Mikaela

I know I'm suppose to be continuing in the study for American Literature as the midterm
is coming, yet I can't help marking down this feeling of mine, after reading Willa Cather's

Neighbor Rosicky.
I don't know why I feel so moved by it, and I really like her style, in which I feel totally

drawn to the
characters and mood of the whole setting. The protagonist, Old Rosicky really touches my

heart. Here are some quotes in
the story which I found inspiring:
"Those blank buildings, without the stream of life pouring through them, were like empty

jails. It struck young Rosicky that
this was the trouble with big cities; they built you in from the earth itself, cemented you

away from any contact with the ground. You lived
in an unnatural world, like the fish in an aquarium, who were probably much more comfortable

than they ever were in the sea."
"She had a sudden feeling that nobody in the world, not her mother, not Rudolph, or anyone,

really loved her as much as old Rosicky did. It perplexed her...
It was as if Rosicky had a special gift for loving people, something that was like an ear

for music or an eye for color. It was quiet, unobstrusive; it was merely there."
"Nothing could be more undeathlike than this place; nothing could be more right for a man

who had helped to do the work of great cities and gad always longed for the open
country and had got to it at last. Rosicky's life seemed to him complete and beautiful."

Maybe this doesn't give others the sense of how moving it is, you'd really have to read the
whole story to feel it. It just makes me think of what I want in life, the way Rosicky had

thought of seriously on the 4th of July afternoon. He was lucky though, he figured it out

when he was still considerably young. He had chosen life in the country, to own his own land

and live easily and enjoy the moment instead of hurring through life in the big city.
I think this story is very affectionate and warm as the personality of Rosicky, yet it also

brought subtle sorrow at the end when Rosicky died of a heartattack. I know that he is a

content man and he feels comfortable in the final place he rests, but I can't help feeling a

sense of loss.