Yosemite is significant in the novel chiefly through Willie Keith’s later recollection of a trip there with May Wynn. Rather than being described as a landscape, it marks the point after which Willie’s mother helped turn him away from marrying May, making the place a hinge in their relationship’s early course.

Role in the Relationship

In a letter written after a five-month silence, Willie looks back on Yosemite as the moment after which his mother talked him out of marrying May. He explains that she framed his attraction to May as a trap, and that her arguments helped reinforce his doubts. Yosemite thus stands behind a decision that contributed to the couple’s separation, though the letter does not describe the trip itself.

Retrospective Significance

Willie later reassesses the judgment he made after Yosemite, calling his thinking immature and shaped by snobbery. The place consequently carries the weight of a choice he now regrets: it marks the earlier break between desire and commitment that his renewed proposal seeks to overcome.