Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Neighbour Rosicky, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Good Life
The City vs. The Country
Family, Community, and Kindness
Money vs. Happiness
Summary
Analysis
After Mary meets with Doctor Burleigh, she and her sons work together to reduce Rosicky’s physical labor, for the sake of his heart’s health. Her sons help Rosicky with any strenuous tasks, although Rosicky stubbornly jokes that they’re treating him like an old woman. Still, throughout the winter, Rosicky mostly stays in the house and even adopts his own spot for working in the home, which the family affectionately labels “Father’s corner.” In the corner, he does tailors his children’s clothing—he worked as a tailor in his youth and still considers it a man’s job.
Rosicky’s entire family is quick to tend to their father’s needs, showing once again the family’s deep support system and how much Rosicky’s children value him. Rosicky’s gendered worldview reappears here as he dislikes working in the house, considering it the more feminine sphere.
Themes
While Rosicky sews, he reflects back on his life, having lived in three different countries. The only part of his life that he does not think fondly of is his time in London, when he was impoverished and working for a poor German tailor. He thinks back to moving to New York City when he was 20. In New York, he worked for a tailor shop and learned English. He worked constantly but hardly saved any money because he loaned it to friends, went out to dinner, and bought standing-room tickets to the opera. He was, for a time, very happy in New York, and thought that it was the best city in the world.
Rosicky’s newfound inclination to reflect on his past is indicative of his aging—the diagnosis of heart failure has reminded him that his life is winding down. But even as an elderly man, some memories—like his time in London—still feel too emotionally fraught to think about in great detail. Rosicky’s positive memories of New York, though, contrast with his overall negative perception of cities and show that he is not entirely biased against urban living. At one point, he enjoyed the city life—and it’s clear the reason he enjoyed it is because he did not prioritize saving money, instead choosing to give himself experiences and to be generous with his friends. Not coincidentally, these are values he still holds.
Themes
Rosicky was happy in New York because he had a strong community made up of intimate relationships with other immigrants. He befriended another Czech cabinet-maker, Zichec, and the two of them rented a room together from Zichec’s Austrian employer, Loeffler. Zichec and Rosicky were as close as a “bridal pair” and had a happy domestic life of shared responsibilities and activities, like attending the opera together.
In certain ways, Rosicky’s relationship with Zichec is a precursor to his relationship with Mary. While Zichec and Rosicky are not actually a couple, their dynamic resembles a marriage, as they make choices for the benefit of each other and even share a certain intimacy, being two Czech immigrants who are both new to the U.S. This dynamic is also true of Rosicky and Mary’s marriage. For Rosicky, happiness is often tethered to positive, supportive relationships with other people, much more so than his individual success or identity.
Themes
But even though Rosicky started out happy in New York, as time passed, he started to get restless. When springtime came, he felt weary of city life and developed a drinking habit. Watching nature bloom in spring, Rosicky was overcome with an itch to go somewhere else. One Fourth of July, he wandered New York and saw the city empty, without people filling the streets. He suddenly felt that the industrial landscape was oppressive and unnatural, disconnected from the earth, which felt more real to him. He decided that day to make a plan to leave, drawing inspiration from local Bohemian-run papers that advertised the opportunities for purchasing farmland in the West.
Rosicky’s love of the changing seasons arises again here; even though he is happy in New York, the city’s lack of natural beauty is hard on him. He feel happier and more alive and satisfied when he can feel connected to nature’s rhythm. While Rosicky’s social needs can be met in New York, his larger, more spiritual needs cannot be satisfied in the city.
Themes
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Buying his own farm was a dream for Rosicky—no one in his family had owned land before. He remembered a brief period in his childhood, after his mother died, when he went to live with her parents on their rented farm. He attributed his lifelong love of the natural world to his time on this farm. When Rosicky was 12, his grandfather died, and he went back to live with his father and stepmother, which was difficult for him. In New York, Rosicky spent the next several years preparing to leave the city with a single-minded dream of getting to country land—and he eventually did so when he moved to Nebraska at age 35.
Rosicky first came to New York with a typical American Dream of thriving in the city. But it becomes clear to him that his real dream is slightly different, as city life doesn’t offer him the level of freedom he wants—he would rather have true independence by possessing his own land and having unlimited access to nature. Furthermore, Rosicky does not want to simply recreate his positive childhood memories of living on a rented farm—he wants to surpass this by buying land rather than renting from a landlord. Rosicky’s patience becomes apparent here too, as he works for over a decade to achieve his dream.
Themes
