connections, and in doing so reveal a truth about the world we had not previously recognized." This quote, taken from Gabriele Rico, holds true for Willa Cather's writing. Cather's metaphors and similes, as well as the her symbolism, help readers make personal connections to the characters and settings in her short stories. Willa Cather, using detailed descriptions and figurative language, develops complex, thought provoking characters and settings while also including a significant amount of symbolism in her short stories.

A major part of Cather's writing revolves around detailed descriptions and figurative language, which she uses to develop complex, thought provoking

characters. In each of Cather's stories, one is sure to find several metaphors, similes, and descriptive sentences that assist in forming a mental picture of the characters in the reader's mind. In Cather's short story, "The Willing Muse", she presents the reader several of these metaphors and similes to describe the main character, Kenneth Gray. "Coercion and encouragement spent themselves on him like summer rain." (TWM pg. 114) Cather shows the reader how easily Kenneth attracts

banners, along with a great amount of detail which enables the reader to picture the setting, the Polar Sea, in his/her mind. Cather also uses a large amount of detail to create a complex environment for the story to take place in. "The following Sunday was fine, the sodden November chill was broken by the last flash of autumnal summer. The children played on the streets; there were so many of them that the place resembled a kindergarten. The men on the steps, all in their shirt sleeves, their vests unbuttoned, sat with their legs well apart, their stomachs comfortably protruding; and talked of prices of things, or told anecdotes of the sagacity of their various chiefs and overlords." (PC pg. 249) This description gives us a glance at the

hysterical brilliance and he continually used them in a conscious, theatrical sort of way, particularly offensive in a boy. The pupils were abnormally large, as though he were addicted to belladonna, but there was a glassy glitter about them which that sort of drug does not produce." (PC pg.243) Cather gives a very clear physical description of Paul, paying special attention to his eyes, which help the reader visualize them. As one can tell, figurative language and detailed physical descriptions are essential to creating interesting and thought provoking characters in Cather's stories.

life in his old home town, but that was where he thrived, when he moved to

looseness of articulation about his gaunt frame that made his every movement

Using detailed descriptions and figurative language, Cather develops complex, thought provoking settings. Since setting plays an important part in Cather's stories, she spends a large amount of time describing it. The following quote is a prime example of Cather's use of metaphors and similes to add depth to the setting. "At last there lay before them the boundless stretch of the Polar Sea. Dark and silent it was, as mysterious as the strange secret of the Pole which it guards forever. Here and there where the ice floes had parted showed a crevice of black water, and the great walls of ice glittered like flame when the northern lights flung their ice banners across the sky and tipped the icebergs with fire." (SWWD pg. 445) In this description Cather compares great walls of ice to flames and northern lights to ice

gets a very clear picture of this characters from two different viewpoints. The reader knows exactly what this

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Approximate Word count = 1638
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)