The Way of the World (short story)

The Way of the World is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in "Home Monthly" in April 1898 [Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, page 404] .

Plot summary

Six men live quietly in a Western town until a girl, Mary Eliza Jenkins, comes along. She makes friends with the mayor and the other men, until they let her become a full citizen and open a new restaurant. It is a success until a boy from Chicago comes along and she devotes all her time to him. When the others tell her he must go, she decides to start her own town with him nearby. Subsequent to her departure, the other men are unwilling to put in any work any more.

Characters

*Speckle Burnham, the local mayor and postmaster. He is also the local banker. The town was named after him.
*Mary Eliza Jenkins. She is a tomboy. She makes cream puffs in her restaurant.
*Jimmy Templeton, a grocer.
*Tommy Sanders, hardware store manager.
*"Shorty Thompson", pool room manager.
*Dick Hutchinson, museum director. He keeps bull snakes, turtles, pocket gophers, bullets from Chattanooga, and firearms.
*Reinholt Birkner. He runs a shop where he sells tombstones and caskets for animals. His father is an undertaker.
*New Boy, a boy from Chicago. He engrosses the others with tales of his trips to Lake Michigan and Lincoln Park.

References to other works

*Roman mythology and Roman history are alluded to through Latium, Coriolanus and the Volscians, and Gaius Marius.

Literary significance and criticism

The ending of "The Way of the World" was later echoed in "Flavia and Her Artists", with the reference to Caius Marius and the ruins of Carthage [Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, 'Introduction' by Mildred R. Bennett, page xxxvii] .

References

External links

* [http://libtextcenter.unl.edu/cather/writings/shortfiction/wayworld.html Full Text]