The Enchanted Bluff
Encyclopedia
The Enchanted Bluff is a short story by Willa Cather
. It was first published in Harper's in April 1909.
, where Native Americans
used to live before the Spaniards came along. Once, the men were down the rock hunting and an army party up and killed them. The women and children starved to death on the rock, as the battlemen had also destroyed the stairs to go down the rock. The boys eventually get back to their house, and later talk about their plan to go there.
Years later, none of them ever made it to the Enchanted Bluff. Percy is a stockbroker in Kansas City
; Otto worked on he railway and has now taken up his father's tailor shop with his brother; Arthur had done nothing with his life. He tells the narrator he wants to go to the Enchanted Bluff and to the Grand Canyon
, but soon dies in the same old town. Tip, however, plans to go there when his son is old enough to go with him.
, when the protagonist of the novel comes upon the Blue Mesa.
Willa Cather
Willa Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...
. It was first published in Harper's in April 1909.
Plot summary
In Sandtown, a Midwestern town, six local boys talk about the stars and the river and places they'd like to go to. Tip mentions Enchanted Bluff, a rock surrounded by a plain in New MexicoNew Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, where Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
used to live before the Spaniards came along. Once, the men were down the rock hunting and an army party up and killed them. The women and children starved to death on the rock, as the battlemen had also destroyed the stairs to go down the rock. The boys eventually get back to their house, and later talk about their plan to go there.
Years later, none of them ever made it to the Enchanted Bluff. Percy is a stockbroker in Kansas City
Kansas City, Kansas
Kansas City is the third-largest city in the state of Kansas and is the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the third largest city in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The city is part of a consolidated city-county government known as the "Unified...
; Otto worked on he railway and has now taken up his father's tailor shop with his brother; Arthur had done nothing with his life. He tells the narrator he wants to go to the Enchanted Bluff and to the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
, but soon dies in the same old town. Tip, however, plans to go there when his son is old enough to go with him.
Characters
- The narrator, a boy at the outset of the story.
- Fritz Hassler, 10 years old at the outset of the story.
- Otto Hassler, 12 years old at the outset of the story. He is said to be good at mathematicsMathematicsMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
. - Mr Hassler, the German tailor.
- Percy Pound, a fat boy. He likes to read detective novels.
- Tip Smith, a redhaired boy
- Mr Smith, the grocer.
- Arthur Adams, 17 years old at the outset of the story.
- The gambler's sons, friends of Arthur's.
- Spanish Fanny's boy, a friend of Arthur's.
- Uncle Bill, Tip's uncle. He is a wanderer, who once came upon Enchanted Bluff.
- Bert, Tip's son.
Allusions to other works
- The Bible is mentioned, with direct references to the Holy LandHoly LandThe Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
, JordanJordanJordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, the Dead SeaDead SeaThe Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...
, and the Mount of OlivesMount of OlivesThe Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters . It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes...
.
Allusions to actual history
- Napoleon Bonaparte, Francisco Vásquez de CoronadoFrancisco Vásquez de CoronadoFrancisco Vásquez de Coronado y Luján was a Spanish conquistador, who visited New Mexico and other parts of what are now the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542...
, the Pilgrim Fathers, and the MormonsMormonsThe Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second Great Awakening. A vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a minority are members of other independent churches....
are mentioned in the history of Sandtown.
Literary significance and criticism
It has been noted that The Enchanted Bluff reappears in Death Comes for the ArchbishopDeath Comes for the Archbishop
Death Comes for the Archbishop is a 1927 novel by Willa Cather. It concerns the attempts of a Catholic bishop and a priest to establish a diocese in New Mexico Territory.The novel was included on Time's 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005...
, when the protagonist of the novel comes upon the Blue Mesa.
External links
- Full Text at the Willa Cather Archive