One of Willa Cather’s greatest works is a short story entitled “Neighbour Rosicky”. Willa Cather grew up in Nebraska among the pioneering European immigrants and her writing style portrays men and women who struggle to find meaningful lives in the midst of adversity. In “Neighbour Rosicky,” the story is about Rosicky’s journey through life with his family and his land. Basically, the short story chronicles Rosicky life from present to past through flashbacks. The story is filled with conflicts that poor people who are on the lower class of society confront in one’s lifetime. “Neighbour Rosicky” can be viewed from many different angles but love is the underlying theme that pervades and glues Rosicky’s past and present together.
When Doctor Burleigh told Rosicky he had a bad heart, Rosicky protested,
It’s your heart that makes you short of breath, I tell you. You’re sixty-five years old, and you’ve always worked hard, and your hearts tired. You’ve got to be careful from now on, and you can’t do heavy work anymore. You’ve got five boys at home to do it for you” (Cather 986).
The irony is that Rosicky has a bad heart, but it turns out that Rosicky has one of the best hearts a human being can have. Rosicky is very kind and willing to go out of his way to make someone else happy. He has been through many trials and tribulations; however, Rosicky has kept a good name and lived as a man of great dignity and character. The most important gift he gave was the gift of love to his family and friends. An example of this occurs after dinner when Rosicky says:
” You boys don’t know what hard times is. You don’t owe nobody, you got plenty to eat an’ keep warm. An’ plenty water to keep clean. When you got them, you can’t have it very hard” (Cather 999).
Rosicky reminds children that all their needs are satisfied. They have everything necessary to comfortably survive, enabling them to focus on deeply loving one another and the people around them. Financially, Rosicky is not the person most Americans strive to be like. Most Americans could not accept having just enough especially when America is viewed as “the land of opportunity.” As described in his flashbacks, Rosicky went through hard times but instead of making him bitter, those times enabled him to appreciate the value of something as intangible as love for one’s country, family, and friends.
In my own neighborhood there are examples of a “Neighbour Rosicky”. My neighbor had colon cancer a few years ago but survived. He was recently asking me about school and I told him what classes I was taking this summer during first session at Clemson University. He also asked about the classes and I said to him that I was having a difficult time deciding what to major in. He explained to me that I had not had much exposure to different people, places, and careers. I am from the lower area of the socioeconomic class and although I like many different things, I truly have not been able to experience all that interests me. My parents have no college degrees and I have no exposure to the upper echelons of society that I would at least like to reach one day. Rosicky journey to becoming a man started when:
“He was a lad of eighteen when he dropped down into London, with no money and no connections except the address of a cousin who was supposed to be working at a confectioner’s” (Cather 998).
The fact that my neighbor, having his own life and problems to deal with, actually took time out of his day to show the same type of love and care that Rosicky showed others in the story, proves that people like Rosicky still exist in this harsh world today. According to the narrator, Rosicky wife Mary thought of Rosicky in a great light:
“Mary wanted to jump up, but she sat still. She admired the way he never under any circumstances raised his voice or spoke roughly. He was city-bred and she was country-bred; she often said she wanted to her boys to have their papa ways” (Cather 992).
He and others stand out in many different people’s eyes because of their exemplary and unforgettable character.
“Neighbour Rosicky” is a story that is extremely powerful. Although many people around us are absorbed in their own affairs, there are still a few of the meaningful people who enter our lives to show us the importance of love for our fellow man. I am glad that I have an example of a neighbour Rosicky in my neighborhood. Neighbour Rosicky’s make life more peaceful.
