SOURCE: Arnold, Marilyn. “Cather's Last Three Stories: A Testament of Life and Endurance.” Great Plains Quarterly 4, no. 4 (fall 1984): 238–44.

In the following essay, Arnold explores the themes of survival and adaptability in Cather's final stories.

Near the end of her career—and her life—in the conclusion to the story “Before Breakfast,” Willa Cather described the “first amphibious frog-toad” who, when he “found his water-hole dried up behind him,” undauntedly “jumped out to hop along till he could find another” and in doing so, “started on a long hop.”¹ At first glance, this little parable might appear to be a misplaced curiosity in a story by a midwesterner about a frazzled businessman seeking refuge on an island off the North Atlantic sea coast. Closer scrutiny reveals it to be essential to the meaning of the story and crucial to the meaning of Cather's work. This “first amphibious frog-toad” is...