My Journal Blog - Willa Cather

Jennifer Tabasco 11-2
English III
Mr. Fiorini
March 2, 2009

My Journal Blog - Willa Cather

While reading Willa Cather’s two short stories during the course of this week, I noticed that the American Romantics and the American Realists were very different to each other in their writing styles and intentions. As for the American Romanticism period, these authors focused on feeling and intuition over logic. They expressed their deep devotion to nature, feeling, and truth throughout their writings. For the American Realism period, I think that these authors told their stories normally, and then the authors placed flashbacks for certain characters in order for the reader to understand those character’s mindsets. It was sort of like being brought into a character’s mind and then experiencing what that character thought, felt, and saw during that certain situation. Willa Cather’s Consequences and A Wagner Matinee are two of the stories that use this flashback technique seen throughout the American Realism period.
In Willa Cather’s, A Wagner Matinee, Clark and his Aunt Georgiana go to see a symphony performance of Richard Wagner. Aunt Georgiana lives in Nebraska, and she has blocked out of her mind all of the musical things that she once loved. After reading this short story, I think that one of the main themes used in this story is a supporting system between family members. Clark and the musical world are two of the crutches that Aunt Georgiana uses to try to overcome the boring, dull life that she’s lived back on her farm in Nebraska. Without Clark, Aunt Georgiana wouldn’t have been able to become retouched by the musical world again. By attending this musical performance, Aunt Georgiana really expresses her love of the music world by telling Clark that she doesn’t want to leave. Her deep devotion to music really prevented her from leaving that door back into the world where she once blocked out all of her love to music. For this certain story, I think that Willa Cather is writing to people out there who want to see others emerge from their shell and to let the rest of the world know who that particular person is inside and out. In other words, this short story is written for all “Clarks” out there who want to support their “Aunt Georgiana’s” by expressing the true “Aunt Georgiana” for everyone to see. In addition to this, I think that Willa Cather wrote this story to show to people that if you really love someone in your family, you can develop all of the strength to bring out the real, true person inside of them that may have been hidden from the rest of the world over many years. This story was very touching because of how much love the reader can see Clark gave to his Aunt Georgiana just by bringing her to the symphony performance of Richard Wagner.
As for Willa Cather’s, Consequences, Henry Eastman and Kier Cavenaugh are apartment neighbors, who sort of have this “father-son” relationship occurring. Both of these men tell each other of previous events that happened to them. Out of nowhere, Kier Cavenaugh commits suicide, and Henry Eastman is stunned by this random act of violence. Throughout the story, it seemed as if Cavenaugh always wanted to tell Eastman something important, but Cavenaugh didn’t know how to tell him the right way. Why would Cather just spontaneously write an event of suicide? To answer this question, I think that Kier Cavenaugh seemed a little eerie from the very beginning because of his responses and of the numerous times he tried to invite Henry Eastman over to his apartment with other guests there. By Cavenuagh not having the chance to really tell Eastman what was happening to him internally, I think that Cavenaugh felt as if he had nobody else to turn to about his situation with “the ghost” and of his internal feelings, and the only way to vent or get rid of those emotions was to commit suicide. The title, ‘Consequences’, makes sense in a lot of ways throughout this story because Henry Eastman didn’t really address, listen, or even understand Cavenaugh’s issues, which caused Cavenaugh to take away his own life. For this particular story, I think that Willa Cather was writing to people who enjoy mysterious endings. This short story ends with a mysterious turn with Cavenaugh’s suicide, and I don’t really enjoy story endings with a lot of unanswered questions: What happened to Henry Eastman after Kier Cavenaugh’s suicide? Did Kier Cavenaugh leave any missing clues behind to explain his motive for suicide? These questions are just some of the questions that I felt as if were unanswered because of this mysterious ending Willa Cather chose to write about. In addition to this, I think that Willa Cather wrote this for people to pay more close attention to others who may be having difficulties in their lives psychologically, mentally, and even physically. These people need all of the support that they can receive from their loved ones, and if people aren’t willing to support them throughout those difficult times, a suicide or any type of violence is most likely to occur.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed reading Willa Cather’s two short stories, A Wagner Matinee and even Consequences. These two stories had two totally different messages being sent towards the reader, and I think that these two stories go together in some way because of the particular structure that they were written. I really enjoyed Willa Cather’s writings for some reason because of how she structures her stories, beginning with a regular story and then bringing up previous events in the character’s lives to go through the minds of the fictional characters. A Wagner Matinee had a more positive message being expressed through Clark and Aunt Georgiana’s time whereas Consequences sent a more dark and troubling message through Kier Cavenaugh’s character. If I could, I would probably read another one of Willa Cather’s stories just to see if there are any similarities throughout her various writings, depending on these two stories.