50 pages • 1 hour read
Willa CatherOne Of Ours
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1922A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Book 2
Book 2 Summary: “Enid”
Claude continues to feel drawn to Enid, and he begins to converse with her more regularly. He learns that she is deeply religious and somewhat eccentric. A dedicated Prohibitionist, she practices an austere lifestyle that includes vegetarianism. She longs to move to China and join her sister Carrie, who works there as a missionary. He also learns, much to his dismay, that Enid has a longstanding admiration for Brother Weldon. When Claude mentions his friendship with Ernest Havel, Enid disapproves because Ernest is an atheist.
One afternoon, Claude’s mules, startled by the sound of a nearby motor truck, drag Claude into a barbed wire fence. He is badly injured, and his facial lacerations become deeply infected. His infections worsen because he attempts to go back to work too soon and becomes overheated. The painful injuries force him to stay in bed all day with bandages over his head. During his long hours of inactivity, Claude feels plagued by a profound sense of meaningless and a lack of belonging.
Enid regularly comes to visit Claude while he recovers. In his state of loneliness and his terror of meaninglessness, Claude begins to cleave to Enid for a sense of purpose. He convinces himself he is in love with Enid and decides to marry her.
When Claude asks Enid’s father for his blessing, however, Mr. Royce tries to deter Claude from proposing. Mr. Royce explains that his daughter is not interested in marriage and is fixated on the idea of moving to China, even though he disapproves of this idea. Claude vows to change Enid’s mind about China and hopes that over time, she will grow as fond of him as he is of her. He feels disheartened when she initially refuses his proposal. Nevertheless, he persists until Enid agrees to an engagement.
Meanwhile, the Great War breaks out in Europe, and Claude’s family becomes increasingly interested in news coverage. Claude and his mother look over maps and share in the same distress when the Germans seize Paris. Though Claude has been avoiding Ernest in adherence to Enid’s desires, he converses with Ernest about the war, eager to hear a Bohemian perspective on events. Ernest feels these developments are inevitable and that no one can stop the German army. When Claude expresses his disagreement, Ernest replies, “You Americans brag like little boys […] I tell you, nobody’s will has anything to do with this. It is the harvest of all that has been planted. I never thought it would come in my lifetime, but I knew it would come” (275-76).
Claude devotes himself to building and furnishing a beautiful house for Enid. He takes particular pleasure in planting an ornamental vine of gourds and squashes, inspired by a similar vine the German proprietress grew at her restaurant in Lincoln. Though Enid seems unimpressed and disinterested in the house, Claude tells himself that her mood will transform once they are married. After their wedding, however, Enid shuts Claude out of the bedroom on their Pullman train car heading for Denver. Claude feels a deep sense of loss over this rejection of intimacy; it is the first of many to come.
Book 2 Analysis
Cather continues her critique of American capitalist work obsession through Claude’s work-related injury. His injury comes about as a result of overworking to distraction, ultimately worsened by Claude’s refusal to rest. His use of work as distraction becomes all too clear when he is bedridden, and his old feelings of aimlessness and purposelessness come back full force. Claude’s injury itself, which requires that he wear bandages over his face and eyes, also symbolically diminishes his vision and limits perception of his surroundings. Thus, Claude lacks the oversight to assess his own desperation when he latches onto Enid, whom he admires “merely because she is accessible” (60).
Claude’s interest in Enid aligns naive, oversimplified masculine/feminine gender roles with his concept of the American dream. He believes that by building the house of his dreams and filling it with charming objects, he will create a “home” in which he will feel a sense of belonging—of being “one of ours”. Though Enid seems unreceptive to his American dream, he remains firm in his conviction that marriage will change her. Cather does not overtly condemn Claude’s desire for a traditional home, wife, and family as chauvinistic or sexist, but she suggests that his estimation of Enid’s character—and his own—is shortsighted. Distracted by notions of what he thinks the American dream is supposed to be, Claude fails to recognize how poorly matched he and Enid are, both in compatibility and in aspiration for the future.
Despite Claude’s distraction, Book 2 begins to foreshadow his future move to France with developments that draw his attention overseas. Though Claude actively attempts to dissuade Enid from traveling to China, he acknowledges the appeal of moving to somewhere distant. As the war breaks out in Europe, Claude and his mother similarly pore over maps, looking up the locations of towns they read about in the newspapers. Maps continue to appear throughout One of Ours and evolve as complex symbols of “things far away,” even though the “faraway” place transitions from France to Lovely Creek.
Book 2 also develops growth and harvest as symbols. Ernest references a figurative harvest when discussing the Great War with Claude, claiming German military success cannot be stopped, as it is the natural result of “all that has been planted.” As Claude begins to subconsciously contemplate life in another country, he plants a gourd vine, modeled after one he saw with the German proprietress. This gourd vine symbolizes Claude’s soon-to-come harvest: his decision to enlist in the army and his own growth into a man.
The ending of Book 2 continues the novel’s use of transportation as a metaphor for Claude’s transitions in life, featuring a scene with newly married Claude and Enid traveling on the train. When Enid shuts Claude out of their Pullman sleeper car, she foreshadows the ways in which she will shut Claude out of their marriage. This scene meaningfully ends with a conversation that insinuates Enid’s future callousness and Claude’s future loss. As they leave the train, Claude asks if she has checked for missing items, and she declares, “Yes. I never lose things on the train—do you?” to which Claude replies, “Sometimes” (331).
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By Willa Cather
