On the Divide

On the Divide is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Overland Monthly in January 1896.^[1]

1 Plot summary
2 Characters
3 Allusions to other works
4 Literary significance and criticism
5 References
6 External links

Plot summary

On the Nebraska prairie, Canute takes to drinking to forget his boredom after spending the first forty years of his life in Sweden. Lena takes to teasing him and going to church with him. One day, he asks her father if he can marry her and the father says no. He then proceeds to drag Lena to his house by force, drag a priest there by force too, and get him to marry them without the girl or the girl's father's consent. Later the priest leaves and Lena is left alone in Canute's shanty. She is scared of the rattlesnakes and the coyotes, but he stays outside, in the snow. As she opens the door he is sobbing.

Characters

Canute Canuteson
Jim Peterson
Ole Yensen
Mary Lee Yensen, Ole's wife.
Lena Yensen, Ole and Mary's daughter.
Anne Hermanson
Sorenson

Allusions to other works

Milton, Dante, The Bible, especially Eden, are mentioned.

Literary significance and criticism

On the Divide was Cather's first story to be published in a national magazine.^[2] In a 1938 letter to Edward Wagenknetch, Willa Cather admitted that On the Divide was retouched by one of her professors and submitted for publication without her consent.^[3]

The story bears similarities with O Pioneers!.^[4] Moreover, it has been noted that Cather's spare style parallels the harshness of the landscape.^[5]

References

^ Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, page 504
^ James Woodress, Willa Cather: Her Life and Art, New York: Pegasus, 1970, p. 73
^ Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, 'Introduction' by Mildred R. Bennett, page xxvii
^ Mildred Bennett, Early Stories of Willa Cather, New York: Dodd, Mead, 1957, p. 61
^ Marilyn Arnold, Willa Cather's Short Fiction, Athens: Ohio University Press, 1984, p. 4

External links

Full Text at the Willa Cather Archive

Works by Willa Cather

Novels:	Alexander's Bridge O Pioneers! The Song of the Lark My Ántonia One of Ours A Lost Lady The Professor's House My Mortal Enemy Death Comes for the Archbishop Shadows on the Rock Lucy Gayheart Sapphira and the Slave Girl

Short stories:	"Peter" "Lou, the Prophet" "The Elopement of Allen Poole" "A Tale of the White Pyramid" "A Son of the Celestial" "The Clemency of the Court" "The Fear That Walks by Noonday" "On the Divide" "A Night at Greenway Court" "Tommy, the Unsentimental" "The Princess Baladina - Her Adventure" "The Count of Crow's Nest" "The Burglar's Christmas" "The Strategy of the Were-Wolf Dog" "A Resurrection" "The Prodigies" "Nanette: An Aside" "The Way of the World" "The Westbound Train" "Eric Hermannson's Soul" "The Dance at Chevalier's" "The Sentimentality of William Tavener" "The Affair at Grover Station" "A Singer's Romance" "The Conversion of Sum Loo" "Jack-a-Boy" "El Dorado: A Kansas Recessional" "The Professor's Commencement" "The Treasure of Far Island" "A Death in the Desert" "A Wagner Matinee" "The Sculptor's Funeral" "Flavia and Her Artists" "The Garden Lodge" "The Marriage of Phaedra" "Paul's Case" "The Namesake" "The Profile" "The Willing Muse" "Eleanor's House" "On the Gulls' Road" "The Enchanted Bluff" "The Joy of Nelly Deane" "Behind the Singer Tower" "The Bohemian Girl" "Consequences" "The Bookkeeper's Wife" "The Diamond Mine" "A Gold Slipper" "Ardessa" "Scandal" "Her Boss" "Coming, Eden Bower!" "Uncle Valentine" "Double Birthday" "Neighbour Rosicky" "Two Friends" "The Old Beauty" "Before Breakfast" "The Best Years"

Short story collections:	The Troll Garden Youth and the Bright Medusa Obscure Destinies The Old Beauty and Others Five Stories

Collection of poems:	April Twilights

Non-fiction:	On Writing Not Under Forty

Collaborations:	The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science