The Song of the Lark

“A Mexican learns to dive below insults or soar above them, after he crosses the border.”

In this quote, Cather emphasizes the racial tensions and prejudice Mexicans face in the American West. This quote uses the metaphor of “soar” as the resilient ways in which immigrants pursuing the American Dream refused to allow prejudice to stand in their way.

“Nothing is far and nothing is near, if one desires. The world is little, people are little, human life is little. There is only one big thing—desire. And before it, when it is big, all is little.”

Professor Wunsch’s words here evoke Cather’s message about the nature of desire. The idea of leaving Moonstone intimidates its citizens because the world is complex and strange. But desire is a powerful human impetus that gives people courage. This quote also addresses the message that it is important to chase one’s dreams and talents, because life is short and can be meaningless unless an individual seeks happiness.

“It was a nature-voice, Wunsch told himself, breathed from the creature and apart from language, like the sound of the wind in the trees, or the murmur of water.”

This quote characterizes Thea’s singing voice as a type of beauty that is as natural as wind in trees and the murmur of water. This highlights Thea’s real talent and foreshadows her switch from piano to singing. It also helps to feature Thea as the lark in the title of the novel.

“She knew, of course, that there was something about her that was different. But it was more like a friendly spirit than like anything that was a part of herself. She thought everything to it, and it answered her; happiness consisted of that backward and forward movement of herself. The something came and went, she never knew how.”

Thea’s early signs of talent and ambition are important because they differentiate her from the other characters in the story. Thea is a literary heroine because she is different and finds happiness in that difference. This quote foreshadows Thea’s adventures and her growth to embrace the world outside of the familiarity of Moonstone. It also highlights that some people have inherent qualities that determine their future, even if they can’t fully understand those qualities. When Thea does identify that difference, she grows from a child into an adult.

“She curled up on the seat again with that warm, sleepy feeling of the friendliness of the world—which nobody keeps very long, and which she was to lose early and irrevocably.”

A marker of Thea’s childhood is that she is part of a warm community that supports and nurtures her. Growing up requires that she break away from the security of that privilege. Once she learns that the world can be a tough place, she can’t return to her childhood. This is an important foreshadowing of Thea’s journey to adulthood.

“But, of course, it was herself and her own adventure that mattered to her. If youth did not matter so much to itself, it would never have the heart to go on. Thea was surprised that she did not feel a deeper sense of loss at leaving her old life behind her. It seemed, on the contrary, as she looked out at the yellow desert speeding by, that she had left very little. Everything that was essential seemed to be right there in the car with her. She lacked nothing.”

This quote marks a major moment in Thea’s character development. Her departure from Moonstone is courageous and adventurous; it pushes her to grow up. Thea listens to her inner voice that propels her away from the safety of her family. She lacks nothing, because she believes in herself. This quote also highlights the value of independence and self-sufficiency.

“The thing that used to lie under her cheek, that sat so warmly over her heart when she glided away from the sand hills that autumn morning, was far from her. She had come to Chicago to be with it, and it had deserted her, leaving in its place a painful longing, an unresigned despair.”

Thea loses her belief in herself because of the stressors of Chicago. She is overwhelmed by the city, by work, and by loneliness. Her despair is important because it challenges her to push forward and find a way to be happy on her own. This quote marks her difficult adjustment to Chicago and foreshadows her journey to recreate her belief in herself.

“She liked even the name of it, ‘The Song of the Lark.’ The flat country, the early morning light, the wet fields, the look in the girl’s heavy face—well, they were all hers, anyhow, whatever was there. She told herself that that picture was ‘right.’ Just what she meant by this, it would take a clever person to explain. But to her the word covered the almost boundless satisfaction she felt when she looked at the picture.”

A crucial moment in Thea’s character development is when she finds herself in Jules Breton’s painting “The Song of the Lark.” This painting symbolizes Thea because it harkens back to her rural roots and portrays her connection to music. Thea is both the figure in the painting that is inspired by song and the singing lark simultaneously. This quote is also important because it portrays art’s ability to move people to self-discovery and action.

“She would have it, what the trumpets were singing! She would have it, have it,—it! Under the old cape she pressed her hands upon her heaving bosom, that was a little girl’s no longer.”

Engaging with music and art reinvigorates Thea’s sense of self. This quote marks her growth into a true artist. To become an artist, she leaves childhood behind and grows into adulthood. This is a major moment in Thea’s character development.

“Yes; but no cultivation whatever. She came to me like a fine young savage, a book with nothing written in it. That is why I feel the responsibility of directing her.”

Thea’s self-reliance defines her character; the people who helped nurture and train her into the artist she becomes define her character development. In this quote, Harsanyi notes that Thea has raw talent but no finesse. Training Thea becomes important to her ability to find herself as an artist. The use of the term “savage” in this quote also emphasizes Thea’s rough, rural background and how such a background is perceived in artistic circles in big cities.

“I think she will be a musician, whatever happens. She is not quick, but she is solid, real; not like these others. My wife says that with that girl one swallow does not make a summer.”

The expression Harsanyi’s wife uses here implies that Thea’s singing voice is good but that doesn’t mean it will always be good. This highlights the need for her to train her artistry. This quote also characterizes Thea, despite her gifts, as an average learner, but authentic. This characterization foreshadows her future struggle to maintain her authenticity and the success she achieves because of that authenticity.

“Perhaps that is why they interest one. All the intelligence and talent in the world can’t make a singer. The voice is a wild thing. It can’t be bred in captivity. It is a sport, like the silver fox. It happens.”

In this quote, Cather reflects on the attraction people have to singers. The human voice used for music moves and directly connects people. But the human voice is an instrument like any other and requires one to learn control. This quote compares the human voice to wild animals; this simile is appropriate to Thea’s upbringing in rural Colorado because her voice is as natural and inherently powerful as the wild animals.

“It was as if she had an appointment to meet the rest of herself sometime, somewhere. It was moving to meet her and she was moving to meet it.”

Thea has always had a premonition inside of her soul that has made her believe in herself. There is a version of Thea that is nascent and needs nurturing. This quote highlights Thea’s journey to achieve her full potential as an artist. This quote also depicts that Thea’s identity as an artist is inherent and permanent.

“There was an atmosphere of ease and friendly pleasure in the low, dimly lit room, and Thea could not help wondering whether the Mexicans had no jealousies or neighborly grudges as the people in Moonstone had. There was no constraint of any kind there tonight, but a kind of natural harmony about their movements, their greetings, their low conversation, their smiles.”

When Thea returns to Moonstone for a visit, she is mostly disappointed by the prejudices she uncovers in her siblings. Thea finds solace and inspiration in the Mexican community of Moonstone, who embrace her because she is talented and open-minded, and she shares her gifts with them with joy. This contrasts sharply with the white people in town. This quote captures the power of music to connect people across socially constructed boundaries of race, nationality, heritage, and culture.

“She was getting back to the earliest sources of gladness that she could remember. She had loved the sun, and the brilliant solitudes of sand and sun, long before these other things had come along to fasten themselves upon her and torment her.”

Thea’s visit to Panther Canyon is important to her character development. The expansive beauty of the canyon parallels her depth of character. She lets go of the stressors of city life and ambition. This break from the hustle of Chicago is important to Thea because it helps her reacquaint herself with her interiority and her core as an artist. This quote emphasizes The Connection Between Nature and the Psyche.

“One’s life was at the mercy of blind chance. She had better take it in her own hands and lose everything than meekly draw the plough under the rod of parental guidance. She had seen it when she was at home last summer,—the hostility of comfortable, self-satisfied people toward any serious effort.”

Thea has learned a valuable life lesson: Just because she has talent doesn’t mean she is entitled to success. Life may hand only a little luck, and Thea refuses to be the type of person who doesn’t seize every opportunity to create luck or push herself even harder when she finds good fortune. This is an important tenant in Cather’s depiction of the American Dream, in which hard work is coupled with chance. Thea’s visit back to Moonstone teaches her that people who rest on their laurels or become content with their meager lot become hostile to the type of effort Thea sees is needed to cultivate her gifts and talent, and no amount of luck without effort will change their outcomes.

“‘It’s only poor people who feel that way about money, and who are really honest,’ she said gravely. ‘Sometimes I think that to be really honest, you must have been so poor that you’ve been tempted to steal.’”

Thea’s background in dealing with poverty is an important layer of her characterization. Unlike people who come from legacies of wealth, such as Fred, Thea knows the brutal reality of poverty. Poverty has taught her how to sacrifice, work hard, and be resilient, but she also fears returning to poverty. Her background is important to her characterization, but it is also indicative of Cather’s version of the American Dream in which even the poorest child of immigrants can become successful.

“In short, he is one of the friends to whom we feel grateful for having got on in the world, for helping to keep up the general temperature and our own confidence in life. He is an acquaintance that one would hurry to overtake and greet among a hundred. In his warm handshake and generous smile there is the stimulating cordiality of good fellows come into good fortune and eager to pass it on; something that makes one think better of the lottery of life and resolve to try again.”

Dr. Archie is an important secondary character. This quote highlights his importance. He is authentically generous, supportive, and kind. Dr. Archie believes in Thea because in believing in Thea, he can believe again in the potential of life to be good and happy. Dr. Archie is a rare specimen of a person who is well-liked, honest, and genuine. He is a crucial ally in Thea’s character development.

“The children you don’t especially need, you have always with you, like the poor. But the bright ones get away from you. They have their own way to make in the world. Seems like the brighter they are, the farther they go.”

On Mrs. Kronborg’s deathbed, she reflects on the double-edged sword of being a mother. As a mother, she is loving and proud. She loves unconditionally and doesn’t want to hold her children back with that love. At the same time, she recognizes that the consequence of being a good mother is that her children grow into the people who leave her. Thea is particularly bright and successful, which is what creates a distance physically and emotionally between her and her mother. This quote celebrates the important sacrifices that mothers make for their children.

“The homely reunion, that he had somehow expected, now seemed foolish. Instead of feeling proud that he knew her better than all these people about him, he felt chagrined at his own ingenuousness. For he did not know her better. This woman he had never known; she had somehow devoured his little friend, as the wolf ate up Red Riding Hood.”

Dr. Archie has to reckon with Thea’s growth and change. Thea is no longer the little girl he once adored, and he has to accept that that is part of growing up. Dr. Archie doesn’t have children, so Thea’s growth into adulthood is his closest experience with coming to terms with how children shift as adults. The allusion to the story of Little Red Riding Hood is important because it implies that Dr. Archie still feels protective over Thea, as though she is still a little girl. He doesn’t yet realize that part of Thea’s power is her strength and independence.

“Up to a certain point, say eighty degrees, artistic endeavor could be fat and comfortable, methodical and prudent. But if you went further than that, if you drew yourself up toward ninety degrees, you parted with your defenses and left yourself exposed to mischance.”

In this quote, Cather highlights the delicate balance artists face in developing their craft. An artist must find their own identity without sacrificing the technique of their craft; otherwise, they risk the integrity of their art. This quote is important because it highlights that Thea’s success is largely because she finds that balance through sacrifice and hard work.

“I began the world on six hundred dollars, and it was the price of a man’s life. Ray Kennedy had worked hard and been sober and denied himself, and when he died, he had six hundred dollars to show for it. I always measure things by that six hundred dollars, just as I measure high buildings by the Moonstone standpipe. There are standards we can’t get away from.”

Thea never intended to marry Ray, so his dying gift leaves a weight on her heart. She realizes she was lucky to have the opportunity to pursue her art. This quote is important because it indicates Thea’s brand of sentimentality is rooted in practicality and pragmatism, which seems strange when juxtaposed with her creativity. The depth of her character is that she can’t be reduced to or easily described by character tropes. Thea is not entirely a “suffering artist,” because she figures out how to succeed, nor is she captivated by the passions that drive creativity. Her family’s Scandinavian pragmatism, love of nature, and Protestant work ethic are other standards she can’t fully escape.

“Wagner says, in his most beautiful opera, that art is only a way of remembering youth. And the older we grow the more precious it seems to us, and the more richly we can present that memory.”

This allusion to Wagner is a lasting connection between Thea and her first believer and teacher, Professor Wunsch. Wunsch influenced her music education in childhood, and Thea finally acknowledges the impact her childhood in Moonstone has on her life as an adult and an artist. Being an artist means evoking that childhood, which celebrates Moonstone despite the flaws Thea perceives in the town and its culture.