"A Lost Lady"

Paper Summary:

The paper explains that Willa Cather tells the story of the fall from grace of a lady to a railroad pioneer in the age of westward expansion. The paper describes the story, discussing its main themes. The paper discusses the parallels between the central female character in this story and the fall of the western frontier to the railroads and modernization. In conclusion, the writer states that Cather's story can be read as a 1920s version of Genesis, in the Bible, where Eve in her innocence and purity falls from grace through the temptations of the devil. The writer states that this is a theme and lesson that is universal in human life and is the main theme that makes this novel appeal to readers.

From the Paper:

"Neil Herbert, the nephew of Judge Pommeroy, is the central character through whose eyes we see most of the story, visits the Forrester's place during the summer to fish with a group of his young friends. Neil is polite even at the age of 12, and asks for permission to use the Forrester's grounds, which Mrs. Forrester of course grants. In addition to this, she has her cook bake the boys a batch of cookies for their lunch, demonstrating her kindness and generosity. In this opening scene we also meet "Poison" Ivy Peters who later in life contributes to the fall of Mrs. Forrester. Peters is nineteen and hunts without permission of the Forrester's land. Peters and Neil are at once antagonists to each other since the two had met. Along the marshes where the boys are fishing, Ivy Peters shows an omen of what he is to become. He robs a woodpecker, a female, of her vision out of sheer cruelty. This foreshadows what he will do to Mrs. Forrester. Like the woodpecker we see at the beginning, Mrs. Forrester leads a life carefree to her environment and those who surround her. Ivy Peters as a lawyer in his adulthood, in some sense takes away her vision of life, destroying her sight and bringing about her blind madness. He robs Mrs. Forrester not only of her dignity, but Neil's cherished childhood memories of beauty and dignified life. In his youth at age 12, Neil tries to put the blinded woodpecker "out of its misery". His pity and attempt at saving the woodpecker from a miserable existence fails when he falls and breaks his arm. Later in life as a young man, he tries to save Mrs. Forrester from her blind existence and in so doing also falls as his vision of a great lady is tarnished by her affairs with Ivy Peters."

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