Willa Cather- O Pioneers and A Wagner Matiné

O Pioneers by WIlla Cather was a pretty decent expert, but not one that I thought was the interesting to me. I think it is just like all of the other stories in that time. All they talked about the whole time is the hardships that they went through, which i understand but at times that can get old. This story was about all of the hardships that the pioneers went through in that time, which from reading the title, I could tell what it was going to be about.

Realism, like most stories during this time, was shown in this expert, but I saw regionalism the most. I saw realism when they were explaining the hardships, and hard work that they had to put forth in that time. They really make you think about the things that they had to go through, and the hard things that they had to work through. I recognized regionalism in the part that they were talking about sitting by the sidewalks, and then I saw Illinois so that really stuck out to me. "The thing to do was to get back to Iowa, to Illinois, to any place that had been proved habitable "(Cather 489). The main thing that they were trying to say in the story right here was that they were not in the right spot in the country that they felt like was best for them. They thought that they should be in Iowa or Illinois, places for real men. They wanted to be at the places that they thought were to be more suitable.

I thought that A Wagner Matine by Willa Cather was a better story to read. I am a fan of music, so I knew when this story was talking about music that I would really like it. I think the stories that you can relate to are always the best. I think that this story actually kind of had an effect on me. Willa Cather showed that music has a story behind it. She also showed that each person might listen to a song and get something different from it. I really liked how she said that, because I really understood what she was saying. I was listening to Pink's new song, and I thought I knew what she was talking about, but then I heard a different meaning of it that she was trying to get across. So, when listening to music everybody gets a different view depending on the things that you have been through in your life. I think that A Wagner Matine was sharing realism with us, just by all of the emotions that she was showing. She shared with us how much music did to her in her life, and she would just listen and not have anything to say. She loved music. I thought that this was a pretty good story over all.

Both O Pioneers and A Wagner Matine by WIlla Cather showed us realism. They both showed the different emotions that were going on in that time, even though they were totally opposite. One was talking about hardships, and one was talking about how she thought so highly of music.


Cather, Willa. "from O Pioneers!" American Literature Textbook. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 489. Print.

Cather, Willa. "A Wagner Matinée." American Literature Textbook. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 521-526. Print