The Song of the Lark

The Song of the Lark Willa Cather - The Song of the Lark is a 1915 novel by Willa Cather. It is the second part of a thematic trilogy by Cather which tells stories of women in the emerging prairies of the American West. The trilogy is considered to be some of Cathers finest work, celebrated for bringing to life the rural West and its people in a way that had never been done before.The book follows the life of Thea Kronborg as she grows up in a small American prairie town and follows her ambition to be an internationally renowned singer. Theas story is a combination of Cathers own autobiographical experiences growing up in Nebraska and the life of a famous Scandinavian-American opera singer named Olive Fremstad.The novel is divided into six parts. The first one recounts Theas childhood in the fictional town of Moonstone, Colorado. When the book starts, she is eleven years old. She is the daughter of the local minister and has a reputation for being different and aloof. Though the adults in her family, particularly her mother and eccentric Aunt Tillie, are supportive of her, she has trouble getting along with her siblings and other children. She takes daily piano lessons for two to four hours a day.Her friends are all older men in the town: her piano teacher Herr Wunsch, a drunk out-of-towner who stays with the local tailor Mr. Kohler and his wife; the local physician Dr. Archie, who once saved her life when she had pneumonia as a child; Spanish Johnny, a Mexican wandering musician who lives in the Mexican Town outside of Moonstone; and Ray Kennedy, a train conductor who dotes on Thea and is waiting for her to grow older so he can marry her.One day, Thea plays piano at a concert in her local church and gets upset when her rival is praised above her. She continues to train with Wunsch, who first introduces her to opera. When Wunsch causes a scandal by getting drunk and wrecking Kohlers home, his students no longer want to be associated with him and he leaves town. At the young age of fifteen, Thea takes on Wunschs piano students as a full-time teacher, dropping out of school.