HUM 130
2/28/2012

1) Cather presents Professor St. Peter as ill-at-ease with modernity. Consider how the Professor’s anti-modernist inclinations overlap with those of others who played vital roles in the shaping of the U.S. Southwest, such as the Mugwumps or Cather, herself.
Specifically, you might consider how in a novel set largely in the Midwest, Tom Outland comes to personify elements of the romanticized Southwest, for the Professor, for other Midwesterners, and for the novel’s readers. The Professor has the same views as many of the people who shaped the south west especially the views of Cather. Cather and the Professor are not big fans of the changing ways in America, the economic drive in every industry made them upset. They both believed that the old world way of life was better and simpler, more pure in a sense than the new industrial very money motivated new world. Cather and the Professor are pretty much the same person, they both grew up in a more rural area, had older homes simpler lives. Then they both become very successful, they have means in which to do what they want which is ironic because they shun people trying to make a name for themselves and generate wealth. The Professor and Cather both have many similarities with the Mugwumps, again they are all against the "new money" Industrialists. They all also believe that the Southwest was a way to escape the industrial east. The problem that occurred with the Mugwumps and indeed with Cather is when they went to the Southwest they brought their own views and ways of life there. This belittled and cheapened the rich history of the native peoples. Cather shows this when she herself went to Mesa Verde, she did not like the fact they made a museum and told people stories about the artifacts. She wanted to view the items on their own in their own habitat. Cather did not like the selling of artifacts just like the Professor, but it is people like Cather and the Professor who in their own way encouraged and influenced people to visit the Southwest and take back artifacts. The fact that Cather in the Professors house and many of our other readings romanticize the Southwest shows that these authors liked its simple living. What these writers ended up doing was creating this fictional area in America in which people wanted to visit and become a part of, thus increasing tourism and sales of Indian artifacts. So the people that loves the Southwest for what it is ultimately were responsible for its doom and corruption