50 pages • 1 hour read
Willa CatherOne Of Ours
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1922A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Book 3
Book 3 Summary: “Sunrise on the Prairie”
Claude continues to be disheartened by his unsatisfactory marriage with Enid. As Enid becomes more and more involved in the Prohibitionist movement (alongside Bayliss), she spends whole days away from home. She leaves Claude cold, depressing meals, which he consumes alone. She also spends a great deal of time collaborating with Brother Weldon and prohibits Claude from spending time with Ernest. Furthermore, because Enid is disgusted by all his attempts at physical intimacy, Claude has very few outlets for human connection.
Claude feels isolated and weary as he contemplates the disappointing reality of his American dream. He finds slight comfort in watching the growth of his gourd vine. Gazing at the vine, he begins to contemplate other countries overseas and other possible ways of life.
The Royce family receives a letter explaining that Enid’s sister Carrie is sick in a Chinese hospital. The letter requests that a family member come to care for her. Enid immediately insists that she must move to China (eager to fulfill her original goal and escape her marriage with Claude). Mr. Royce conveys his sympathies to Claude, saying, “A man hasn’t got much control over his own life, Claude. If it ain’t poverty or disease that torments him, it’s a name on the map” (361).
War rages in Europe, and Claude’s family continues to follow the news and pore over maps. One Sunday, Claude announces that he is leaving to join the army and fight against the Germans. Proud of his courage, the Wheelers support his move. Leonard Dawson also enlists in the army, citing his frustration with the recent sinking of the Lusitania.
The Great War generates suspicion of German immigrants in Nebraska, including neighboring farmers August Yoeder and Troilus Oberlies. Both men are tried, found guilty, and fined for making statements disloyal to the United States. On his way home from army training, Claude encounters a group of men harassing the friendly German proprietress in Lincoln. Claude defends her and decries their bigotry. He tells them, “There’s only one army in the world that wants men who’ll bully old women. You might get a job with them” (410).
Gladys learns that Claude is leaving for France with the army. She tells him she will never marry Bayliss and confesses her affection for Claude. When Claude wonders why she allowed him to marry Enid, she explains that she wanted him to follow his own path. She believes that Claude has chosen the right path by joining the army and escaping Nebraska.
In the final scene, Claude bids an emotional farewell to his mother. His mother watches him leave, distressed by the way her tears blur her vision. Even before he is fully gone, she feels she has lost her son.
Book 3 Analysis
In Book 3, Cather continues her subtle critique of American capitalism and the American dream. As his marriage ends, Claude contemplates the emptiness of the material objects he accumulated to furnish his home with Enid. This moment builds tension toward Claude’s imminent abandonment of the American dream in favor of a more noble and less selfish American identity as a defender and supporter of oppressed people. This rejection of crass materialism also foreshadows Mademoiselle de Courcy’s reflections in Book 5: “This war has taught us all how little the made things matter. Only the feeling matters” (631).
Book 3 further develops numerous symbols, including the concept of harvest and the image of the gourd vine. He regards the growth of the vine under the harvest moon and thinks “about the far-off times and countries it had shone upon” (342). He compares the moon itself to a plant—a “water lily”—and remarks that he half expects “to see its great petals open” (342). With this image, Cather shows that Claude himself is ready to bloom into a new man, into a more fully formed person.
Maps also continue to symbolize Claude’s changing relationship with his surroundings and his resulting decision to move abroad as a soldier. When Enid decides to move to China and assist Carrie, her father’s words become a catalyst for Claude’s own pursuit of another significant name on the map: Paris. In a sense, Claude’s decision to enlist and move to France can be seen as his counter-response to Mr. Royce’s words. Opposed to passively accepting defeat and lapsing into his feelings of purposelessness, Claude takes charge of his own destiny and moves toward the “name on the map.”
As Cather unspools Claude’s evolution in his American identity, she shows the complex discrimination experienced by German Americans. With the community trial of August Yoeder—who protests that he thought America “was a country where a man could speak his mind” (400)—Cather shows the unjust attention Americans directed toward innocent German civilians at the time. This theme is further developed through Claude’s confrontation with the men antagonizing the German proprietress. He points out the irony of their bullying by suggesting that contrary to their beliefs, it is anti-American. In this moment, Claude’s evolution, from a passively despairing young man to a proactive defender of others, comes to fruition.
Though One of Ours has received criticism for glorifying the Great War, Book 3 contains a few subtle moments that complexify Cather’s representations of the war. Most prominently, the ending of Book 3 foreshadows the bittersweet ending of the novel, highlighting Mrs. Wheeler’s sense of profound loss. Though proud of her son for moving on in his life and defending the rights of others, she knows she will deeply miss him, and she worries he may not return.
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By Willa Cather
