My Antonia Notes PDF

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My Antonia Notes ...

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April 19, 2015 Willa Cather’s My Antonia (Growing Up in a Harsh Land) -

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Cather: Early Life o Born in Virginia, 1873 o At ten moved to Webster County, Nebraska. A majority of the population was immigrants o In 1890 Willa went to the U. of Nebraska, became involved in campus literary magazine, later became theater critic for leading Lincoln paper o In 1905 went to work for McClure’s Magazine later became editor of America’s fastest growing magazine Cather: Literary Career o In 1905, published her first prose work, a short story collection The Troll Garden o In 1911 published first novel, Alexander’s Bridge o In 1913 published her first Nebraskan novel o In 1918 published My Antonia usually considered her best work o In 1922 published One of Ours, which won the Pulitzer Prize o In 1944 was awarded Gold Medal of the National Institute of Arts and Letters My Antonia: Initial Reception o From the beginning the work was very popular with general readers and sold quite well. o Literary critics also praise My Antonia o H.L. Mencken “I know of no novel that makes the remote folks of the Western Prairie more real than My Antonia, and I know of none that makes them seem better worth knowing.” My Antonia: The History Behind the Story o Many of the facts of Jim’s life are based on Willa’s right, down to the initial impression of the Nebraska prairie o Jim grandparents and their homes are based on Willa’s experiences o The Harling family is based on Willa’s next door neighbors the Miners to whom the book is dedicated o Antonia based on Annie Sadilek, a girl Willa knew in Red Cloud o “Annie was one of those people who interested me the most as a child… She was one of the truest artists I ever knew in the keenness and sensitiveness of her enjoyment, in her love of people, and in her willingness to take pains. My Antonia: Local Color o A type of writing that makes use of specific detail in describing the dialect, dress, customs, and scenery associated with a particular region. o Purpose of Local Color is to suggest the uniqueness of a particular locale. Local Color: Common Characteristics o Setting becomes an important character or element

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o Introduction of certain stock characters or stereotypes o Dialect is important o Occupations, customs, and moral values of the community often are component parts of the story Local Color: Sections of the Country o The South o New England o Great Plains o Far West My Antonia: The Frame Story o A frame story is a story within a story o This form used since classical period  Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales  Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog” o Can allow the author to introduce facts about the “story’s” narrator that maybe important in understanding the “story”. Values of the Frame Story in My Antonia o Using a male narrator allows Cather to introduce the aspect of romance o Mentions important facts about the adult Jim He is a corporate lawyer (He’s rich) He has a loveless and childless marriage that has greatly advanced his career He has a romantic (nostalgic) temperament His middle name is Quayle which adds to the symbolic value of his last name He has a youthful appearance Gives the book almost an epic quality

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The Actual Frame o Two friend accidently meet on a train in the West o They talk about a common friend of their youth o They each agree to write a story about their experiences with this common friend o Jim later brings his story to Cather on a stormy winter afternoon. (indicating its importance to him) My Antonia is Epic o Like the epic, Cather begins her story in medias res (in the middle of the action) o There is the long journey across the sea like prairie using the Homeric phrasing “wine stained grass” o There is the reenactment of the archetypal battle with evil. o Picture writing on the Sun

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The image of the plow set against the sun is similar to an image from the Aeneid (an epic) by Virgil

April 24, 2015 The Shimerdas

My Antonia -

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Bohemian Migration o Bohemian’s immigrated to the US in late 1800’s as a result of railroad advertisements wanting to drum up business in unsettled are where their lines ran. o The Czechs were a part of the Austrian –Hungarian Empire until 1920. They were an educated and fairly advanced people but were dominated by more powerful neighbors. o Approximately 1/5 of all Czechs settled in Nebraska. In 1890 43% of Nebraska’s population was foreign born. o Czechoslovakia is rather densely populated, and the people are inclined to be of a social nature. o They tend to feel very keenly the effects of isolation, and frequently form ethnic communities, such as Wilbur, Nebraska mentioned in the last section of the book. The Shimerdas o Story begins with a train ride to Nebraska from Virginia and the advice of a wise man which the young Jim doesn’t take o The section takes place in the country. Its time span is roughly from early autumn to midsummer. o The section is mostly exposition where we become acquainted with the country and characters of Jim’s new home. o It also includes a tragic event that dictates the course of Antonia’s future life. Landscape o Jim’s initial impression 36-37 o Jim’s impression formed in the garden c2 o Jim’s impression of spring c17 Features of the Landscape

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o The Sunflower lined roads o Prairie dog town o The circle in the snow c9 o The Burden house c2 Characters o Emmaline Burden - Grandmother o Josiah Burden - Grandfather

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Otto Fuchs – looks mean but he is one of the most kind men they know Jake Marpole – not smart, bad temper, very loyal to the burden’s Jim Burden Mr. Shimerda Mrs. Shimerda Yulka Ambrosch Marek Peter Krajiek Antonia Shimerda Pavel Peter Anton Jelinek

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Note able Events of Plot o Initial visit to Shimerdas’ o Initial visit to prairie dog town o Archetypal battle with evil at prairie dog town o Visit at night to Pavel and Peter’s house o Second visit to Shimerdas’ o Country Christmas o Visit of Mr. Shimerda o Visit of Mrs. Shimerda o Death of Mr. Shimerda o Burial of Mr. Shimerda o Jim’s visit to inform Antonia about the new school o Jake and Ambrosch’s quarrel o The summer thunderstorm

April 29, 2015 My Antonia The Hired girls -

The Hired Girls o This part of the book begins 2 years after part 1 ends o The Burdens are getting too old to farm o Jim I snow 13 and needs the benefit of a better education

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Rent their farm to the Window Steavens Rent their farm to the window Steavens Move into the first town house travelers see when approaching from the country Otto and Jake go to the far West and become prospectors The section ends five years later as Jim prepares to attend college in Linclon

Characters o Mrs. Harling o Mr. Harling o Francis Harling o Charlie Harling o Lena Lingard o Tiny Soderball o Mrs. Gardner o Wick Cutter o Jim Burden o Antonia o Ole Benson o Anton Jelnick Important episodes o Antonia’s move to town o The concert of Blind d Arnault o Vanni’s dancing pavilion o Anotnia’s leaving the Harlings o Jim’s rebellion and its consequences o Jim’s graduation o The picnic by the river o Another battle to rescue a princess from a dragon May 1, 2015

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Landscape o Winter in a small town o The Methodist Church o The long cold residential streets o The river

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Lena Lingard

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o Takes place in Lincoln during Jim freshman and sophomore year at the University of Nebraska o Jim is very interested in his Latin studies and is much impressed with a new professor Gaston Cleric o Jim reads a Virgil’s (the Roman poet) desire to bring the muse to his “patria” (homeland) and desires to do the same with his own private past and homeland o In Greek mythology the muses were daughters (3-9) of Zeus who inspired artists of various varieties. o About that time the beautiful Lena Lingard shows up at Jim’s apartment. o This section largely concerns a brie romance between Lena and Jim o One important date is to a rather moving performance of the play Camille. In some respects the relationship of Marguerite and Armand is similar to the relationship between Antonia and Jim. o What we learn of Antonia. o The Latin phrase optima dies … Prima fugit means in Virgil that the prime production years in mares and cows are when they are young mature animals o My Antonia gives the phrase a more emotional, nostalgic interpretation. “The best days of our lives are when we are young.” The Pioneer Woman’s Story o This section occurs two years after the previous section closes. o Jim has just graduated from college and in the fall will enter law school. o Tiny Soderball story o Jim returns to the old homestead to learn about Antonia from the Window Steavens o Jim talks with Anotnia outside Mr.Shimerda’s grave o Antonia standing among the shocks of wheat has the look of a young earth mother. o Symbolic action  Antonia’s washing of her wardrobe  The two luminaries  Sun is a masculine symbol associated with Apollo  Moon is a feminine symbol associated with Diana  The point is that just as the sun and moon cannot exist side by side neither are Jim and Antonia able to share a life together. There are forces too great that will keep them apart. However, there is a sincere desire to do so.

Cuzak’s Boy -

Cuzak’s Boys

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o This section begins 20 years after the previous section ends o Jim stops off at Hastings, Nebraska and hires a buggy to travel to Antonia’s farm o He makes this journey reluctantly fearing that his pleasant past memories will be blotted out by harsh present realities. o He learns Antonia has not lost the fire of life. o She has a large family of pleasant attractive children o She has a well maintained and fertile farm with two orchards o Her children show him the many jars and barrels of fruit and vegetables she has preserved. Her farm and situation is prosperous, which is strikingly different from her youth o Jim is much impressed with two of her sons. o Amrosh is a pleasant attractive boy that Jim is drawn to in a father like way o Leo is an unusual child, born on Easter Sunday, fawn like appearance, able to play the violin like his grandfather. o Cuzak her husband is a city man, in many respects not suited for a farmer’s life. Yet Antonia has managed to give him a happy life on the farm. o Jim leaves after a 2 day visit and travels to Black Hawk. o He hopes to remain close to the Cuzak’s and has already scheduled a hunting trip for the following summer with the two oldest boys. o He is rather disappointed with Black Hawk as most of his friends had either died or moved away. o He takes a walk to the country north of town and discovers a section of the old road he had travelled over the night he had arrived in Nebraska. o With the discovery of the road, Jim realizes that his life has come full circle. o He understands that his memories are not lost but forever with him. o He understands that whatever he had missed with Antonia he still possesses these early memories. Antonia as an Earth Mother Figure o This popular figure in literature since the ancient period. o An Earth Mother figure is kind of an incarnation of Mother Nature in the form of a human woman o Characteristics Antonia shares with an Earth Mother  She has a dark complexion much like the earth she tends  She is personally fertile, she has many strong sons and lovely daughters; she is called a “rich mine of life, like the founders of early races”  She creates fertility and abundance in the natural world. Antonia has a cherry orchard with a grape arbor at it center.  The other creatures are comforted by her attention. The waterfowl rest comfortably in her arms. My Antonia as a Pastoral o Originally pastoral referred to shepherds and rural life

o In modern times, it has come to mean any poem or story of rural people setting o A relative new meaning assigned to the term pastoral is “A story of the people, but not by or for the people” o Writer is a city dweller who possesses a dissociated sensibility because modern city life has gotten him out of tune with the cycles of nature: the seasons, fertility and drought, birth and death, etc. o He envies the simple county folk who are better able to cope with the common problems of life o It is written for sophisticated city dwellers like the writer himself

May 6, 2015 Mary Wilkins Freeman 1852 – 1930 -

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Personal Life o Born and reared in New England o Was brought up as a Congregationalist and was subject to a strict code of behavior o Father was an unsuccessful businessman o In 1883 after his sister, mother, and father died with 6 years, she moved in with family of a childhood friend o Married Charles Freeman in 1902 o Couple divorced in 1922 because of his alcoholism Literary Reputation o First began to publish stories in Harper’s Bazaar in 1883 o Very prolific writer, 14 short stories collections, 13 novels, 1 play and 8 children’s books o Best known for her “Local Color” stories of small town New England o Wrote about the constraints of religious belief, and the effect of these constraints on character formation and behavior. o Very concerned with issues related to women. Local Color o New England dialect o Paternal-ordered society o Strong willed proud people o Influence of Puritan ethic, (honesty, living within one’s means, keeping one’s word) “The Revolt of Mother” o Sarah Penn deeply resent the new barn her husband is building on the very spot where he years before had promised her a new house. o Nevertheless she wants to live in the humble fashion of a scripture woman o She will not criticize her husband in front of her children

She believe his absence at this time is a heavenly providence offering her the opportunity change her future. Both Sarah (I Peter 3:1-6) And her husband Adoniram (I Kings 4:6) Have symbolic names that come from the Bible Ponder the meaning and significance of these two sentences from the story One of these days you’ll find out, an’ then you’ll know that we know that we know only what men-folks think we do, so far as any use of it goes an’ how we ought to reckon men-folks in with Providence, an’ not complain of what they do any more than we do of the weather. “Unsolicited opportunities are the guide-posts of the Lord to the new roads of life.” o

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May 8, 2015 Charles Waddell Chesnutt The South’s Other Voice 1858-1932 -

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Chesnutt: Personal Life o Born the son of free parents in Ohio o Attended school in NC and later taught there o Returned to Ohio and established a successful legal stenography firm of African Americans Chesnutt: Literary Career o First major success was the publication of “The Goophered Grapevine” in the Atlantic Monthly o In 1899 published short story collection The Conjure Woman all sores cast in a frame, inner narrator Julius McAdoo o IN 1900 published The House Behind the Cedars, about a Mulatto who feels trapped between the races o 1st Black writer to be published in major periodicals and reviewed in White press The Goophered Grapevine: A Frame Story o A frame story is a story within a story o This method is a common form of presentation o Can allow the author to introduce facts about the story’s frame narrator that may be important in understanding the story o Often major interest is created in the contrast of the two narrators Plantation Tale Tradition o A type of literature that looks back fondly to time before the Civil War

Tradition began with Thomas Nelson Paige’s In Ole Virginia Stories are narrated in dialect by a faithful ex-slave who looks back on “dem good ole times.” o Setting is the ruined plantation. Through the tale the plantation is depicted as an Edenic spot for masters and slaves alike. The Goophered Grapevine o The Narrator of the frame is rather self-assured arrogant Yankee o The Narrator of the inner story is a crafty black man who wants something but can not directly ask for it. o He tells a long story about a hex put on the vineyard as an explanation of why the Yankee should not purchase the vineyard o He casually mentions important facts about the production of the vineyard o He also mentions that an earlier Yankee had killed off the vines in an attempt to improve the vineyard o This fact sows a seed of doubt in the frame narrator’s mind about his ability to improve the vineyard o He puts Julius McAdoo on the payroll o o

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