This paper will analyze Willa Cather=s short story "Neighbor Rosicky," which is one of the many stories Cather wrote set in the Nebraska plains where she grew up. Born in Virginia on December 7, 1873, Cather and her family moved to the town of Red Cloud, Nebraska when she was nine. A nonconformist who dressed like a boy, Cather graduated from college and pursued a career, unlike most women of her time. She was a newspaper reporter and taught high school in Pittsburgh. After moving to New York City, she was an editor of McClure=s Magazine until she resigned to devote herself to writing fiction. In 1912 her first novel, Alexander=s Bridge, was published followed by others including One of Ours which won her the 1922 Pulitzer Prize. Much of what Cather wrote, including the well known My Antonia and Death Comes for the Archbishop, centered around her deep love for the land and people she knew as a child. She died on April 24, 1947.
Cather=s writing style can be characterized as both realistic and romantic, rich in her use of descriptive language and imagery. Her sensibility is modern while the values expressed in her work are traditional focusing on personal integrity, courage, dignity, the importance of family and of land and scornful of materialism and conformity. "Neighbor Rosicky," published in 1932 in the collection of short stories Obscure Destinies, expresses many of the major motifs of Cather=s fiction.
A character focused story told in the third person, "Neighbor Rosicky" opens with the family doctor (the town's only physician) telling Anton Rosicky that he has a bad heart and needs to take it easy. This structures the storyline. However, added to the straightforward account of Rosicky's final days, is a plethora of memories and vocal reminiscences. Rosicky's relationship to the land, his family, neighbors and past experiences make up the narrative and sets the pace of the story.
There is no character developme...