This paper examines Willa Cather’s multi-cultural viewpoint which tries to overcome dualistic, oppressive division between European and non European-culture, human culture and nature in Death Comes for the Archbishop(1927). Cather’s multi-dimensional and open-minded attitude which demonstrates concerns for estranged sectors from the European-centered, protestant, American government can be regarded as an ecological discourse in it’s focus on diverse and complex dimensions of the world in which we live.
Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop mainly focuses on the European missionary, Father Latour’s confrontation of indigenous people in the American West. During the expansional period in 19th century, there were two kinds of European attitudes toward the native people in the West. First they thought that native people should assimilate into the European culture. The intellectuals who were opinion leaders in 19th century American society insisted that native people can’t be civilized if they don’t learn English, accept Christianity and adopt the system of private ownership. Another group thought that indigenous people in the West were unable to civilize themselves, so they were doomed to annihilation on the earth. Father Latour, at first, thought that American Indians should adjust their way of living to American culture. While he was continuing his missionary work, he came to understand that native people have their own traditions which can’t be fully translated to Europeans. He realized that Indian culture is not inferior to, or defective compared to European culture. Latour admitted that it is impossible to overcome the gap between different cultures. However, this doesn’t mean that they can’t coexist. He comes to understand that non-European culture has it’s own invaluable history that can’t be easily judged by European standards. Father Latour’s multi-cultural attitude is closely associated with his love and care for nature. He learns from a Native American friend, Eusabio, about Indian attitudes toward nature. Eusabio’s wholistic view of nature regards human-beings as a part of nature, that is, like a fish or a bird, we just enjoy the earth for a little while and then disappear. Therefore, Indians try to erase their trace of life as much as possible. Latour’s romanesque cathedral made of local stones can be regarded as a symbol of an European who has a native American attitude toward nature. This can be explained as a unique American identity.
In this novel, Cather’s resistance toward any kind of dualistic oppressive division in communities, her caring attitude toward ostracized people and non-European others, as well as her wholistic world-view makes her one of the leading American ecological writers.