About Willa Cather
Since childhood, Willa Cather
had the ability to see her own brand of art in the people, situations, and
emotions of everyday life. Her unique perspective on ordinary life can be found
in her celebrated novels, short stories, and essays. Cather is best known as
the voice of frontier life on the American plains, where she spent the years of
her youth and young adulthood. According to Cather, these were the years during
which she unconsciously gathered the rich material that would inspire her to
write when she was an adult. She says:
Every story I have written since then has been the
recollection of some childhood experience, of something that touched me while a
youngster. You must know a subject as a child, before you ever had any idea of
writing, to instill into it . . . the true feeling.
Cather was born on December 7, 1873 , the
eldest child of Charles and Mary Virginia Cather. When she was ten years old,
her family moved from Virginia to a small settlement west of Red Cloud,
Nebraska. Cather was at first homesick and had difficulty adjusting to the
rough, open landscape of the Nebraska prairie. However, she found that her
diverse collection of neighbors was a striking and welcome contrast to the
flat, drab countryside. At that time, immigrants came from all over Europe to
farm in Nebraska. Young Cather was befriended by some of the older immigrant
women, and their unique experiences made a strong impression on her. Later,
Cather relates:
I have never found any intellectual excitement any
more intense than I used to feel when spent a morning with one of these old
women at her baking or butter making. . . . I always felt . . . as if I had
actually got inside another person’s skin.
About My Ántonia
Willa Cather’s My
Ántonia is written as a young man’s reflections on the people and places of
his youth. The narrator, Jim Burden, is a New York City lawyer who grew up on
the Nebraska frontier. His memories show his affection for the past and his
connection to his childhood friend, and paint a vivid portrait of life in
Nebraska in the late 1800s and early 1900s. From its first pages, My Ántonia depicts the ethnically
diverse, hardworking people who came to the American plains. The novel also
powerfully depicts the open landscape of the prairie and the rugged lifestyle
of its settlers. In 1920, H. L. Mencken, a famous literary critic and essayist,
wrote:
I know of no novel that makes the remote folk of the
western farmlands more real than My Ántonia makes them, and I know of none that
makes them seem better worth knowing. The primary focus of the novel is
Ántonia.
The novel is set mainly in the Nebraska Divide, a rural
farming area in southern Nebraska, and in Black Hawk, a town just east of the
Divide. Cather grew up in this area and
based the fictional town of Black Hawk on the real town of Red Cloud, which
sits on the Republican River. Another setting described in the novel is
Lincoln, Nebraska, where narrator Jim Burden attends school for a brief
period.
The Homestead Act
The novel begins in the late 1880s and covers a period of
about thirty years of the narrator’s life.
This was an eventful time in the actual history of Nebraska. In 1862 Congress
passed the first Homestead Act, which granted 160 acres of free land in the
West to anyone at least twenty-one years old who promised to settle it. The
concept of providing free land to hardworking settlers was first suggested by
western pioneers who were struggling to build farms on undeveloped land. They
argued that, because the land was worthless until developed, Congress should
give them parcels of land as a reward for helping to improve the country. Close
to a million people requested homestead applications between 1863 and 1890.
More farms were created in this time period than any other in U.S. history. The
Homestead Act was also a key factor in the United States’ expansion westward.
The Homestead Act created opportunities for many
struggling American citizens and immigrants to the United States. Between 1881
and 1920, southern and eastern Europeans, including Bohemians, were part of a
major immigration movement to the United States. Many of these immigrants, like
the Shimerdas in My Ántonia, came to
the United States to take advantage of available prairie land.
In 1865 the Union Pacific Railroad began building its
line farther into Nebraska territory. They advertised Nebraska farmland in the
East as well as in Europe. From 1869 to 1879 Kansas and Nebraska attracted a
large number of settlers. Between 1874 and 1877, however, swarms of
grasshoppers invaded the area and damaged much of the crops. Many settlers left
their farms and returned east. Drought, bad credit policies, and low prices on
agricultural products caused further distress to Nebraska farmers. In My Ántonia, Cather captures the
hardships facing pioneers as they tried to build new lives to in unfamiliar
territory.
Immigrant Families
In the settling of frontier land, immigrant families
often faced greater challenges than U.S.-born settlers. Because many immigrants
left their countries under difficult circumstances, they often did not have a
great deal of money with which to begin their new lives. Once in the United
States, some struggled with a language barrier that made meeting people and
conducting business difficult. Many immigrants also experienced prejudice
against their customs and religious practices. Some U.S.-born settlers were
resentful of having to compete with immigrants for land or work.
Rural Nebraska
Setting, particularly the landscape surrounding Jim’s
grandparents’ farm, plays a crucial role in the development of My Ántonia. Cather takes great care in
detailing the natural environment that surrounds her characters. For example,
to illustrate the movement of prairie grass, she writes, “I felt motion in the
landscape; in the fresh, easy-blowing morning wind, and in the earth itself, as
if the shaggy grass were a sort of loose hide, and underneath it herds of wild
buffalo were galloping, galloping. . .
.” As you read, notice how the setting reflects the characters and influences
their moods.
My Ántonia and Latin
In Book II, Sections I – VII (p. 70 – 94), Jim’s Latin
homework introduces him to the work of Virgil, a poet who lived in ancient
Rome. Virgil wrote pastoral poems that idealize and celebrate rural
environments. Literary works that are pastoral often contrast the innocence and
simplicity of country life with the corruption of urban environments. Jim is
reading Georgics, a work that deals
with issues of farming and rural life in Italy. He finds two quotations from
the selection particularly moving. As you read, think about why Jim finds these
ideas moving and why the work of Virgil is thematically fitting for this novel.
Repetition
Though My Ántonia
is a collection of memories that do not follow a conventional plotline, Cather
ties the events of the novel together in a variety of ways. One method is her
use of repetition. For example, in this section, images of nature and farming
move the narrator and Ántonia to reflect on their pasts and repeat stories
about what happened. There is also repetition of characters that are important
to the theme. As you read this section, pay attention to how Cather
reintroduces Mr. Shimerda to the story through the characters of Jim and
Ántonia. Then think about why Cather brings Ántonia’s father back into the
story.
Elegiac or Nostalgic?
My Ántonia has
been labeled by critics as both elegiac and nostalgic. An elegy is a sad poem
that laments death or loss. Nostalgia is a longing for one’s home or past.
Characters throughout the novel refer to their pasts, both to celebrate and to
express regret or resentment. Their pasts either draw them back or make them
want to move forward. For example, Jim and Ántonia are continually looking back
at their happy childhood experiences and wondering if they can ever find that
happiness again, while Lena Lingard’s unhappy memories of farming motivate her
to change her way of life completely. Ántonia clings to her Bohemian heritage,
while other immigrant workers try to adopt the language and customs of the
United States. After finishing the novel, think about whether the novel is more
an elegiac or a nostalgic literary work.
Characterization
Writers use specific techniques to create characters.
These include direct description, showing characters’ behavior, showing how
others react to characters, and showing characters’ thoughts. Writers use these
methods not only to give readers insight into individuals, but sometimes to
characterize groups of people. As you
read, notice Cather’s techniques of characterization, and draw conclusions
about the family.
