Named source · 1913

O Pioneers! Quotes by Willa Cather: Context & Meanings

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There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before;

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“There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before;”

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Meaning & context

Carl reflects that changing generations repeatedly encounter recognizable patterns of attachment, conflict and longing even when each person experiences them as unprecedented.

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O Pioneers!, Part II, Chapter IV, Project Gutenberg #24. Carl Linstrum says that there are ‘only two or three human stories’ while he and Alexandra discuss recurring patterns around the old homestead and their younger neighbors. The line is fictional dialogue and literary reflection on repetition in human life, not an empirical taxonomy of all human experience.

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