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An Analysis Of Willa Cather's My Antonia

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My Ántonia – Fact or Fiction?
The narrator describes her childhood town as “..buried in wheat and corn, under stimulating extremes of climate: burning summers when the world lies green and billowy beneath a brilliant sky…in the colour and smell of strong weeds and heavy harvest; blustery winters with little snow, when the whole country is stripped bare and grey as sheet-iron (Cather, Introduction).” Within the novel “My Ántonia,” the author, Willa Cather creates a fictional character Jim Burden whose childhood experiences seems to mirror Cather’s own life. This heartwarming story, written in autobiographical form, tells a tale of two very different people thrust together in similar circumstances during a vulnerable time in both of their lives. They forge a friendship that withstands much happiness, many hardships, and endures a lifetime. Could it be that Willa Cather was really describing the own emotions, feelings, and adventures of her own …show more content…

Comparing Cather’s brilliantly scripted novel to her biography, one cannot stop to wonder if My Ántonia was actually a disguised (partial) autobiography of Willa Cather, a life full of passion, emotion, and memories. In the end of the novel, one of Jim Burden’s final visits to his home town to see Ántonia, he walks around town and finds himself on the road where he had met Ántonia as they arrived at their new destination. This road, “the road of Destiny; [that] had taken us to those early accidents of fortune which predetermined for us all that we can ever be (Cather, 372)”, shaped the course of Jim and Ántonia’s friendship as well as their lives. Just as the changing seasons and Nebraska landscape shaped the personalities of its inhabitants, it directly influenced Willa Cather’s perception of herself, her life, and her

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Despite the title of the book, “My Antonia” is very much centered on Jim Burden. The story begins with an outlook on Jim’s adult life, and we are then catapulted into his Nebraskan childhood. As the book progresses, we witness the mental and emotional development of Jim as he has new experiences and meets numerous people. The book then concludes with Jim again as an adult. As a reader, I have observed him complete a cycle (going from point a, to point b and arriving at point a again).

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In the book My Antonia, the characters developed a lot throughout the story, but one character development that stood out to me was Antonia Shimerda. Antonia's character developed so much in this novel, she becomes a more independent character, but that's only because of the challenges she faced when she moved from Bohemia, her dad committed suicide, she had to work as a servant girl and when her fiancé left her. In the beginning of the novel, Antonia and her family are welcomed into Nebraska. They stay next to Jim Burden and his grandparents, they are the ones who welcomed them.

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My Antonia: Jim and Tony’s Unrequited Relationship “I’d like you to have you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister, anything that a woman can be to a man (206).” Jim Burden, a young man, narrated his memories and friendship with a young immigrant named Antonia Shimerda. My Antonia was a novel that showed incapable relationship between two characters, but displayed the real beauty and love in life. Willa Cather’s book illustrated how the main characters created a strong friendship, but, were separated from a relationship by societal norms and expectations.

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A Dissolving Line: How the theme of Sexuality and Gender Norms is Presented in Willa Cather’s My Antonia Like immigrating to a new country with different customs, perspectives of sexuality and gender roles of the characters in Willa Cather’s My Antonia either seek to stay with traditional norms or seek to revolutionize and change those norms. In the 19th to early 20th century, women’s role in society improved and played a more prominent role in progressing America. In My Antonia, however, Jim’s characteristics fit a more romantic, idealistic, and outdated view of society: while Antonia is a realist, Jim is a romantic idealist.

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Challenges of Immigration: The Shimerda’s Struggle Willa Cather’s novel, My Ántonia sheds light on the topic of immigration. Immigrants have many different reasons for why they might migrate to the United States. Some were trying to escape something from their old country such as avoiding a war, trouble with the law, or shame as is the case of the Russians Pavel and Peter. Reasons for immigrating could also relate to chasing the American dream as is the case with the Shimerdas.

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