Willa Cather

Willa Cather's O Pioneers! has many characteristics of Realism and Regionalism. O Pioneers! reads like a biography of the Bergson brothers. At least the excerpt in question does. The writing is plain and simple. Things are described in detail, such as the wooden sidewalks. Cather includes that they are wooden when such a detail was unnecessary. Realism authors often included seemingly unimportant details for the purpose of helping the reader to imagine the scene. The events described in O Pioneers! could happen in reality. At the time period, this happened quite a bit. In today's world such events would be unheard of, but at the time, Westward expansion was still around and still a pretty big deal.

Cather's "A Wagner Matinee" describes just that. A matinee concert performance of various pieces by Wagner. Such a thing could have actually happened at some point in time. It actually did quite frequently when orchestra performances were still a popular form of entertainment. The main characters are the narrator and his Aunt Georgiana. He hasn't seen her in a while, so he is happy to spend time with her while she is in Boston. The narrator is an ordinary man living in Boston, and his aunt is a typical homesteader out in Nebraska. Both characters were of lower middle-class society, which is a common trait of Realism heroes. Also common to Realism is the writng style. The words are unpretentious and very descriptive. Details that could be considered unnecesarry are also included in "A Wagener Matinee" such as when the narrator is describing the clothing of the ladies at the concert: "and there was only the color of bodices past counting, the shimmer of fabrics soft and firm, silky and sheer; red, mauve, pink, blue, lilac, purple, ecru, rose, yellow, cream, and white..." (Cather "Wagner" 524). While colorful, that description was really not needed in order to further the plot.

Religion is not a topic in either work up for discussion in this blog, nor is government. Nature is discussed briefly in O Pioneers!, but not in "A Wagner Matinee". In O Pioneers! the drought is described as well as what the land they settled on looks like. Human nature is not mentioned in depth, but is able to be seen. In O Pioneers! the Bergson brothers' nature is mentioned, the author saying that "The Bergson boys, certainly, would have been happier with their uncle Otto, in the bakery shop in Chicago." (Cather "O" 489). The American Dream is a part of both of these works because they are both about pioneers/homesteaders who wanted to go someplace new and try to live out the dream there. Government is not discussed in either work at all. There is some beautiful figurative language in "A Wagner Matinee". I especially liked the metaphor about the violins and the bows: "She sat mutely staring at the violin bows that drove obliquely downward, like the pelting streaks of rain in a summer shower." (Cather "Wagner" 525). The imagery is amazing and descriptive at the same time, which keeps the Realism feel to the whole simile.


Cather, Willa. "A Wagner Matinée." Glencoe American Literature. comp. Wilhelm, Jeffery. McGraw Hill. Columbus, OH. 2009. 521-526. Print.

Cather, Willa. "O Pioneers!" Glencoe American Literature. comp. Wilhelm, Jeffery. McGraw Hill. Columbus, OH. 2009. 489. Print.