Like many other literary novels‚ Willa Cather uses numerous symbols in O Pioneers! to provide readers a deeper understanding of the characters and plot. Not only found in literature and other kinds of written works but also in the arts‚ symbols are concrete objects‚ people‚ or places used to represent abstract qualities‚ such as love and peace. Writers employ universal or well-known symbols so that its intended audience can understand though the meanings associated with symbols may change over time--what
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“Paul’s Case” written by Willa Cather not only offers an entertaining read with content which at first glance can come off as merely a story‚ but when read closely it becomes evident that there are substantial themes being explored through Cather’s protagonist‚ Paul‚ along with his predicament. Paul‚ a young boy living on Cordelia Street‚ a place that quite inordinately contradicts his frequent exotic fantasies‚ sets course toward tragedy when he begins to realize he can no longer remain within the
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What does Alexandra do to make her farm and family successful? When Alexandra’s brothers‚ Lou and Oscar‚ insist they sell the farm to leave the Divide‚ Alexandra protests they keep the land. She is convinced she can find an alternative way to farm the Divide. Alexandra explores the river country because of her interests in learning new farming methods to save her father’s farm. Unfortunately‚ Alexandra becomes disappointed when she discovers the river country is no more flourishing than the
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Changes in Willa Cather’s Work My Ántonia‚ a novel by Willa Cather‚ is written in the account of Jim Burden‚ a fictional character who resembles Cather in a lot of ways. Being born in Virginia but grew up in Nebraska‚ Willa Cather is famous for her works about life on the Great Plains of the Mid-West. This story‚ supposedly written by Jim‚ is set in the stage of westward migration in the mid-late 1800s‚ and tells Jim’s experience as a child growing up in Black Hawk‚ Nebraska. As Cather said in her
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In Willa Cather’s short story Paul’s Case we learn of a young man who is fighting what he fears most: to be as common and plain as his world around him. How others perceive Paul only encourages him to fulfill his dream of escaping his monotonous lifestyle. Paul feels he is drowning in his everyday environment and his only breath of air is his savior: the theater. Paul has very little interest in his class studies. This leaves him open to distraction and eventually criticism. Although Paul’s
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Lisa Marie. “Willa Cathers My Antonia: Haunting the Houses of Memory.” Twentieth Century Literature 46 (2000): Literary Reference Center‚ Galileo. MPHS Library‚ 18 April 2011 (#33 a work from an online service to which your library subscribes) This article analyzes My Antonia and it’s theme of memory and how it haunts some of the characters. It talks about the story of the wolves and how its haunted Peter and Pavel and how that brings gothic to the story. It also tells why Cather included
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Cather’s MY ÁNTONIA "Optima dies ... prima fugit." My Ántonia‚ by Willa Cather‚ is a modernist novel that recounts and celebrates the past through the relationship of man and the natural world. Cather incorporates an epigraph at the start of the novel from Virgil’s Georgics that means “The best days…are the first to flee‚” which is integrated by many elements throughout the story as it is the epicenter in which the themes of the novel revolve. For those who aren’t familiar Georgics consists of
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Understanding “Paul’s Case” through Structuralism Willa Cather presents “Paul’s Case” using vivid symbolism and language to depict Paul‚ his personality‚ his environment‚ as well as his life style. Willa Cather does not directly state Paul’s feelings‚ but through the use of language and symbols we can imply many things about Paul‚ and the type of person he is. Using structuralism and semiotics to analyze Paul’s case provides the opportunity to take certain concepts in the story and understand the
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which was required to settle the American frontier. These key ingredients mixed with an untamed land tempered the settlers into what we know them today as Americans which may be observed within Willa Cather’s My Antonia as the reader follows the lives of three key characters: Lena‚ Jimmy‚ and Antonia. Cather herself searched for her own individualism which she juxtaposed in this 1918 literary work with the character Jimmy. Both he and the author of the story were born in Virginia and at an early age
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“The Novel Démeublé” is an essay written by Willa Cather‚ throughout the essay‚ there is a statement at the end that stands out than the rest. This statement is “Whatever is felt upon the page without being specifically named there-that it seems to me‚ is created. It is the inexplicable presence of the thing not named‚ of the over-tone divided by the ear but not heard by it the verbal mood‚ the emotional aura of the fact or thing or the deed‚ that gives high quality to the novel or the drama as well
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