The rationale of my research was mainly to help me understand a story about a time period that I know very little about. In past classes I have studied the history of the Civil War and World War I. I have never focused on the time period of what happened in the fifty years between them. I took the opportunity to use this story to inform myself of a major expansion in America at the turn of the 20th century. I never knew there was a major financial collapse in America that pre-dated the stock market crash and Great Depression of the 1920’s. I used my rationale for my research and applied it to my presentation to hopefully inform someone else about a time that I have seemed to overlook. The topic of “literary regionalism” used by Willa Cather in the 1920’s to describe and illustrate things she experienced in her youth supported my rationale for choosing it and the Burlington Railroad as a topic.
The main strategy that I used when developing my presentation was to create and follow and outline. The time period that I researched was so broad that I needed to stay focused. The outline I used helped to keep everything that I needed in order. I wanted to introduce examples from the book into my research of The Burlington and the real life characters from Willa Cather’s life. The outline was useful in helping me put the examples into the presentation. Another strategy that I am going to use during my presentation is to create a script in which to present my research to the class. The short time period that I had didn’t allow me sufficient time to memorize the information that I found. The amount of information was also a bit overwhelming to try to put to memory. I would have preferred to make the presentation seem more spontaneous and natural, although I feel there are too many dates and names to get confused and a script would work best in the end.
There were many obstacles that I faced when I set out to do this presentation. The most obvious obstacle was time. The time slot that I signed up for was the first spot to present and the last spot available on the sign up sheet. During the review of the syllabus I thought the project sounded interesting and something that I would look forward to undertake in the future. I normally like to prepare myself in advance and take my time doing a research project. The time allotted to do this project was significantly less than I normally would use. Another problem that added to my shortage of time was the timing of the presentation. A major presentation was not the way to ease my way back into the routine of college. Now having finished the project I can relax, but not too much, and not have to worry about it when the rest of my school schedule gets busy. I also went to my cabin for Labor Day directly after the first class, although I used that time to read the book. Then this past weekend was Rochester’s Art and Apples Festival. The problem with that is that I am a waiter at a restaurant called Kruse and Muer in downtown Rochester and I was forced to work an obscene amount of hours over the weekend. With the lack of time against me I had to employ tactics I normally don’t use such as waking up extra early to study and also studying instead of watching football. I found that in the end I am pretty good under pressure and that waking up early actually makes the day feel longer. The most relevant obstacle to my research was the choice of my topic. At first I thought the topic had to pertain to the 1920’s to 1950’s so I choose something boring that fit the period. What I thought that I wanted was in accordance with the time period A Lost Lady took place. Once I cleared the topic with you that I wanted I tried to begin my research again. I found that pioneering was far too broad of a topic. Pioneering occurred over too many years and in too many places to narrow it down. Even when I narrowed it to just Nebraska there was too much information. Willa Cather wrote about pioneering and the railroad in the time period in which pioneering started to decline. The reason pioneering began to decline was partly because the train made the country more accessible to the average person. More people were able to set out for the west and start a new life. That was one of the main reasons I incorporated the Burlington into my topic. The only other obstacle that I face is the fact that I am going first. I am unsure as to how exactly this presentation is supposed to go or how it is graded. With others going first I would have something to compare my research with and in turn produce a better presentation. I only hope that along with the main message of my presentation others will take away an understanding of what to do when it is their turn.
My research of Willa Cather was beneficial to me in many ways. I learned of a genre of writing that I knew nothing about. When I sit down and try to write my own stories I too plug in characters and places from my past. Had I been doing my writing in the 1920’s before technology virtually destroyed the region I too would be in this genre of writing. The style of writing used by Cather gives her stories so much more depth in my opinion because she actually lived through these experiences, and even if she didn’t the character she is writing about did. Her stories almost seem to be based on a true story type fiction, and gave true accounts of life in that era. By reading O’Pioneers!, My Antonia, One of Ours, A Lost Lady, and other Cather novels I feel like you are reading into the diaries of real people in prairie lands. This research project has been a useful tool in learning about an author through their own work and understanding her novel on a more personal basis. The project along with this class so far has opened my eyes to fiction that I would never have read on my own. I am curious to see if I will be able to get as much out of the other novels without doing research on them. I am looking for to starting the next novel for the class and to the rest of the semester.
Bibliography
Parry, David. “Willa Cather and the Burlington Railroad.” University of Nebraska-Lincoln. June 2000. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 11 Sep. 2005.
This article found on the university website was the most helpful article I had found for this project. It was easy to associate the article with the novel because the first paragraph is a direct quote from A Lost Lady. The article was useful in connecting the Burlington to Willa Cather and the characters in her stories. Red Cloud and its history with the Burlington are elaborated in depth. Then the article went through each story of Cather’s that contains a reference to the railroad. Then it gives examples how and who some of the characters were derived from her past. Another thing that I thought was interesting was that the article came from her alma mater.
“About A Lost Lady.” GradeSaver. 11 Sep. 2005.
This website was useful after I finished reading the book. This section was used to reveal some of the themes discussed not only in the novel, but while Cather was writing the novel. The ideas of “literary regionalism,” and the Age of Reform that I used for my presentation were originally drawn from this supplemental article. After revealing the themes the website then gives definitions of the themes. I found this useful in helping me understand the concept before I tried to research it further. The themes dicussed in this article were all easy to find more information on in other sources.
“Willa Cather State Historic Site in Nebraska.” Official Nebraska Government Website. 26 May 2004. Nebraska State Historical Society. 11 Sep. 2005.
This was the most visually pleasing website that I used for research. The maps that I for my presentation were used form the website. The site also had other pictures that were of importance to Red Cloud in Cather’s stories. This Garber bank, and railroad depot in Red Cloud were two things that I could associate with Sweetwater in a A Lost Lady. With each landmark referred to on the website it gives a description of where it could be found in one of Cather’s works and why it may have been important to her. I found the childhood home pictures to be especially interesting.
Anderson, Marty. “Sweetwater, Nebraska.” Jan. 2005. Buffalo County Historical Society. 10 Sep. 2005. <bchs.kearney.net/btales_200501.html>
This website was useful in the history of not only Sweet water, but the area around it. I mainly used the website to learn about the history of Sweetwater and how the name came about. The history given on the website goes all the way back to the aboriginal tribes that once inhabited the region. The article also tells of what happened to Sweetwater once the train stopped running to the town. There are a few pictures that show the remains of the ghost town left by the closure of the tracks. I found this article to be quite a history lesson in the rise and fall of a railroad town.
“The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.” Burlington Route. 10 Sep.2005.
When I needed dates for the westward expansion of the railroad this is the site that I came to. The website traces the history of the railroad since its inception. The website also gives the detail of the mergers the railroad has gone through during its expansion. I used the website to because it shows how Cather and her upbringing were affected by the railroad in Red Cloud. There is also a portion of the article that deals with the present state of the Burlington in America. This website helped to establish my timeline for my presentation.
