Nebraska is a state in the midwest of America and at the time this book was set was a place that was not majorly developed. Westward expansion in America was popularised throughout the nineteenth century, the US government even implemented the Homestead Act in 1862 which rewarded anyone willing to move west and cultivate the land they were given in exchange. This was in the midst of the American Civil War which ran from 1861 to 1865. Hence, people like Cather’s characters were moving westward like many Americans, particularly those of low socio-economic status because it was an attractive proposition to help achieve the ‘American Dream’.

Typically refers to an outlaw, which was stereotypical in the ‘Wild West’ of America in the twentieth century. It is associated with the stereotypical criminal costume of a cowboy hat and scarf covering his face. It is also possible that this could be referring to the second meaning of desperado which comes from the word desperate, which was just a noun at the time and did not have the same connotation that it has now. So, ‘the face of a desperado’ could also be referring to someone who is in a clear desperate situation and would, on the American frontier, be someone who would head out West to mine for gold.

The use of the word immigrants in this establishing chapter of the text tells the context of the time. The word ‘immigrants’ is used in nineteenth and twentieth-century texts as an overarching descriptive term towards anyone other than people from, for example, America. This language is exclusionary and places certain minority groups as ‘the other’, alienating them from the norm in this period. In the context of Cather’s novel, ‘immigrants’ or ‘the immigrant family’ is used as this expression is linked to the state borders of America being tied to belonging and the respect of the nation-state. Immigrant was also only loosely defined in the twentieth century, referring to anyone who resided in the United States but was not born there. Today, this word can have negative connotations and be associated with the social and legal prejudices that the white class or the ruling class may have against minority groups, mainly against people of non-white descent.

Reference: Nunez, C. (2014). War of the War of the Words:Aliens, Immigrants, Citizens, and the Language of Exclusion. BYU Law Review, 2013(6), 1518-1562. https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2904&context=lawreview

Jesse James was an American outlaw from Missouri. He was famous in his lifetime for being part of the Confederate guerrillas in the American Civil War, which he then carried with him his entire life. His story starts with his slave-owning family and moves to his eventual descent into the throws of being a robber and a leader of a gang. This mention of a book titled, ‘Life of Jesse James’ is telling as this is Cather acknowledging the cultural powers at play in this context, fighting against the stereotypical ‘West’ with groups of outlaws, cowboys, soldiers and natives, like that of Jesse James. Cather’s ‘West’ and Jim Burden's experience of the ‘West’ offers alternative connotations to this allusion through Jim’s encounters with immigrants, pioneers and farmers, a less harsh reality than that of Jesse James.

References: Thanker, R. (n.d.). “Then a Great Man in American Art”: Willa Cather’s Frederic Remington. The Willa Cather Archive. https://cather.unl.edu/scholarship/catherstudies/11/cs011.thacker

PBS. (n.d.). Biography: Jesse James - American Experience. Www.pbs.org. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/james-jesse/