Inner Struggle and Battle Against Materialism in Willa Cather's The Professor's House

In this paper, Willa Cather's The Professor's House is examined for the way it portrays the protagonist's fight against materialism and quest for something magnificent in the contemporary wasteland. The novel contains side-stories about the pursuit of a more meaningful American ideal as well as accounts of the depraved morals and emotional void that by the 1920s completely defined that ideal. While balancing her feelings between her two emotionally dependent sons-in-law, Lillian St. Peter strives to comprehend her changed husband. Louie, who was never able to go to college, attempts to get into that world of learning by becoming a member of the Arts and Letters Club, purchasing the affections of his father-in-law and the college-educated Scott, and purchasing furniture that reflects sophisticated preferences. Key Terms: War, Dream, Struggle, Utilitarianism, Pioneer, Materialistic.