"O Pioneers!" and "A Wagner Matinee" were both written by Willa Cather. And both also posses qualities of Regionalism, Naturalism, and Realism. In "O Pioneers!", the life of the Bergson brothers is depicted like it is some kind of biography. In plain and simplistic writing, the lives of two people are depicted in detail, giving information about things that are unimportant but still relate to the story as a whole. These insignificant and most likely unimportant details are common coming from authors of Realism, and Cather is certainly no exception to this (Campbell "Realism"). Also, the events that are depicted in "O Pioneers!" are interesting but could also happen in real life, especially in the past. These events are not really heard of now because our country has already reached the Western boarders, but events like these are still talked about by many people. But in the time period, the events were pretty common because Westward expansion really was a way of American life at the time due to manifest destiny and the quest for more land and influence (Cather "O Pioneers").
Regionalism is depicted in "O Pioneers!" because of the dialect and speech used to describe things that seem like they were a part of the past, and not the language we are used to now (Campbell "Regionalism"). The very detailed descriptions of many things also apply to Regionalism, and "O Pioneers!" definitely had a lot of that present in the story (Cather "O Pioneers").
Naturalism is present as well but not as much as Regionalism and Realism. There are a few mentions of human nature and the Bergson brother's nature, but that is basically the extent of that (Cather "O Pioneers"). Keeping in tune with the theme of Naturalism, there is also no emphasis placed on religion, God, or any other higher power (Campbell "Naturalism"). There is also not a lot of philosophical matters so Naturalism does not seem to have a lot of influence in the story.
"A Wagner Matinee", which is also by Willa Cather, is extremely straight foward. It is about a matinee during a concert performance featuring various works by Wagner. This involves Realism immediately because people actually do attend permformances like this. It has happened in the past, it happens today, and it will most likely occur in the future as well.
The main characters are fairly straightforward as well, and they are the narrator and Georgiana, who is the narrator's aunt (Cather). Georgiana is visiting the narrator is Boston and because they apparently do not get to see enough of each other as they would like, they both are trying to make the most of their evening and enjoy each other's company while listening to Wagner. I, personally, do not see how anyone could enjoy anything while listening to Wagner. He has not seen her in a while, so he is happy to spend time with her while she is in Boston. Like I said, the narrator lives in Boston and his aunt is visiting him from somewhere out in Nebraska (Cather). Despire living in very different places in the country, they are both middle class, like many characters of realism are (Campbell "Realism"). The writing style of this story is also very descriptive so that also helps it fit into the Realism category. Just like in "O Pioneer!", unimportant details are described very thoroughlly so that they actually begin to seem like a very important part of the story instead (Cather "Wagner").
Regionalism plays a small part in this simply because of the main characters different states of residence and because of all the detail of the setting (Campbell "Regionalism"). The dialect seems to be affected by where the character is from, but there is also a lot of figurative language that makes that dialect seem less important. Naturalism definitely does not play a part in the story either. Nature is not mentioned and the story is so straightforward that not a lot of attention is paid to philosophical meanings and human nature (Cather "Wagner").
Campbell, Donna M. "Naturalism in American Literature. " Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. Web. 11 Feb 2011.
http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/natural.htm
Campbell, Donna M. "Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. Web 21 March 2010.
http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/realism.htm
Campbell, Donna M. "Regionalism and Local Color Fiction, 1865-1895." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. Web. Feb 10 2011.
http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/lcolor.html
Cather, Willa. "A Wagner Matinée." Glencoe American Literature. comp. Wilhelm, Jeffery. McGraw Hill. Columbus, OH. 2009. 521-526. Print.
Cather, Willa. "O Pioneers!" Glencoe American Literature. comp. Wilhelm, Jeffery. McGraw Hill. Columbus, OH. 2009. 489. Print.
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