Realism Project: Willa Cather

Willa Cather's two pieces of literature, "O Pioneers!" and "A Wagner Matinee," are considered works of realism. However, there are different sub-categories to realism, two of them being Regionalism and Naturalism. Willa Cather's two stories fall under the Regionalism category, because the deal with a specific region and characters from that region. The two stories deal with migration to the West. "O Pioneers!" talks about a specific family, the Bergson family, and their troubles with the migration to the West (Cather, 489). "A Wagner Matinee" talks about a woman--an aunt--who was changed by the migration to the west. She realizes this change when she visits her nephew in a more civilized town (Cather, 521).

Both of these stories show regionalism because they deal with a specific region, the West, and the influences that the West has had on them. In "O Pioneers!," Cather describes life of the pioneer. "The failure of the corn crop made labor cheap. Lou and Oscar hired two men and put in bigger crops than ever before. They lost everything they spent. The whole country was discouraged. Farmers who were already in debt had to give up their land." (Cather, 489) This could have actually happened to a family of farmers. The West was not always as promising as it was said to be, and this event is very realistic, putting it in realism and then regionalism.

The stories also fall under the realism category, because it deals with the American Dream. The American Dream then was to travel out to the romantic and wild West, start a large farm, and become very prosperous. However, this did not always happen, because the West was not as romantic and magnificent as it was portrayed. This brings in more of realism. The ideal West did not exist, and this story shows the realistic West, another example of the realism literary period.

In "A Wagner Matinee," the aunt realizes how much the migration to Nebraska had changed her (Cather, 521). She used to be a well-educated and "civilized" woman, but from the migration she had lost some of this (Cather, 526). This shows regionalism, because it shows how the aunt was changed by that certain region, how it had influenced her.

Another example of the realism and regionalism present in the two stories by Willa Cather, "O Pioneer!" and "A Wagner Matinee," is that they both deal with nature and society. The two are intertwined. Because of the nature in the West--the rough trails, the weather, the less fertile land--the people were changed; the society in the West was changed because of the nature. There were not fancy operas or sky scrapers in the west. It was the prairie and the rough terrain; therefore, the people had to deal with this and adjust to the conditions. This shows regionalism, because the people changed from the region in order to survive in that specific region. Because of all these characteristics of the two stories by Willa Cather, her stories, "O Pioneer!" and "A Wagner Matinee," fall under the literary categories of realism and regionalism.

Works Cited

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

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