Willa Cathers Death Comes to the Archbishop: A Narrative :: Willa Cathers Death Comes to the Archbishop

Willa Cathers Death Comes to the Archbishop A NarrativeThough many reviewers of Willa Cathers, Death Comes to the Archbishop, had difficulty classifying the book, Cather herself like to call it a narrative rather than a young. I tip to agree with Cather. One definition from Websters New World College Dictionary defines narrative as a account, which is then defined as, the revealing of a happening or connected series of happenings, whether true or fictitious. A novel on the other hand is defined as having, a more or less complex plot or pattern of events.Where most books tend to follow certain guidelines as to plot, Cather chooses to take a different route. Trying to create a tale that involves clever plot twists, bizarre characters, a telling climax, and a fitting denouement, would detract from the simple story she is telling. It is the story of ii French priests who have been sent to the American Southwest to rejuvenate the Catholic churches in that diocese, during the late 18 00s. The southwest, during this time period, was harsh and unhurried, and its indigenous people lived simple, remarkable lives. In keeping with the atmosphere of her story, the book is written almost as though her two main characters are keeping journals. The stories of Bishop Latour and Father Vaillant, who have adopted this rugged lifestyle, are told in little vignettes separated by chapters. Each vignette narrates a meaningful incident in their lives. I find it interesting that each chapter, or vignette, can stand on its own as an independent ill-judged story, yet it is woven together to create a tapestry of the Fathers lives, with the people they meet and places they go tying it all together. Cather put it best when, in the book, she says, law-abiding them thus in repose, in the act of reflection, Father Latour was thinking how each of these men not only had a story, but seemed to have become his story (182).This type of narrative writing gives believability to the people, and a sense of realism to the story.