The Burglar's Christmas

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The Burglar's Christmas is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Home Monthly in 1896 under the pseudonym of Elizabeth L. Seymour, [1] her cousin's name. [2]

Willa Cather American writer and novelist

Willa Sibert Cather was an American writer who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and My Ántonia (1918). In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours (1922), a novel set during World War I.

Home Monthly was a monthly women's magazine published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the late 19th century.

Contents

Plot summary

Out in Chicago on Christmas Eve, two shabby-looking men are considering getting food after they have not been eating for days. Crawford is too tired to walk however, so the other homeless goes off by himself. Crawford considers stealing the food as he cannot pay for it, but when a woman drops a parcel he gives it to her instead of running off with it. He feels as if he is a failed thief, in the same manner as he has failed at everything - college, journalism, real estate, performing. He then walks into a house in an attempt to steal the jewellery, and his mother finds him there. She says she forgives him for everything; his father remains distant. They have dinner and he feels warm again.

Chicago City in Illinois, United States

Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States. As of the 2017 census-estimate, it has a population of 2,716,450, which makes it the most populous city in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the United States, and the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, which is often referred to as "Chicagoland." The Chicago metropolitan area, at nearly 10 million people, is the third-largest in the United States, the fourth largest in North America, and the third largest metropolitan area in the world by land area.

Christmas Eve Evening or entire day before Christmas Day

Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation of Christmas Day. Together, both days are considered one of the most culturally significant celebrations in Christendom and Western society.

Characters

Allusions to other works

Robert Browning English poet and playwright of the Victorian Era

Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of the dramatic monologue made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. His poems are known for their irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings, and challenging vocabulary and syntax.

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came poem by Robert Browning

"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" is a poem by English author Robert Browning, written in 1855 and first published that same year in the collection titled Men and Women.

<i>Danse Macabre</i> artistic motif on the universality of death

The Danse Macabre, also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death: no matter one's station in life, the Dance Macabre unites all.

Literary significance and criticism

It has been argued by critic Sharon O'Brien that this rewriting of the prodigal son theme bears some resemblance to Willa Cather's own relationship with her mother. [3]

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References

  1. ↑ Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 November 1970, page 585
  2. ↑ William M. Curtis and Willa Cather, The World and the Parish: Willa Cather's Articles and Reviews 1893-1902, Volume 1, University of Nebraska Press, 1970, page 307
  3. ↑ James Leslie Woodress, Willa Cather - A Literary Life, University of Nebraska Press, 1989, page 122
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