Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Book Reports Enchanted Bluff Enchanted Bluff "The Enchanted Bluff", by Willa Cather, takes place in the bare cornfields of Nebraska during the early 1900’s where only rivers liven up the landscape. Six boys delve into the idea of a city on top of a bluff in the desert, they become captivated with the idea of visiting the bluff. The boys eagerly discuss ways of dominating this mystifying bluff: throwing up a ladder, or using a rocket. All the boys vow to get to the bluff some day. Twenty years pass and none visit it. One of the young boys tells the story to his son and his son thinks of nothing else but the bluff. The author does an excellent job of providing vivid imagery throughout the story, which helps the read to capture a real sense of the town. The tone helps the reader to imagine not only the bluff, but more importantly paints a descriptive picture of the people and everyday life in the town. In the "Enchanted Bluff", Willa Cather uses local color to convey descriptions of both the setting and characters to create the relaxed tone of the story. The characters are vividly described through the relaxed tone of the story. Cather, for example, describes how "… Fritz and Otto were sons of the little German tailor…ragged boys of ten and twelve with sunburned hair, weather stained faces and pale blue eyes (Cather 412). " Through these detailed descriptions, the reader can see that, " Cather possesses an extraordinary knowledge of what ordinary people feel and think in their daily lives (Wells). Through Cather’s descriptions, the reader gets a feeling as though the characters are actual people. The reader gets a sense of how the boys lived when Cather mentions how, "Tip worked hard in his father’s grocery store every afternoon, and swept it out before school in the morning, even his recreations were laborious (Cather 413). When reading Cather’s works, there is a feeling that she "taught the best of all philosophies, that of love, hard work, and courage (Wells)". Through the tone of this story, the reader easily senses that this old fashioned town run with hard work and honesty is careless. The author does an excellent job of describing individuals in the town such as, "Percy Pound who took half a dozen boys story papers and was always kept in reading detective stories behind the desk (Cather 413). Cather’s writing style shows an "unhampered zest for enjoyment"(Wells). The reader gets the feeling that the character Percy Pound is a young laid back inquisitive boy who likes adventures. Willa Cather not only uses local color to show descriptions of the characters in the story but also in conveying the setting. Willa Cather provides vivid imagery throughout the story to set the relaxed tone. The reader imagines a very descriptive portrait of the boys’ hometown when the story mentions how " the oblique rays of the light made a dazzling glare on the white sand about us (Cather 411). "Realities and fantasies…her art is a method of preserving the wonder of youthful happiness (Wells). When reading this Willa Cather paints a vivid portrait of where the six boys would unwind and chatter about the latest occurrences. The river was brown and sluggish, like any other of the half dozen streams that water the Nebraska corn lands "(Cather 411). The reader gets a feeling that " Willa Cather art is essentially one of gazing beyond the immediate scene to a timeless sky or a timeless room (Wells). The tone of this quote is that the river symbolized freedom and leisure time for the boys. "… The sand bar grew fresher and smelled of the rank ironweed and sunflowers growing on the flatter shore (Cather 411). Cather’s works are popular because, "the hearth of human worth of feeling pervades everything is fire pervades the center of the earth "(Wells). The reader gets a feeling that they are actually in the Nebraska cornfields. Through the setting the relaxed tone of "The Enchanted Bluff" is revealed. With the use of local color, Willa Cather conveys vivid descriptions of both the setting and characters to create the relaxed tone of the story. "The Enchanted Bluff" takes place in the Nebraska frontier where the entire landscape is bare with the exception of a few rivers. The vivid imagery, which the author uses throughout the story, gives the reader a realistic sense of the town and, therefore, effectively conveys the relaxed tone. Bibliography: N/A Word Count: 747
Copyright © 2005 College Term Papers, INC All Rights Reserved.