his cattle had perished in a blizzard. The next summer one of his plow horses broke its leg in a prairie-dog hole and had to be shot”. With his bad fortune he passed away during a rough collecting season on the farm. “Six months after John Bergson's death,” John Bergson did die, although she did not state exactly when. So Cather did use some Naturalism at the
beginning. Cather also used Naturalism in the later sections of the book. Alexandra thought she caused Marie and Emil to die because she brought them together so many times. “She was always sending Emil over to spade or plant or carpenter for Marie.” Frank also had a Naturalistic state right after he had killed Emil and Marie. Frank knew what happened and he had to get as far away as possible, “If he could catch the one-o'clock train, he had money enough to get as far as Omaha”. The book indicates that Cather meant to have mostly Naturalism in the book. All in all, Cather did use some Romanticism throughout the book, however I believe that she focused on Naturalism, including the beginning and at the end of the book which support these facts.