A study of the antimaterialistic themes in Willa Cather's major novels

During her lifetime, Willa Cather wrote and had published twelve novels, eight of which critics generally consider her major works. These eight books display the anti-materialistic theme common to all her novels. In the first chapter of this thesis the critical opinion of Cather's novels is reviewed. Then the way in which she constructed her major novels around an anti-materialistic theme is discussed. The novels, all of which used the virtues of the American pioneers to emphasize the theme, fall into three groups: the novels of the land, the anti-progress novels, and the novels showing reverence for the past. [...]