My Ántonia
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| My Antonia | |
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| Author | Willa Cather |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | (historical fiction) |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin (Boston) |
| Publication date | 1918 |
| Pages | 419 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-486-28240-6 |
My Ántonia (first published 1918) is considered the greatest novel by American writer Willa Cather. My Ántonia — pronounced with the accent on the first syllable of "Ántonia" — is the final book of the "prairie trilogy" of novels by Cather, a list that also includes O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
My Ántonia tells the stories of several immigrant families who move out to rural Nebraska to start new lives in America, with a particular focus on a Bohemian family, the Shimerdas, whose eldest daughter is named Ántonia. The book's narrator, Jim Burden, arrives in the fictional town of Black Hawk, Nebraska, on the same train as the Shimerdas, as he goes to live with his grandparents after his parents have died. Jim develops strong feelings for Ántonia, something between a crush and a filial bond, and the reader views Ántonia's life, including its attendant struggles and triumphs, through that lens.
The book is divided into five volumes, some of which incorporate short stories Cather had previously written, based on her own life growing up on the Nebraska prairies. The volumes correspond roughly to the stages of Ántonia's life up through her marriage and motherhood, although the third volume, "Lena Lingard," focuses more on Jim's time in college and his affair with Lena, another childhood friend of his and Ántonia's.
The five books, in order, are: - The Shimerdas - the largest book of all. It covers all of the time that Jim spends on his grandparents' farm, out on the prairie.
- The Hired Girls - the second largest. It covers Jim's time in town, when he spends time with Antonia and the other country girls who work in town. Language, particularly descriptions, begin to become more sexualized, particularly concerning Antonia and Lena.
- Lena Lingard - this chronicles Jim's time at the university, and the period in which he becomes re-acquainted with the lovely Lena Lingard.
- The Pioneer Woman's Story - Jim visits the Harlings, and hears about Antonia's run-in and fateful romance with Larry Donovan.
- Cuzak's Boys - Jim goes to visit Antonia and meets her new family - her children and her husband. The shortest book.
[edit] Characters
Ántonia Shimerda: The bold and free-hearted young Bohemian girl with whom Jim develops a strong friendship. She is 4 years older than Jim, and embodies the spirit of the prairie. Her family come over to Black Hawk, Nebraska, from Bohemia, and not long after, her father, suffering from depression at having to leave the old country, commits suicide. She endures a hard period of farming on the prairie after her father dies. As a young woman, she later moves to town to work for the Harlings (the next door neighbours of Jim) as a cook and maid. She gains a reputation as one of the town's beautiful "hired girls", which upsets the Harlings. She leaves them to work for Wick Cutter, one of the town money-lenders with a bad reputation, later becoming engaged to a young man named Larry Donovan who flees before the marriage, leaving Ántonia pregnant with an illegitimate child. She later marries a man named 'Cuzak', and has ten children with him on the farm.
Jim Burden: Jim is the narrator of the novel. He is an orphan, and at the beginning of the novel moves to Nebraska to live with his father's parents. Here he meets the young Ántonia, who becomes a great companion. At the beginning of the second book, The Hired Girls, he moves to town with his grandparents, who encourage their neighbours, the Harling family, to take Ántonia (Tony) on as a maid. Jim befriends the other hired girls, including the beautiful Lena Lingard. A group of dance teachers comes to town, and begins a craze. Jim, four years younger than Ántonia, becomes romantically interested in her, only to realise that she still considers him a child. Lena Lingard toys somewhat with the young man's emotions, but Ántonia ultimately prevents any relationship from occurring to protect Jim's feelings. Jim eventually goes away to university, and largely forgets his past in Black Hawk. Years later he meets Lena Lingard again, now a successful dressmaker. They are involved romantically for a time, but Jim's mentor notes the detrimental impact it is having on Jim's studies, and offers him the opportunity to study at Harvard Law School in Boston. Jim ultimately returns to Black Hawk after some twenty years, and goes to find Ántonia. She is now married with ten children, and Jim finds himself affectionate toward the whole family. The closing lines of the book communicate Jim's feelings that whatever he felt that he and Ántonia had missed, "we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past."
[edit] Interpretations
While interpretations vary, My Ántonia is clearly an elegy to the proud, hard-working immigrants who built new lives west of the Mississippi River and highlights the role of women pioneers in particular.
Cather also makes a number of comments concerning her views on women's rights and there are many disguised sexual metaphors in the text.
[edit] Notes
A made-for-television movie, also entitled My Ántonia, was based on this novel.
My Ántonia is available in a number of editions ranging from free editions available on the Internet to inexpensive, mass-market paperbacks to expensive "scholarly editions" aimed at more serious students of Cather's work.
The French songwriter and singer, Dominique A, wrote a song inspired by the novel, called "Antonia" (from the LP "Auguri" -2001-).
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] References
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This article does not cite any references or sources. (November 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
[edit] External links
- Scholarly Edition at the Willa Cather Archive
- My Ántonia at American Literature
- My Ántonia, available at Project Gutenberg.
