Aunt Georgiana's Physical Appearance
Cather employs a variety of literary devices to communicate Clark's view of the grotesque physical experience of Aunt Georgiana. For example, Clark describes the black soot from the train journey, which has left her looking like a corpse pulled from a burning building. The Nebraska climate has left her skin dry and yellowed. She also wears ill-fitting false teeth. Her figure is at once "pathetic" and "grotesque."
The Concert
Clark describes in great detail the scene that unfolds when the Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians take their place onstage. He notes "the clean profiles of the musicians" and "the beloved shapes of the instruments," and compares fiddles and percussion bows to a "restless, wind-tossed forest." He remembers the impact this scene made on him when he saw it for the first time, and imagines it must be having a deep effect on Aunt Georgiana as well.
