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
The winter is a difficult one for the crops, but Rosicky does not worry for himself or his family—he knows that they’ll get through the hard times, just as they have before. Instead, he worries for his children, especially newlywed Rudolph. Still, Rosicky wishes more than anything that his children will stay farmers. In his opinion, it is far harder to be an employee than to have the privilege of working for yourself.
Having suffered and seen the worst of life in his youth in London, Rosicky does not fear life—age and life experience have taught him that he can get through anything. Any concern he has, then, is selfless. He worries not about himself, but instead about whether or not his children with take after him and stay farmers, continuing to live on the land that he cultivated for their family. This line of thinking also indicates Rosicky’s growing acceptance of his aging—he knows that he is reaching the end of his life, and now he mostly thinks about what he will leave behind.
Themes
Rosicky thinks about the difference in people in the city and country—in the former, he often found people to be untrustworthy, competitive, and money-hungry. In the city, if you don’t get along with someone, there’s no space to be apart from them. Rosicky hopes that his sons will keep living in the country, where he believes they will not see other people’s cruelty. Rosicky feels grateful for his rural life, where he has not had to cheat or swindle his way into money—all his income has come from his own hard work, and he feels glad for his close proximity to nature.
Rosicky only wants to earn money in a way that feels honest and not hurtful to other people, and it’s important to him to pass down this value to his children. Money means nothing to him if it comes at the cost of his independence and his access to nature, or if it comes from manipulating other people.
Themes
That spring, Rosicky starts doing physical labor again, wanting to rake out some Russian thistles that may disrupt the alfalfa crop. He goes to Rudolph’s one morning (when Doctor Burleigh happens to be out of town) to rake, and he gets short of breath. While he is running out of breath, he stumbles as he tries to get the horses into their stalls. His chest cramps, and he nearly collapses.
Rosicky’s desire to help his children is so strong that even though he knows he should not be out working in the fields, he does so anyway, because he cannot resist helping. In this way, Rosicky’s ends up straining his heart, suggesting that living a meaningful life and providing for one’s family require some degree of self-sacrifice.
Themes
Polly runs to Rosicky just in time and catches his shoulder. She calls him “Father” and asks her to lean on him, so that she can walk him back into the house. Polly cares for him while he continues to writhe in pain, putting hot bath towels on him for an hour until he feels better. Even after, Polly continues to dote on him, calling him “Father” and saying that it “broke [her] heart to see [him] suffer.”
Polly transforms fully here from a cold, distant daughter-in-law to Rosicky’s companion and caregiver. It’s clear, however, that this did not happen all at once. Polly was moved earlier by Rosicky’s story of his time in London, and she had already been eager to spend more time with him and the rest of the Rosicky family. Still, seeing Rosicky in physical danger is what causes her to fully transition into a caring daughter figure, selflessly tending to him after he falls. It seems that Rosicky’s own warmth and generosity has unlocked a kindness in Polly that she didn’t previously show.
Themes
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Rosicky confesses to Polly that he may die soon and thanks her for caring for him. He tells her that he hopes to live to see her and Rudolph have a child together and rests his eyes. Polly suddenly decides that no one has ever loved her as much as Rosicky does, believing that he has a unique ability to love people. She stares at his hands and admires how well-worn they look, without appearing aged and hard the way most farmers’ hands do. Rosicky’s hands somehow convey “cleverness” and “generosity,” and Polly feels that she has learned something important about life just by looking at his hands. Shortly after, Rudolph arrives home, and Polly tells him about his father’s near-death experience.
Polly is finally moved to see Rosicky’s way of life as beautiful rather than peculiar. She realizes that Rosicky’s love and generosity are unique, and by staring at his hands, she has an epiphany that what makes life worth living can be seen in Rosicky himself. Rosicky is a person who’s more connected to nature and to uncomplicated, simple joy than most other people are. For the first time, then, Polly is able to forget her own troubles and see that Rosicky’s way of life is perhaps more meaningful than the city life she has long idolized.
Themes
The next day, Rosicky returns to his home to have breakfast with his family. While his family worries about him, Rosicky thinks fondly of Polly and is grateful to know what a “tender heart” she has, having seen how she cared for him when he was sick. As he smokes his pipe and stitches overalls for his son, his chest starts to cramp again. He gets up to walk to his bed but collapses at the door. By the time Mary finds him, he has died.
Rosicky dies as he wished to live—in his own home, thinking of the people he loves and doing things he enjoys. Rather than spending his final days sequestered to his room, anxious about dying, Rosicky continues to find pleasure and gratitude in being alive. He smokes his pipe (something he loves to do), tailors for his son (an act of service for another person), and thinks about Polly with gratitude. He is even grateful for his near-death experience, as this allowed him to grow momentarily closer to Polly and to see the good in her. Until the very end, Rosicky sees the good in life, and consequently, he dies happy.
Themes
Several weeks after Rosicky’s death, Doctor Burleigh still regrets not being there. He drives to see the family and stops at the graveyard, realizing that Rosicky is now one of the bodies resting there. Burleigh is struck by the natural beauty of the graveyard, and of how it contrasts with the enclosed, oppressive design of graveyards in cities. In the country, even the graveyard as an aura of freedom, and Burleigh thinks to himself that the land is, ironically, “undeathlike.” He decides it is a fitting resting place for Rosicky, whose life seems “complete and beautiful.”
Doctor Burleigh’s visit to the graveyard parallels Rosicky’s own visit to the graveyard at the start of the story. Just as Rosicky knew would happen, he has joined the community of deceased loved ones who all rest in the graveyard together. Burleigh, too, is able to see the graveyard as a beautiful and even joyful place rather than an oppressive, morose one. Even though it holds dead bodies, it feels “undeathlike” to him. Nature itself—the wide-open space and the beauty of the land—gives the place a feeling of liveliness, because the earth itself is alive. Burleigh can imagine how different this country graveyard is from a city graveyard, and this allows him to fully understand the arc of Rosicky’s life and the set of values that his friend died with. Rosicky lived and worked in cities, seeing them at their best and worst. But ultimately, he believed that people can only feel truly free and fulfilled in the countryside, where they’re connected to nature and have control over their lives. Burleigh concludes that Rosicky’s life was “complete and beautiful,” even though he perhaps could have prolonged his life if he’d settled down and gave up the manual labor that he so enjoyed. The story thus suggests that life is “complete and beautiful” not when it’s when it’s easy and comfortable, but when it’s fulfilling—that is, full of satisfying work, meaningful relationships, and gratitude for small moments of beauty.
Themes
