The Professor's House

In The Professor’s House, Cather depicts her protagonist in the midst of an identity crisis. He has enjoyed a successful career as a college history professor and has completed an eight-volume work on the history of Spanish exploration in North America. Although he is far from a popular writer, his work is well-regarded enough to bring a financial windfall that enables him to build a new house. He has raised two daughters who are themselves married and have embarked on adult lives. Yet, while his wife has embraced these life changes and the possibilities they bring, St. Peter remains at loose ends, unsure of what his role should be now. His personal crises are set against the context of World War I—an event broadly considered to have contributed to a crisis in Western values—in which his friend and student Tom Outland lost his life. St. Peter struggles to make Outland’s death meaningful, but he has trouble doing so; his legacy, both personal and financial, remains unsettled and a source of conflict in St. Peter’s family. Even the setting of the university no longer provides the security he expected.