Willa Cather: "A Wagner Matinee" - Read

Question 1

note

Answer 1

• Cather tends to rely more on imagery while Twain relies more on dialogue to create a piece of realism

Question 2

according to the narrator in paragraph 1, the fact that the letter sent to him from his Uncle Howard was “word and rubbed… as if carried many days in a coat pocket that was none too clean” might indicate that

Answer 2

• Uncle Howard lived far away from a post office

- Uncle Howard was reluctant to send the letter or was a procrastinator

Question 3

how does aunt Georgiana feel about her life, after the wagner matinee

Answer 3

she is torn between the responsibilities she feels for the farm and her love of fine music

Question 4

in paragraph 5 of willa cather’s “a wagner matinee,” aunt georgiana told her nephew, “don’t love it so well, clark, or it may be taken from you.” what did she mean?

Answer 4

the things you love too much are the things you lose

Question 5

in paragraph 12 of “a wagner matinee,” cather uses contrasting words like ripping of strings, battle of motives, frenzy of the theme and tall, naked house, black and grim, pitted with sundried tracks, dwarf seeldings, to

Answer 5

contrast the vigor and emotion of the music with the isolation and desolation of the farm

Question 6

in sec. 16 willa cather shows the plight of the immigrants coming to america in the incident of the young german who, as a boy, sang in an opera chorus. in america he became a farm-hand on the nebraska prairie, only to

Answer 6

get drunk, lose all his money gambling, and disappear