The White Mulberry Tree

Main Ideas:

In Part 4, “The White Mulberry Tree” of the O Pioneers, Cather writes to bring out the

theme of love and relationships. The protagonist in the story demonstrates Cather’s passion for

relationships and communal functions. After the wedding of Signa to Nelse Jensen, the marriage

turns to unhappiness. In the beginning, the two lived in happiness (love turns to despair).

Another incidence of fallen love is when the romance that existed between Emil and Marie turns

to the tragedy at the end. In the process, Emil shows himself to be self-pitying and pathetic, and

he is capable of either resigning from the reality or sharing in Marie’s pain. Marie shows

infidelity, even though Cather does not clearly state whether Marie committed adultery with

Emil (Cather 171). Cather, therefore, used these incidences to demonstrate the fallen love in love

and relationships.

Observations Regarding Style:

In the novel, Cather uses different techniques to pass out the message to the reader. One

of these techniques is the mythical allusion. Cather uses the mythological allusion as a way of

universalizing the experience which Emil and Marie go through. This is shown through Emil

and Marie’s death, which is alluded to the Pyramus and Thisbe myth. In the myth of Pyramus and

Thisbe, Pyramus and Thisbe, who are teenage lovers, lose their lives in the novel. This can be

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demonstrated by the statement, “For Emil the chapter had been short. He was shot in the heart,

and had rolled over on his back and died…But for Marie Shabata it had not been so easy. One

ball had torn through her right lung, another had shattered through the carotid artery…” (Cather

167). Cather has also employed the use of fiction in the story. In a real sense, the story does not

allow a successful romantic relationship. Every relationship ends in unhappiness or tragedy.

Along with the story, the reader can identify that death is not tragic as presented by Cather but

rather transcendent; it is the apex of ecstasy instead of eliminating love, as demonstrated by the

statement (Cather 158).

Ideas or passages you find frustrating, funny, interesting, or insightful:

In the novel O pioneers, The White Mulberry Tree, Cather directs the story to a fatal

coupling of love and death. His passage is quite frustrating since, along with the novel, there are

no successful romantic relationships. All relationships begin with happiness a