Cather's Writings

Cather’s Short Stories

I enjoyed reading Willa Cather’s short stories A Wagner Matinee, and Consequences. In reading these two short stories, I came to the conclusion that American realism writers are different than the American Romantics. Cather’s writings were blatantly different than that of the romantic writers like Martin Luther King or Gandhi. King and Gandhi both wrote about serious issue by directly confronting their audience with those issues. Cather used stories to talk about an issue. For example in Consequences, Cather was talking about suicide as the issue, but didn’t directly address the issue of suicide. She used characters to express their feelings about it and express her feelings through them.

As I just told you, Cather’s story Consequences is about suicide. Her other short story a Wagner Matinee is basically about love. In Consequences,, in my opinion, it seemed as though Cather didn’t really choose a side, but rather just expressed her opinion about it through both characters. Eastman thought there should be no reason that wealthy people would want to commit suicide. He also thought that there always has to be some kind of clue as to why a person decides to kill themselves. On the other side, the other character Cavanaugh, the one who committed suicide, tries to defend those who commit suicide when Eastman states his opinion. This tells me that Cather either is trying to understand people that commit suicide or that she is on both sides of the fence.

Based on the topics of these two short stories, I would say that Cather is wrote these stories for a few reasons. She Might have written Consequences to people possibly contemplating suicide, or to people that have lost someone to suicide. I think this because in the story, Eastman says that he has lost quite a few friends to suicide. This would be her writing to herself. Maybe she wrote this because she has lost someone in the same way. Maybe she lost one of her friends to suicide. Cather may have written A Wagner Matinee to those seeking a good love story. Or maybe, Cather has had a similar situation happen to her. In this case she would also be writing for herself.

Cather’s story Consequences makes relevant to me that suicide is a real issue that not everyone or many people understand. Not even her. This story, made me realize that you really never know who you know or may not know will or is thinking about committing suicide. For example, Eastman had had no idea that Cavanaugh was going to kill himself the night he talked him. The last time he saw him he was smiling and excited to go to Montana. Then the next thing he knew, Cavanaugh was gone. This means that suicide can be very sudden and unpredictable. That is an awfully dreadful thought.

To be honest, I really can’t think of what drew me to Cather’s works. I guess the issue of suicide is what drew me to want to read Consequences. I thought it would be interesting to read and find out a little something about what goes through people’s minds as they commit or think about committing suicide.
“The next morning, while Eastman was dressing, Rollins came in greatly excited. “I’m a little late, sir. I was stopped by Harry, Mr. Cavanaugh’s driver. Mr. Cavanaugh shot himself last night, sir.” Eastman dropped his vest and sat down on his shoe- box. “You’re drunk, Rollins.”
This excerpt from the story stuck out to me and also backs up statement that you really never know who wants to or is thinking about suicide. When Eastman heard the news, the first thing he did was drop his vest and sit down. He couldn’t believe Rollins. He even thought he was drunk. He had no clue. This also stuck out to me because this was what I thought to be the climax of the story. I had a feeling Cavanaugh would commit suicide because I knew that the story was about suicide, and also because there was something strange about him. He seemed to be going through some kind of conflict that was never fully understood.