Willa Cather wrote My Mortal Enemy in 1925. The short novella is filled with symbolism that leaves the reader full of wonder. To fully understand and analyze the reading, one must research the background of both the author and novella. When one first reads the novella he gets a concept of its boldness and central theme, which revolves around characters Myra and Oswald. However, when the reader further analyzes the piece, and investigates Cather’s background, he is flushed with more vivid and realistic concepts, which seem to resemble a puzzle. Cather portrays the lives of those she knew personally through the use of her characters in My Mortal Enemy. Cather has employed this technique before. In The Profile, she portrays an acquaintance through…show more content… When Myra married Oswald, she decided to run away with him, leaving the fortune of her wealthy uncle behind. After a number of years, Myra and Oswald returned to Parthia, on a business trip. Every family member was elated to see Myra, as each they admired her as an eccentric person. Nellie, her niece, in particular was the most interested with Myra. Both Nellie, and Lydia are invited to spend the Christmas holidays in New York City with Myra and Oswald. While in New York, Nellie is filled with amazement, and enjoys her time with her family members. Not everything goes as planned however, as Nellie starts to notice the troubled marriage of Myra and Oswald. Ten years pass, Nellie’s financial situation takes a downward spiral forcing her to move to San Francisco. It is there where she reconnects with Oswald and Myra, whom she has been estranged from for sometime. Myra is no longer the extravagant women she once was, as she is suffering and is very ill. Nellie eventually visits the Henshawe’s and learns that they’re no longer a happy couple. Here she beings to notice another side of Myra, that is filled with remorse. In the end, Myra regret’s not taking her uncles fortune and marrying…show more content… In My Mortal Enemy we learn what Cather hoped to portray thought Nellie; the narrator of the piece. Nellie tell us the story of the Myra and Oswald Henshawe. However, with further research of the life of Cather, one can perceive that My Mortal Enemy was based upon the life of Hattie and S.S. McClure. The life’s of the Henshawe’s and McClure’s were reasonably correlated. Many other authors have noted these connections and thus stated how Cather “exercises the autobiographical impulse by melding details of her own life into her fiction "(Klein). These examples support my opinion regarding the work of
