The graveyard in the rural Nebraskan town where the Rosickys live has multiple layers of symbolism. It reflects the idea that death can be natural and beautiful rather than scary if one has led a meaningful life; it also represents the difference between a free, meaningful, rich life and an unnatural, constricted, superficial life. The graveyard first appears at the start of the story, when Anton Rosicky is riding his wagon home and stops to admire the beauty of it. At this point, Rosicky has reason to think about his own death, since Doctor Burleigh has just diagnosed him with a failing heart. Looking at the graveyard—which is expansive, beautiful, and close to his home—Rosicky finds a sense of comfort even though he isn’t ready to die yet. He realizes that the graveyard is full of deceased friends whom he cares about, and he’s content with the idea that he’ll one day rest here himself. This suggests that Rosicky feels unafraid and unashamed of dying specifically because his life up until this point has been so rich, fulfilling, and full of meaningful relationships. The place of death itself—the rural graveyard—appears beautiful rather than frightening to Rosicky because he’s lived a happy and well-rounded life, free of regrets.
Near the end of the story, after Rosicky has died of heart failure, Doctor Burleigh stops by the graveyard on his way to give his condolences to the rest of the Rosicky family. Doctor Burleigh, like Rosicky himself, looks at the graveyard and admires its beauty. Burleigh, in fact, thinks about this particular graveyard in contrast to city graveyards, which are industrial, compact, and oppressive. His reflection on the differences between city and country graveyards illustrates the story’s wider suggestion about urban and rural living—namely, that the latter offers more opportunity for freedom and joy than the former. Burleigh admiration for the country graveyard—and his belief that it is a fitting resting place for Rosicky at the end of his “complete and beautiful” life—suggests that the passage of time, and death itself, are not things to fear. If one lives such a grounded, fulfilling, loving life as Rosicky has, these things don’t have to be scary. In a way, then, the graveyard comes to signify the good life itself, the dream that Rosicky ended up living.
The Graveyard Quotes in Neighbour Rosicky
Over there across the cornstalks his own roof and windmill looked so good to him that he promised himself to mind the Doctor and take care of himself. He was awful fond of his place, he admitted. He wasn’t anxious to leave it. And it was a comfort to think that he would never have to go farther than the edge of his own hayfield. The snow, falling over his barnyard and the graveyard, seemed to draw things together like. And they were all old neighbours in the graveyard, most of them friends; there was nothing to feel awkward or embarrassed about.
He thought of city cemeteries; acres of shrubbery and heavy stone, so arranged and lonely and unlike anything in the living world. Cities of the dead, indeed; cities of the forgotten, of the “put away.” But this was open and free, this little square of long grass which the wind for ever stirred. Nothing but the sky overhead, and the many-coloured fields running on until they met that sky. The horses worked here in the summer; the neighbours passed on their way to town; and over yonder, in the cornfield, Rosicky’s own cattle would be eating fodder as winter came on. Nothing could be more undeathlike than this place; nothing could be more right for a man who had helped to do the work of great cities and had always longed for the open country and had got to it at last. Rosicky’s life seemed to him complete and beautiful.
The Graveyard Symbol Timeline in Neighbour Rosicky
