The major themes in Cather"s The Professor"s House all seem to collide in the section of the book called "Tom Outland"s story." The art, religion, and nature themes are all highlighted in this section of the book. Almost from the beginning of "Tom Outland"s Story" Cather sets up her conflicts. Not that she hasn"t been doing this all along. The change in tone, which has moved to deliberate, almost ritualistic, has highlighted the art, religion, and nature themes from the previous section of the book, "The Family." In "The Family," Cather seems to just let her story go, that is, she seems to be writing it as it comes to her. There are definitely a few themes that she wanted to touch on and set them up, but, in general, she seems to be more concerned with just letting us know what those themes are and introducing her characters. On the other hand, Cather seems much more interested in presenting her themes, though no less interested with developing her characters in "Tom Outland"s Story." In other words, Cather"s agenda is much more obvious in "Tom Outland"s Story" than it is in "The Family." The only theme that this doesn"t apply to is the the greed/ money theme that is closer to forefront in "The Family," and though present, is not stressed in "Tom Outland"s Story" as much.

             Ironically, the first theme that is set up in the first chapter of "Tom Outland"s Story" is the greed/money one. Tom says of Blake after the night that they first met that "He was the sort of fellow who can do anything for somebody else, and nothing for himself." (164) This is one of the bits that sets up Blake seeming to cross Tom by selling all the artifacts that the two had uncovered much later in the book. If we paid attention to this little tidbit, then we will know that Blake did what he did while Tom was in Washington D.