Literature Analysis: My Antonia

8/10/2019 Literature Analysis: My Antonia

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Andrew MoultonNovember 16, 2014LIT 315 20thCentury American LiteratureSouthern New Hampshire UniversityJamie Marchant

Willa Cathers naturalism as she expresses it in her novelMy ntonia hinges upon the idea that

our fates are laid out before us predetermined, intertwining with others as it does, but

nevertheless solidly constructed within an unforgiving environment which no amount of will, no

matter how strong the individual, has the power to change. Jim Burden and ntonia Shimerda

each arrive in Nebraska on the same day, and while they share a childhood, their lives and the

opportunities afforded them are as different as are the summers and winters of Nebraska.

Success, fortune, and studied solitude has followed Jim away from Nebraska, while hard labors

rewards of plentitude and family have blossomed around the equally successful although

Nebraska-bound ntonia.

As youth stepping off the train into the utter darkness (50) of Nebraska, the differences

setting the boy and girl apart are immediately apparent. Ten-year-old Jim is newly orphaned and

wide-eyed. He is an observer of the life around him. As evidence of this he had been bashful

when the train conductor suggested he go talk to the girl whos got the pretty brown eyes (50).

The little girl who can only say, We go Black Hawk, Nebraska (50) is ntonia. She is four

years his senior, and despite access to language she appears capable and confident, if not a bit

reckless and extravagant (58). There is a superior tone (64) that ntonia takes when Jim is

tutoring her in English that he just cannot comprehend. All of these characteristics suggest that

ntonia has the drive, strength, and intelligence that should allow her to find comfort and

material wealth in her life. In fact it is ntonia whom the family leans upon for their survival that

first hard winter. However, at the turn of the century gender clearly defined societal expectations:


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women, even older women, were expected to defer to the wisdom of men and behave a certain

way which ntonia did not submit nor pay heed to. With ntonia, Cather is flipping US societal

expectations on their head, here we have a bold girl who as a youth knows what she wants and is

daring enough to reach out her hand and take what she can get.

As adolescents, Jim and ntonia both move into the city of Black Hawk to take advantage of

the very different opportunities it can afford them both. Jim will live alongside his grandparents

in Preacher Whites house for a proper education, while ntonia is brought, only by

recommendation, into the Harling household as helper. While the easily influenced Jim grows

close to utter savagery(101), ntonia succeeds in softening her fiery characteristics and

conforms to societys norms. She nicely settles into her role of respectable housekeeper whose

greatest fault[is] that she so often stopped her work and fell to playing with the children

(104). Surpassing expectations, Antonia soon learns English and becomes a model female and

focal point, telling stories about the countryside that slightly challenge this image while still

remaining true and proper to societys expectations of a helper. Stories about the calf that broke

its leg (112) or about the tramp who jumped head-first right into the thrashing machine(113)

are just a bit too horrifying to be considered proper, but considering Antonias beginnings, she is

forgiven, even encouraged. Thus ntonia has become an integral and harmonious component of

the Harling household. In the eyes of the larger Black Hawk community ntonia remains set

apart for being a foreigner, but like her mistress, she is strong and independent of nature and all

that really matters is that she is meeting, even surpassing, the expectations set out for her.

Adolescence comes to an abrupt end for ntonia whose love of live music and dance has

earned her a reputation that the Harling family will not tolerate. When ntonia, now known as

Tony, is confronted and asked to stop going to the dances, she sets her jaw, commits herself, and


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says no, I want to have my fling (124). She then leaves the reliable comfort of the Harling

household for the Cuttershouse, and with this new independence begins wearing gloves and

high-heeled shoes and feathered bonnets (126). It is with this declaration of independence ,

reinforced by the new clothes, that ntonias womanhood is achieved. Her path is off and

soaring into the world with the modern attire, attitude, and financial resources; all of which

should allow her the opportunity to make something of herself.

Meanwhile, even as a senior little Jimmy is still mostly harmless, free of opinion, and generally

regarded as being a sly one (127) for his habits and aloofness. According to Cathers opinion

of naturalism, Jims character hasnt grown because he hasnt had challenge in his path, and yet

he still becomes discontent with his environment, sneaks out for dances, and demands a kiss

from ntonia after which she whispers indignantly, Why, Jim!... Ill tell your grandmother on

you! (130). Jims life hasfinally taken an edge. An underlying personality trait deep within him

has chiseled his escape from Nebraska and will take him further and further East while ntonia

will become an unwed mother working the soils of Nebraska.

Considering only societal limitations, life should have been easier for ntonia. She was able to

learn the language in power and surpass societys expectations of a young foreign woman. She

was street smart, driven, and the envy and desire of many, and yet she does not have the luxury

of a comfortable life. When as mature adults Jim, still as timid as ever, can finally summon the

courage to meet again, they are unrecognizable to one another. A middle-aged Jim is young

(167) and starched, while ntonia is toothless and flat-chested (166). It is at this point that

naturalisms laws play their final hand of the novel. Each character demonstrated to the extent

with which they could the will to change the life around them, and while successful each in their

own way, there were no other alternatives open to them. At the turn of the century foreign


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women were simply not allowed the opportunities that white males were. This point is

challenged in the case of Lena Lingard, but made reality in the case of hard luck ntonia. In the

end it is Jim, alone, who walks upon the road that he and ntonia had arrived upon so long ago,

exemplary of naturalisms fatalistic views. This had been the road of Destiny; [it] had taken us

to those early accidents of fortune which predetermined for us all that we ever could be (181).

ntonia might have been someone else in a different country, but in the world that is Nebraska

she will always be a girl trapped by the soil. And yet Cather seems to suggest that through the

hardship and the poverty, ntonia is the richer of the two characters. Hard labors rewards of

plentitude and family have blossomed around ntonia, and far outweigh the shallow rewards ofsuccess and fortune.

Works Cited

Cather, Willa. "My Antonia." Baym, Nina and Robert S Levine. The Norton Anthology ofAmerican Literature. Ed. Julia Reidhead. 8th. Vol. C. New York: W.W. Norton &Company, Inc., 2012. 47-181. print.

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Literature Analysis: My Antonia