Reading Blog

1. How do these writings compare to those of the American Romantics we have read? Can you note some comparison between romantics and realists?
Willa Cather's writings were not very much like the American Romantics we have read. She is down to earth, realistic (as the title would imply), and isn't afraid to show both the positive and negative sides of a story although the Romantics tended to focus on just either the positive or the negative aspect/

2. What topics, themes, social/political issues does this writer take up in his/her work? What might these tell us as readers about this author and his/her worldview?
In "A Wagner Matinee", Cather takes up the theme of love and depression at everyday life. "Consequences" revolves around suicide. Both stories I have noticed involve not only one person, but good or bad involve the main character interacting with someone else. This can be good or bad but judging from Cather's dark short stories often times the interaction is cancerous wheI understood. For her, just outside the door of the concert hall, lay the black pond with the cattle-tracked bluffs; the tall, unpainted house, with weather-curled boards; naked as a tower, the crook-backed ash seedlings where the dishcloths hung to dry; the gaunt, molting turkeys picking up refuse about the kitchen door.ther the character believes it to be or not.

3. With regard to author’s purpose consider the following: To whom is this writer writing? For whom are they writing?
This author isn't writing to a specific sub-class but rather anyone that is in the darker times of their lives. If your particularly happy you probably won't be able to get through her stories sometimes, but they all have one point in them where there is an optimistic outlook, if only for a moment.

4. What relevance does this author’s writing hold for you as a reader?
"Consequences" spoke most to me. I honestly can say that I believe that everyone past the age of 13 has suicide cross their mind. If anyone says it hasn't they are probably lieing. What sets people apart is the amount of time people contemplate it. It can be as quick as "I wish I were dead!" to sitting and envisoining the act and it's consequences. I, being an honest person and leaning more towards the latter than the former, sympathized with Eastman and therfore this story resonated with me.

5. What drew you to the work of this author?
"I understood. For her, just outside the door of the concert hall, lay the black pond with the cattle-tracked bluffs; the tall, unpainted house, with weather-curled boards; naked as a tower, the crook-backed ash seedlings where the dishcloths hung to dry; the gaunt, molting turkeys picking up refuse about the kitchen door."
ALthough this was the last line from a Wagner Matinee" it was easilly the most key quotation that swayed me to choode Willa Cather as my author. I understand exactly how Aunt Georgiana feels. It's not often you get to get away from the troubles of everyday life, in fact it's amazingly difificult to truly detach yourself from them for any amount of time, and to just steal an extra ten minutes in that state is a true gift.