The Effects of Setting

Author Willa Cather embedded literary devices, such as metaphors, similes, and personification, within her writing.

"As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running."

"The grave, with its tall red grass that was never mowed, was like a little island."

"Winter comes down savagely over a little town on the prairie. The wind that sweeps in from the open country strips away all the leafy screens that hide one yard from another in summer, and the houses seem to draw closer together. The roofs, that looked so far away across the green treetops, now stare you in the face, and they are so much uglier than when their angles were softened by vines and shrubs.


Chunk #1:  In the time of a crisis, people come together to solve and deal with the issue. In, My Antonia, the winter was  a rough time for all the characters, so they came together to help one another. One of the quotes states, "the houses seem to draw closer together." It looked as if they were physically moving closer, and mentally they were because everyone helped everyone else. Which made the characters within the novel come closer together.

Chunk #2:
I have always dreamed of going to New York City, The Big Apple. I imagine the noises of traffic seeping through my window in the wee hours of the morning, and the smell of the cultural food on the streets. I wonder about the experience of shopping on Fifth Avenue or visiting the grand museums. I fear for the homeless in the alleys and the smell of the subway. New York has spoken to me through movies and songs. I cannot imagine that what I see in the movies is what I will see in real life, but I will not know until I go. I am sure New York will be an experience for me. Good or Bad? I do not know.