The Sculptor’s Funeral Themes

Willa Cather’s short story “The Sculptor’s Funeral” explores the relationship between the artist and society. Cather portrays the townspeople of fictional Sand City, Kansas, as unrefined and amoral. Initially, it seems that Cather’s scathing descriptions of the townsfolk rely on rural, Western stereotypes. However, as the story progresses, Cather uses the townspeople to represent the “whirlpool” of societal expectations, vice, and greed from which Harvey Merrick, a sculptor, escaped to pursue his unconventional passion…

Judgment appears throughout “The Sculptor’s Funeral” to give various perspectives on the life of the deceased sculptor whose body is returning home for burial. Cather uses the townspeople’s harsh criticism of Harvey to illustrate the disparity between the toxic environment he came from and the art he went on to create. Gossiping about a living person might be a common occurrence in a small town, but Sand City citizens clearly never learned that one shouldn’t…

Returning to the place of one’s birth is a common theme in literature. However, Cather deviates from that identity-seeking narrative by having the sculptor’s return home occur after his death. Rather than have the eponymous sculptor tell his own story about his upbringing and its effects, the reader hears about Harvey’s life through the perspective of others. Harvey’s childhood included its fair share of familial trauma, a bizarre parental dynamic, and a town that…