Willa Cathers Death Comes for the Archbishop: A Narrative Essay

Willa Cathers Death Comes for the Archbishop A narrativeWhen one thinks of a novel, a word that usually will precipitate to mind is parable. In fact, other meanings for the word novel are newfound and unique. Although an author may use real places, real time, or stalk their story on real events in part, their outcome is essentially a creation. We, as readers, are in a sense captive to the writers imaginativeness and essential conform to the rules of the worlds they create. If we accept this, then Willa Cathers piece Death Comes for the Archbishop must be seen as a narration, rather than a novel. She is not fabricating, moreover rather recounting the story of Father Latour (based on Father Lamy) and his experiences in New Mexico. Her descriptions of the landscapes and people are so recognizably accurate we kitty see her more as a reporter than a fiction writer in this book. For example she writes about the desert west of Albuquerque as a country of dry ashes no juniper, no rab bit brush, zilch but thickets of withered, dead-looking cactus, and patches of wild pumpkins which looks less like a p...