The Small Bachelor · Theme
The West vs. East
How The Small Bachelor develops The West vs. East.
The idealized American West is contrasted with Eastern urban sophistication, as Sigsbee Waddington romanticizes the West's freedom and simplicity, while George's Idaho origins give him a perceived authenticity that both attracts and complicates his place in New York society.
Where it surfaces
- I
Sigsbee's pining for the West contrasts with the East's effete society, a central conflict in the chapter.
- III
Sigsbee Waddington's internal conflict between his duty to Eastern high society and his longing for the freedom and adventure of the West is central to this chapter.
- IV
Mr. Waddington's idealized view of the West contrasts with George's more mundane experience of East Gilead, highlighting the cultural divide between Western and Eastern sensibilities.
- I
Mr. Waddington contrasts Western ruggedness with Eastern financiers, and George is identified as a 'son of the western prairies.'
- II
Mr. Waddington contrasts the freedom of the West with the oppressive, dishonest East, and George's Western identity is a point of connection.