Author Willa Cather embedded literary devices, such as metaphors, similes, and personification, within her writing.

"As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running."

"The grave, with its tall red grass that was never mowed, was like a little island."

"Winter comes down savagely over a little town on the prairie. The wind that sweeps in from the open country strips away all the leafy screens that hide one yard from another in summer, and the houses seem to draw closer together. The roofs, that looked so far away across the green treetops, now stare you in the face, and they are so much uglier than when their angles were softened by vines and shrubs.


Chunk #1: Comment the effect of the setting on the characters within the novel.
The setting of this story surrounds the character in a simple beauty, allowing them to grasp and understand the land as if land were a person in front of them. This place carries values and characteristics of a human, in the land creating a small island for the burial site, perhaps out of respect for it's fallen friend. The land is inspiration in the way it's energy seemed to move Jim, stating that the land was almost "running." Both Antonia and Jim had suffered a loss and found peace in this quiet place where they could gain a friendship greater than most.

Chunk #2: discuss the effect a setting on you, including imagery (lots of adjectives) and a simile or a metaphor as you describe the land.
The majestic beauty of Washington State, it's cool and laid back personality washes over me the moment I step out onto the sidewalk at the airport. Seattle's bustling life on the Puget Sound beckons to me, even now after years since my last visit. I miss the clear, damp with the breath of the last rain still hanging on the breeze. Through Pikes Market, the sounds of the various fishermen, young and old, rough with their 5 o'clock shadow of the late night of work, shouting and throwing their catch back and forth to their awaiting customers. This becomes a lifestyle. Across the water, further west in the state the Olympic Mountains rise into the looming clouds, giants among this evergreen land. Their cloaks of emerald trees cling and shape to them like barnacles on the bottom of a ship, grasping to life.