Willa Cather’s stories were thought to have great human gifts that were more often found among the obscure and ordinary people rather than those with great advantages. Willa Cather implements her characters within her stories by giving them meaning and purpose to another character. Cather’s characters that have the human gifts are gifts that are given to another character without “payment” or return. The gift itself are gifts that are meant to be given for free. The items are an expectation of reciprocity. The characters who have the human gifts are kind and thoughtful of another character. In Cather’s book Neighbor Rosicky, the main character Anton Rosicky is the gift giver in the story. The story is briefly about hard working farmer Anton…show more content… His name was Harvey Merrick. His body was being transported back to his hometown where he could be buried. His body was accompanied by his wife and his protégé Henry Stevens. They arrive with his body in the town of Sand City in Kansas at Harvey’s parents’ house. Harvey’s mother seems to be in great despair as she flopped over his body weeping, but the true emotion was only shown through Jim laird and Henry Stevens. Jim Laird was an old friend of Harvey. As Stevens and Laird were at Harvey’s parent’s place they both exchanged some stories. Steven then learns that Laird did not leave town like Harvey did. In the story all the towns folk gathered to talk about Harvey. The towns people then showed their ugliness and hatred toward Harvey. It showed that the town’s leaders hated him for his successes. The point of view of the town consisted of the greed and the materialistic drive for money. They disliked Harvey because of their different ideals and opinions. They all agreed that it was a blunder to send Harvey East to go to school. In Harvey’s defense, Laird defended him by pointing out their wickedness and different ideals. In the end Jim Laird was too drunk to attend his services and later died of a
