West vs. the East in Wagner Matinee

The era during the short story, Wagner Matinee, was a remarkable time in history. The world was being discovered and the industrial industry was just coming into the prime highlight. The new industry brought life to ease for the people living in very compact areas, such as the East coast of the United States. They had privileges such as trains, electricity, and multiple others honors. These were displayed through the speaker’s advantages in Boston. However, in areas where the population was slim, the settlers did not have all the advantages that people in the already settled places did. This was tough on the people inhabiting the isolated plains; especially if they were already adjusted for the ways of life with the industrial industry. In Wagner Matinee the speaker’s Aunt was born and raised in Boston, also, she was influenced by music in every way possible. She played the piano, listened to famous composers, and even traveled to Paris for the privilege to listen to an opera. It was big surprise for her wealthy family to receive the news that she had eloped to live in the new frontier of Nebraska with a young man. Cather wrote this text to identify how the people of the west frontier had strength and endurance, her examples were the physical bearing toughness of the West, the isolation from the new age, and the enduring silence the pioneers had dealt with in their time.

It has never been an easy job to settle new land and explore it, and it certainly will never become easy. Even in the age of the text, Wagner Matinee, the new land that the United States were settling were still extremely difficult to work with. It is land, weather, and travel is all unexpected, thus, there really is no way to properly approach the new land. Th...

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...people seem barbaric from the sophisticated people of Boston. Though, this was not Willa Cather’s intent, she only meant to glorify the strength and endurance required to be a pioneer. She had written this text to bring the true nobility of frontiers people to the cities attention. The nephew of this story, also the speaker of this text, had bared the rough world of being a pioneer and respected his Aunt so much more because of her perseverance of staying out in the isolated world. The truly depressing part of the story was the end, when the music was over Aunt Georgiana cried out in plea to her nephew that she did not want to return to the West. Her nephew understood because he had experienced the harsh environment of the unsettle land. Cather’s main theme of this writing was to praise the pioneers who had settled the land of America for the people of the future.