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Ashley Everidge
Dr. Anderson
ENGL 3832- The Final Project
8 May 2015
Found Within the Land:
Willa Cathers Use of the Frontier in A Lost Lady

In her novel A Lost Lady, Willa Cather refers to the physical features of the land in order
to create a setting for the story. She also allows it to play a large role in the story itself,
incorporating descriptions of the land juxtaposed with those of the characters. It is apparent that
Cather chose to use the land as a tool to increase the effectiveness of the story, as well as intrigue
the reader and enhance his or her experience. The connection between the story and the land
shows up throughout the novel and definitely benefits the story.
In Willa Cathers Novels of the Frontier, Edward Bloom and Lillian Bloom discuss the
importance of land in several of Cathers novels, including A Lost Lady. They comment on how
and why Cather incorporates morality and universality of theme in her novels, with the ideas
of the old and new ways (aristocracy and capitalism) being apparent in A Lost Lady (Bloom and
Bloom 72). They also discuss her knowledge of pioneer people, which they argue influences the
creation of her characters. Additionally, she fashions these individuals to want to search for an
ideal through a quest-like adventure, which often incorporates spiritual entities, and of course,
the land (Bloom and Bloom).
Due to the authentic approach the critics in this article take, this piece of criticism closely
incorporates views and knowledge of Willa Cathers life in order to make their point. Bloom and

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Blooms biographical criticism approach is helpful in understanding the text and also insightful
as far as reader interpretation is concerned. The article is mostly supportive of the interpretations
we discussed in class and creates a more fluid picture of the meanings of symbols in the story.
Because physical landscape encompasses the novel, and because the pioneer people and their
opinions are also displayed frequently, this article seems to justify concepts we identified in
class, focusing heavily on these two, though we discussed many more in our course.
The ideas discussed within the article align nicely with those we discussed during our
lecture throughout our time spent with A Lost Lady. First and foremost, the idea of nature is
found to be a significant part of this novel. The novel begins with descriptions of natural
aesthetics, specifically of Captains land as being beautifulthe way the creek wound through
his pasture, with mind and joint-grass and twinkling willows along its banks (Cather 5). In
class, we spent time talking about this natural element, especially when we discussed the ideals
of Captain Forrester in comparison to those of Ivy Peters. Captain prefers the aesthetic beauty of
the world, which explains the placement of his house atop a hill with a lovely creek running
nearby. He also has a large marsh area which he refuses to drain in order to plant crops because
he believes in the preservation of the land. Cather uses the natural elements in Sweet Water to
show the reader what kind of man Captain is and to share what he believes in old time
aristocracy.
Conversely, Ivy Peters wants to destroy the land. After the Forresters have some
problems with money, the marshland which Captain is so avid about preserving, is turned into
farmland by Ivy. He literally destroys the earth, which represents a break in the social structure
of the time and place. Cather uses this domination of the land as a way to show Ivys capitalistic
behaviors. If Cather had failed to place this novel in the country, there still could have been a

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story. However, the reader would not be able to understand the ideas of the old and new ways
coming to competition through these characters and their treatment of the natural setting
surrounding the story.
The article also parallels well with what we read because Bloom and Bloom talk about
the idea of the pioneer in Cathers stories. They consider the idea that Cathers pioneers were a
people fighting to master a language, to conquer the soil, to hold their land, and to establish
themselves a set of working ethical doctrines (Bloom and Bloom 78). Similarly, in A Lost Lady,
the pioneer is Captain Forrester, who is seen as the one who has hope and is the dreamer. This is
evident in his speech where he shares his philosophy on life:

Well, then, my philosophy is that what you think of and plan for day by day, in
spite of yourself, so to speak you will get. You will get it more or less. That is,
unless you are one of the people who get nothing in this world. There are such
people. I have lived too much in mining works and construction camps not to
know that you will accomplish what you dream of most because a thing that
is dreamed of in the way I mean, is already an accomplished fact. (Cather 44)

Captain believes in going after achievement, perhaps particularly thinking of the early American
Dream. He does not destroy nature and he values the physical beauty of the land. This is why he
decides to build his house where he does and why he [spends] long, happy days among his
flowering shrubs (Cather 68). He seems to be more concerned with natural elements of living
than with arbitrary, palpable things in life. The only real tangible thing he finds important is the
gifts he buys for Mrs. Forrester, like jewelry. What he finds more imperative than these gifts,

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though, is the ability to give Marian a beautiful life in the town of Sweet Water. His concern is
that she is happy, and that he can indulge her happiness using his old ideals.
I believe Bloom and Bloom wrote this article as a response to other critics who have
reviewed Cathers work and seen her approach of using the land in this type of detail as too
clich or as something that failed to contribute to the story as a whole. In rebuttal, they wrote that
Cathers frontier novels have certainly been aided by the choice of natural setting. They argue
that the reason Cather gets away with it is because the land is a common and spiritual meeting
ground for the characters she creates (Bloom and Bloom 82). Also, they claim that Cather
portrays large ideas on a reduced scale, which make them more relatable and more readerfriendly (Bloom and Bloom 84).
In my opinion, this article succeeded in proving its point about how Cathers novels need
to use the land to speak to the audience. Though I have not read other criticism, I know that the
novel would not have been the same if it had not been filled with nature. From the descriptions in
the first chapter, to the morning Niel picked flowers for Mrs. Forrester in the religious purity
[of] the fresh morning airunder the bluffs that overhung the marsh, it is obvious that the
natural elements of this story help it to progress and also help to illustrate characters present in
the novel (Cather 70). Even taking out one piece of the lands involvement would dislocate the
ideas that are consistent throughout the novel.
As readers of American novels, it is important to consider all aspects of what we read.
Though land and nature may not always be a determining and necessary component of a story,
there is typically a single superior characteristic that cannot be taken out of a story unless to lead
to its demise. Many of our A Lost Lady discussions in class pertained to the idea of land, which is
a primary symbol of the theme of aristocracy versus capitalism found in the novel. Personally,

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the land descriptions brought this idea to life, and I do not think I would have seen it otherwise.
The images Cather paints with her words, along with her concrete symbols, add to the story in an
entertaining fashion, while also helping the story to be understood more clearly, which Bloom
and Bloom seem to point out in their article.
Setting is obviously important in novels, and descriptions of land are something that
helps to set the scene, literally, for what is to come. Not only that, but they also lead us to a new
world, as well as define our characters and our place in time. Land is important to understand the
story of Captain and Marian Forrester. Without it, there would be less contrast between Captain
Forrester and Ivy, and therefore, the old and new ways of living. When physical changes can be
seen, it is easy to understand and realize there is something deeper going on, even if the reader
does not know what it is yet. Cather made an excellent choice to use the land as an indicator of
the sudden change found in the lives of the Forresters.

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Works Cited
Bloom, Edward A., and Lillian D. Bloom. Willa Cathers Novels of the Frontier: A Study in
Thematic Symbolism. Duke University Press 21.1 (1949): 71-93. JSTOR. Web. 20 April
2015.
Cather, Willa. A Lost Lady. New York: Vintage Classics, 1990. Print.