Gender Roles In My Antonia

My Antonia Women; What is their true value? Why would someone make an effort to create an entire novel where the characters are constantly fighting gender stereotypes? Willa Cather wrote the book My Antonia during a time where women were finally making a stand for themselves. The main characters Antonia, who is bohemian, and Jim have an interesting love relationship. Antonia is not the average woman in the west and neither are the other women mentioned in My Antonia. Willa Cather used the historical evolution of women as a guide to Antonia’s character and all female characters to emphasize a woman’s worth. World War I was the reason women started working outside their homes. Because majority of men had to go fight in the war and left their

Mrs. Burden in My Antonia had many jobs; she worked on the farm, did the work of a house wife, and volunteered within her community. Willa Cather portrayed Mrs. Burden as the typical feminist during this time period. Mrs. Burden represented a woman who was determined to prove she could do a “man’s work” as well as a “woman’s work”. “…. My grandmother’s getting feeble now, and her mind wanders. She’s forgot about this country, and thinks she’s at home in Norway. She keeps asking mother to take her down to the waterside and the fish market. She craves fish all the time. Whenever I go home I take her canned salmon and mackerel” (My Antonia,121). All the women in My Antonia took on the stereotypical male role as the care takers for their families. The men in the novel tend to take on the stereotypical woman’s role. Women in the west fought to be seen as equal when it came to work and social lives. “In general, being a woman in America was hard, but being a woman in Nebraska was even more difficult. In Nebraska women were not seen too much in the social light. Women were to dress in the “correct and appropriate” way but were rarely seen outside of their homes. The men worked on the farms and kept the outside of the home looking nice while the woman was to tend to her duties inside. During 1918 in the west women were making a stance. Willa dedicated the women in, My Antonia, to the

Antonia thought cooking was interesting but she found herself intrigued by the outdoors with Jim. "Oh, better I like to work out-of-doors than in a house!" she used to sing joyfully. "I not care that your grandmother say it makes me like a man. I like to be like a man." She would toss her head and ask me to feel the muscles swell in her brown arm.” (My Antonia, 234). Antonia was completely before her time. She loved the outdoors. She loved exploring; she craved adventure. The typical housewife duties were not for Antonia. Mrs. Shimerda definitely did not behave as woman was supposed to in that time. Mrs. Shimerda was not a character who was confined to the typical gender roles, which she displayed in her marriage to Mr. Shimerda. Normally the man tells the woman what to do and makes the decisions for the family and the wife follows behind their husband. However Mrs. Shimerda was the leader/boss of her family, Mr. Shimerda followed the lead of his wife. The men were very vulnerable and sensitive than a usual man’s man. Most of the time the men were showing more emotions than the women of My Antonia. They were so in touch with their emotions that Mr. Shimerda let them get the best of him and he killed himself. Mr. Shimerda couldn’t stand the life he was living and the kind of man he was because he couldn’t provide for his family the way a man should. Society enforced the