The Professor’s House: An Initiating Diary

3 Pages 707 Words

Located in the middle of Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House, the diary of deceased Tom Outland is edited by his friend and mentor, Professor St. Peter. The author inserts “Tom Outland’s Story” to balance the beginning and the ending of the book, where there is a drastic change in character in the history professor that is similar to Tom’s. The editing experience sparks a life-changing revelation that is initiated by the details of his friend’s previously unobserved emotions during the time that he was excavating an ancient pueblo civilization in New Mexico.
During the beginning of the book, it was demonstrated that St. Peter had become older and was changing negatively. His wife notes this by saying “How irritable and unreasonable he is becoming!” (81). The professor is also being very regretful of his life, namely his kids, his history books and the new house. He even tries to resist by continuing to work at his old house. He shows this regret when talking to his wife during an opera when he says, “it’s been a mistake, our having a family and writing histories and getting middle-aged. We should have been picturesquely shipwrecked together when we were young” (78). He is saying that his whole life is a mistake that he cannot change, he even shows how ardently he wishes to live another life when thinking in bed prior to the conversation with his wife:
“That night, after he was in bed, among unaccustomed surroundings and a little wakeful, St. Peter still played with his idea of a picturesque shipwreck, and he cast about for the particular occasion he would have chosen for such a finale” (79).
With such thoughts, it is apparent that he is not enjoying his family life. He is beginning to disregard his health as a result. When talking to his wife about an old stove in St. Peter’s workroom that omits dangerous gas, she scorns him and says, “things are different now, and you ought to take ...