The Sculptor’s Funeral: Foil 1 key example

While both characters were able to leave Sand City for college on the East Coast, Jim returned to Sand City to become a lawyer (a profession valued by the Sand City community) and Harvey stayed in Boston to become an artist (a profession that their community looked down upon). It is notable that both men ultimately end up “successful,” but that only Harvey—before his death—finds happiness and a caring community (as represented by Steavens). Jim, on the other hand, is an unhappy alcoholic with no real friends.

In a pivotal scene in the story, Jim lambasts all of the townspeople at Harvey’s funeral for making him the unhappy man that he is, and he grieves the fact that he did not escape the town like Harvey did:

“I came back here and became the damned shyster you wanted me to be. You pretend to have some sort of respect for me; and yet you’ll stand up and throw mud at Harvey Merrick, whose soul you couldn’t dirty and whose hands you couldn’t tie […] There have been times when the sight of Harvey’s name in some Eastern paper has made me hang my head like a whipped dog; and, again, times when I liked to think of him off there in the world, away from all this hog-wallow, climbing the big, clean up-grade he’d set for himself.”

Cite this Quote

By juxtaposing Jim, the “whipped dog” who stayed in Kansas, with Harvey and his “big, clean up-grade” in Boston, Cather warns readers that following the “rules” of a traditional small-town community only leads to suffering, and that it’s worth the risk of leaving in order to become free. That said, Cather complicates her point somewhat in having Harvey die so young. Harvey’s death—and the subsequent return of his body to his hometown—suggests that it may not be possible to ever fully escape where one comes from.