My Antonia

Jim

Key Moment / Idea One (summary and overview): Jim as Narrator My Antonia - the prefix shows that this collection of stories is only Jim’s recollection of memories about her- it is his story of her. Both Jim and Nick narrate a story of their past- yet Jim as a narrator is far more trustworthy and reliable- he seems to be very reflective and nostalgic of his memories and he seems to share those reflections with the reader rather than being dishonest or elaborating.

Relevant Quotations: “So in reality it was a mock adventure; the game was fixed for me by chance, as it probably was for many a dragon-slayer. I had been adequately armed by Russian Peter; the snake was old and lazy; and I had Ántonia beside me, to appreciate and admire.” ch 7 “I used to think of the tone in which poor Mr. Shimerda, who could say so little, yet managed to say so much when he exclaimed, “My Án-tonia!” ch 17 Jim promised to never forget mr Shimerda and the name of the novel signifies this

Key Moment / Idea Two (summary and overview): Hyperfixation on the past/ childhood

Relevant Quotations: Peter and Pavel’s story of the wedding and the wolves signifies how difficult it is to escape your past. “I can still see those two men sitting on the bench; Otto’s close-clipped head and Jake’s shaggy hair slicked flat in front by a wet comb. I can see the sag of their tired shoul- ders against the whitewashed wall. What good fellows they were, how much they knew, and how many things they had kept faith with!” ch 9 - doesn’t forget “Those two fellows had been faithful to us through sun and storm, had given us things that cannot be bought in any market in the world. With me they had been like older brothers; had restrained their speech and manners out of care for me, and given me so much good comradeship. Now they got on the west-bound train one morning, in their Sunday clothes, with their oilcloth valises — and I never saw them again.” “I wrote to them at that address, but my letter was returned to me, “unclaimed.” After that we never heard from them.” book 2 ch 1 - past is fleeting but memories last

Key Moment / Idea Three (summary and overview): Jim as a romantic

Relevant Quotations: “no disappointments have been severe enough to chill his naturally romantic and ardent disposition” - intro “his sympathetic, solicitous interest in women is as youthful as it is Western and American” - intro

Relevant Critical Readings (AO5): Jim as an adult: ‘a wasteland figure who finds in the present nothing to compensate him for the loss of the past' - Gelfant my Antonia vs the great Gatsby: 'The difference is that for Jim his old life isn't utterly irretrievable' - Peter Gallen Massey

Relevant Contexts (AO3):

The Shimerdas

Key Moment / Idea One (summary and overview): The Shimerdas as an Immigrant Family and Pavel/peter

Relevant Quotations: “you were likely to get diseases from foreigners”- said Jake after hearing about the Bohemians “the immigrants rumbled off into the empty darkness” - a sense of the unknown and anxiety “Bohemians has a natural distrust of Austrians”- said by Otto- takes one opinion as a fact- generalisation. “my grandmother always spoke in a very loud tone to foreigners, as if they were deaf” ch 3 “neatly dressed” - mr Shimerda ch 3 “Pavel, the tall one, was said to be an anarchist; since he had no means of imparting his opinions, probably his wild gesticulations and his generally excited and rebellious manner gave rise to this supposi- tion.” ch 5

Key Moment / Idea Two (summary and overview): Isolation

Relevant Quotations: “krajiek was their only interpreter, and he could tell them anything he chose. They could not speak enough English to ask for advice” - ch 3 “They hated Krajiek, but they clung to him because he was the only human being with whom they could talk or from whom they could get information.” ch 4 “My papa find friends up north, with Russian mans. Last night he take me for see, and I can understand very much talk. Nice mans, Mrs. Burden. One is fat and all the time laugh. Everybody laugh. The first time I see my papa laugh in this kawn-tree. Oh, very nice!” ch 5 “She told me that in her village at home there was an old beggar woman who went about selling herbs and roots she had dug up in the forest. If you took her in and gave her a warm place by the fire, she sang old songs to the children in a cracked voice, like this.” ch 6 “we saw a figure moving on the edge of the upland, a gun over his shoulder. He was walking slowly, dragging his feet along as if he had no purpose.” ch 6 - foreshadow mr shimerdas death maybe? “There never were such people as the Shimerdas for wanting to give away every- thing they had” ch 6 “Mis- fortune seemed to settle like an evil bird on the roof of the log house, and to flap its wings there, warning human beings away. The Rus- sians had such bad luck that people were afraid of them and liked to put them out of mind.” ch 8 “Pavel and Peter drove into the village alone, and they had been alone ever since.” ch 9 “they were greatly con- cerned as to where Mr. Shimerda would be buried. The nearest Catholic cemetery was at Black Hawk, and it might be weeks before a wagon could get so far. Besides, Mr. Bushy and grandmother were sure that a man who had killed himself could not be buried in a Catholic graveyard. There was a burying- ground over by the Norwegian church, west of Squaw Creek; perhaps the Norwegians would take Mr. Shimerda in.” ch 15 “the Norwegian graveyard could not extend its hospitality to Mr. Shimerda.” ch 15 “Years afterward, when the open-grazing days were over, and the red grass had been ploughed under and under until it had almost disappeared from the prairie; when all the fields were under fence, and the roads no longer ran about like wild things, but followed the surveyed section-lines, Mr. Shimerda’s grave was still there, with a sagging wire fence around it, and an unpainted wooden cross. As grandfather had predicted, Mrs. Shimerda never saw the roads going over his head. The road from the north curved a little to the east just there, and the road from the west swung out a little to the south; so that the grave, with its tall red grass that was never mowed, was like a little island; and at twilight, under a new moon or the clear evening star, the dusty roads used to look like soft gray rivers flowing past it. I never came upon the place without emotion, and in all that country it was the spot most dear to me. I loved the dim superstition, the propitiatory intent, that had put the grave there; and still more I loved the spirit that could not carry out the sentence — the error from the surveyed lines, the clemency of the soft earth roads along which the home-coming wagons rattled after sunset. Never a tired driver passed the wooden cross, I am sure, without wishing well to the sleeper.” ch 16

Key Moment / Idea Three (summary and overview): struggle to find a home in Nebraska/ hardship- strive for success

Relevant Quotations: “she carried a little tin trunk in her arms, hugging it as if it were a baby”- mrs shimerda- chapter 1 - very few possessions “I saw a sort of shed, thatched with the same wine-coloured grass that grew everywhere” ch 3 “the same embroidered shawl” mrs Shimerda “house no good, house no good!” Mr. Shimerdas face “looked like ashes- like something from which all the warmth and light had died out”- sense of melancholy- symbolic of holding onto the past in the future. “te-e-ach, te-e-ach my án-tonia!”- wants to give his daughter the best opportunities in life that he can give her. “Grandmother went on talking in her polite Virginia way, not admitting their stark need or her own remissness” ch 10 “I wish my papa live to see this summer. I wish no winter ever come again.” “If I live here, like you, that is different. Things will be easy for you. But they will be hard for us.” ch 19

Relevant Critical Readings (AO5): Kelly McCormick- “Each immigrant's story represents a footprint in the journey of the American Dream”

Relevant Contexts (AO3): Cather’s novel of fractured tales with no structure symbolises an immigrant’s struggle to express their past in a foreign language AMERICAN DREAM Protestant vs Catholic views- cause cultural differences and strife

Antonia

Key Moment / Idea One (summary and overview): youthful fearlessness insistent on learning the word for the colour blue- manages to communicate with Jim despite the language barrier.

Relevant Quotations: “she was quick, and very eager” ch 3 “she wanted to give me a little chased silver ring she wore on her middle finger. When she coaxed and insisted, I repulsed her quite sternly’” Jim ch 3 “Ántonia had opinions about everything, and she was soon able to make them known. Al- most every day she came running across the prairie to have her reading lesson with me.” ch 4 “Her greatest fault, Mrs. Harling found, was that she so often stopped her work and fell to playing with the children.” book 2 ch 3

Key Moment / Idea Two (summary and overview): as. woman/ pioneer/ gender roles

Relevant Quotations: “MUCH as I liked Ántonia, I hated a superior tone that she sometimes took with me. She was four years older than I, to be sure, and had seen more of the world; but I was a boy and she was a girl, and I resented her protect- ing manner. Before the autumn was over she began to treat me more like an equal and to defer to me in other things than reading les- sons. This change came about from an ad- venture we had together.” ch 7 “ever killed in those parts. This was enough for Ántonia. She liked me better from that time on, and she never took a supercilious air with me again. I had killed a big snake — I was now a big fellow.” ch 7 - even Antonia though seemingly a pioneer subjects others to traditional gender roles- she thinks far more highly of Jim after he proves himself physically and through bravery which are associated with his masculinity. “She will help some fellow get ahead in the world.”ch 17 - spoken by grandfather ““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.” ch 19

Key Moment / Idea Three (summary and overview): Antonia as a Mother

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Relevant Critical Readings (AO5): James E Miller- “My Antonia does not portray, in any meaningful sense the fulfilment of the AMERICAN DREAM” Amy Ahearn- Antonia is emblematic of the past, representing "the whole adventure of childhood which the narrator wants to recapture" David Stouck- "Cather celebrated the innocence of the past because it had become more attractive than the present" Cather creates a 'theme of destruction of the American dream'-Kelly McCormick 'All the while that Cather is describing life's terrors, she never stops asserting its beauties ... the dream is still there; we just can't have it' - Joan Acocella

Relevant Contexts (AO3): Individualism in America

Lena Lingard

Key Moment / Idea One (summary and overview): strive for the American dream and success

Relevant Quotations: ““For Mrs. Thomas, the dressmaker. She is going to teach me to sew. She says I have quite a knack. I’m through with the farm. There ain’t any end to the work on a farm, and always so much trouble happens. I’m going to be a dressmaker.” book 2 ch 3

Key Moment / Idea Two (summary and overview): She is expected to be a wife/ reverse of gender roles/ independence- pioneer woman!

Relevant Quotations: “I don’t want to marry Nick, or any other man,” Lena murmured. “I’ve seen a good deal of married life, and I don’t care for it. I want to be so I can help my mother and the children at home, and not have to ask lief of anybody.” “She was accused of making Ole Benson lose the little sense he had — and that at an age when she should still have been in pinafores.” “The next Sunday Lena appeared at church, a little late, with her hair done up neatly on her head, like a young woman, wearing shoes and stockings, and the new dress, which she had made over for herself very becomingly. The congregation stared at her. Until that morning no one — unless it were Ole — had realized how pretty she was, or that she was growing up. The swelling lines of her figure had been hidden under the shapeless rags she wore in the fields. After the last hymn had been sung, and the congregation was dismissed, Ole slipped out to the hitch-bar and lifted Lena on her horse. That, in itself, was shocking; a married man was not expected to do such things. But it was nothing to the scene that followed. Crazy Mary darted out from the group of women at the church door, and ran down the road after Lena, shouting horrible threats.” “Lena Lingard only laughed her lazy, good- natured laugh and rode on, gazing back over her shoulder at Ole’s infuriated wife. The time came, however, when Lena did n’t laugh. More than once Crazy Mary chased her across the prairie and round and round the Shimerdas’ cornfield.” “Maybe you lose a steer and learn not to make somethings with your eyes at married men,” Mrs. Shimerda told her hectoringly. Lena only smiled her sleepy smile. “I never made anything to him with my eyes. I can’t help it if he hangs around, and I can’t order him off. It ain’t my prairie.” book 2 ch 4

Key Moment / Idea Three (summary and overview): old life

Relevant Quotations: “When- ever we rode over in that direction we saw her out among her cattle, bareheaded and barefooted, scantily dressed in tattered cloth- ing, always knitting as she watched her herd. Before I knew Lena, I thought of her as some- thing wild, that always lived on the prairie, because I had never seen her under a roof.” book 2 ch 4

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The Land, Pioneering Spirit, East and West

Key Moment / Idea One (summary and overview): Otto Fuchs and Jake- east vs west and pioneering

Relevant Quotations: “had led an adventurous life in the far west among mining camps and cow outfits” - Otto Fuchs ch 2 “I can see them now, exactly as they looked, working about the table in the lamplight: Jake with his heavy features, so rudely moulded that his face seemed, somehow, unfinished; Otto with his half-ear and the savage scar that made his upper lip curl so ferociously under his twisted mustache. As I remember them, what unprotected faces they were; their very roughness and violence made them defense- less.” ch 11 “Otto thought he would go back to what he called the “wild West.” Jake Marpole, lured by Otto’s stories of adventure, decided to go with him. We did our best to dissuade Jake. He was so handi- capped by illiteracy and by his trusting dispo- sition that he would be an easy prey to sharp- ers. Grandmother begged him to stay among kindly, Christian people, where he was known; but there was no reasoning with him. He wanted to be a prospector. He thought a sil- ver mine was waiting for him in Colorado.” Book 2 Ch 1

Key Moment / Idea Two (summary and overview): The Land as vast - many opportunities but harsh conditions/ connection to the land Freedom! AMERICAN DREAM AS A FAILURE

Relevant Quotations: “there was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made”- both peaceful and overwhelming “there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running” - personification “I was entirely happy”- ch 2 “the new country lay open before me: there were no fences in those days, and I could choose my own way over the grass uplands” ch 4 “The great land had never looked to me so big and free. If the red grass were full of rattlers, I was equal to them all” ch 7 - after killing the snake - Jim feels a sense of accomplishment and with this comes the feeling of freedom because he feels that he has a large capability for success- could compare to Gatsby’s childhood journal that allowed him to dream of success and freedom. “We decided to have a country Christmas, without any help from town.” ch 11 ““People who don’t like this country ought to stay at home,” I said severely. “We don’t make them come here.” “He not want to come, nev-er!” she burst out. “My mamenka make him come. All the time she say: ‘America big country; much money, much land for my boys, much hus- band for my girls.’ My papa, he cry for leave his old friends what make music with him.” ch 13 - Jim doesn't understand “That river was to be my compensation for the lost freedom of the farming country.” book 2 ch 1

Key Moment / Idea Three (summary and overview): religion- spirituality and colonialisation -Otto fuchs making Mr. Shimerdas coffin despite different faiths and cultures signifies a sense of community- which bridges the gap between religion.

Relevant Quotations: “the sunflowers were introduced into that country by the Mormons, that at the time of the persecution, when they left Missouri and struck out into the wilderness to find a place where they could worship God in their own way, the members of the first exploring party, crossing the plains to Utah, scattered sunflower seed as they went. The next summer, when the long trains of wagons came through with all the women and children, they had the sunflower trail to follow- …… the sunflower- bordered roads always seem to me the roads to freedom.” ch 4 “Though we had come from such different parts of the world, in both of us there was some dusky supersti- tion that those shining groups have their influ- ence upon what is and what is not to be. Per- haps Russian Peter, come from farther away than any of us, had brought from his land, too, some such belief.” ch 8 “Jake and Otto were sure that when they galloped round that ring the Indians tor- tured prisoners, bound to a stake in the cen- ter; but grandfather thought they merely ran races or trained horses there.” ch 9 “Our tree became the talking tree of the fairy tale; legends and stories nestled like birds in its branches. Grandmother said it reminded her of the Tree of Knowledge.” ch 11 “His prayers reflected what he was thinking about at the time, and it was chiefly through them that we got to know his feelings and his views about things.” ch 12 “He was rather narrow in religious matters, and sometimes spoke out and hurt people’ s feelings. There had been nothing strange about the tree before, but now, with some one kneeling before it, — images, can- dles, . . . Grandfather merely put his finger- tips to his brow and bowed his venerable head, thus Protestantizing the atmosphere.” “He made the sign of the cross over me, put on his cap and went off in the dark. As we turned back to the sitting-room, grandfather looked at me searchingly. “The prayers of all good people are good,” he said quietly.” ch 12 “It was the first time Mrs. Shimerda had been to our house, and she ran about exam- ining our carpets and curtains and furniture, all the while commenting upon them to her daughter in an envious, complaining tone. In the kitchen she caught up an iron pot that stood on the back of the stove and said: “You got many, Shimerdas no got.” I thought it weak-minded of grandmother to give the pot to her.” ch 13 “She was a conceited, boastful old thing, and even misfortune could not humble her. I was so annoyed that I felt coldly even toward Ántonia and listened unsympathetically when she told me her father was not well.” ch 13 ““Jimmy, we will not have prayers this morning, because we have a great deal to do. Old Mr. Shimerda is dead, and his family are in great distress.” ch 14 ““Poor soul, poor soul!” grandmother groaned. “I’d like to think he never done it. He was always considerate and un-wishful to give trouble. How could he forget himself and bring this on us!”” “His coat was hung on a peg, and his boots was under the bed. He’d took off that silk neckcloth he always wore, and folded it smooth and stuck his pin through it. He turned back his shirt at the neck and rolled up his sleeves.”” “He did not say a word all morning, but sat with his rosary in his hands, praying, now silently, now aloud. He never looked away from his beads, nor lifted his hands except to cross himself. Several times the poor boy fell asleep where he sat, wakened with a start, and began to pray again.” - Ambrosch “if Mr. Shimerda’s soul were lingering about in this world at all, it would be here, in our house, which had been more to his liking than any other in the neighborhood. I remem- bered his contented face when he was with us on Christmas Day. If he could have lived with us, this terrible thing would never have happened. I knew it was homesickness that had killed Mr. Shimerda, and I wondered whether his released spirit would not eventually find its way back to his own country. I thought of how far it was to Chicago, and then to Virginia, to Baltimore, — and then the great wintry ocean. No, he would not at once set out upon that long journey. Surely, his exhausted spirit, so tired of cold and crowding and the struggle with the ever-falling snow, was resting now in this quiet house.” ch 14 “he was chiefly concerned about getting a priest, and about his father’s soul, which he believed was in a place of torment and would remain there until his family and the priest had prayed a great deal for him. “As I understand it,” Jake concluded, “it will be a matter of years to pray his soul out of Purgatory, and right now he’s in torment.” “his idea of punishment and Purgatory came back on me crushingly. I remembered the account of Dives in torment, and shud- dered. But Mr. Shimerda had not been rich and selfish; he had only been so unhappy that he could not live any longer.” ch 14 “So I feel very bad for my kawntree-man to die without the Sacrament, and to die in a bad way for his soul, and I feel sad for his family.” ch 15

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the Harlings

Key Moment / Idea One (summary and overview): The Harlings as a symbol of the success of the American Dream

Relevant Quotations: “GRANDMOTHER often said that if she had to live in town, she thanked God she lived next the Harlings. They had been farming people, like ourselves” book 2 ch 2

Key Moment / Idea Two (summary and overview):Mrs Harling and her children as pioneers- gender roles

Relevant Quotations: “In his absence his wife was the head of the household.” book 2 ch 2 “The grown-up daughter, Frances, was a very important person in our world. She was her father’s chief clerk, and virtually managed his Black Hawk office during his frequent ab- sences. Because of her unusual business abil- ity, he was stern and exacting with her. He paid her a good salary, but she had few holi- days and never got away from her responsi- bilities. Even on Sundays she went to the office to open the mail and read the markets. With Charley, who was not interested in busi- ness, but was already preparing for Annapolis, Mr. Harling was very indulgent; bought him guns and tools and electric batteries, and never asked what he did with them.” “In winter she wore a sealskin coat and cap, and she and Mr. Harling used to walk home together in the evening, talking about grain-cars and cattle, like two men. Some- times she came over to see grandfather after supper, and her visits flattered him.” book 2 ch 2

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Larry Donovan

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Tiny Soderball

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Relevant Quotations: “Tiny Soderball is coming to town, too. She’s going to work at the Boys’ Home Hotel. She’ll see lots of strangers,” Lena added wistfully. “Too many, like enough,” said Mrs. Har- ling. “I don’t think a hotel is a good place for a girl; though I guess Mrs. Gardener keeps an eye on her waitresses.” book 2 ch 3

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