Chapter1 Introduction
1.1 Willa Cather and Her Major Literary Achievements
Willa Cather was born in Virginia in 1873. “The oldest of seven children, Cather was raised in a loving home, but she hated the frontier prairie village of Red Cloud, Nebraska, where her family finally settled after leaving Virginia. She went to a preparatory school in Lincoln and continued at the University of Nebraska, studying classics. After her graduation in 1895, she moved to Pittsburgh, where she worked as a journalist for seven years before teaching English and Latin in high schools. At that time her stories and poems began to appear in popular magazines. Her first book was a volume of poetry, April Twilights (1903), followed in 1905 by The Troll Gardens, the first of four collections of short stories. The most important influence on Cather’s work was Sarah Orne Jewett, who taught her that beautiful writing was a consequence of steady concentration on a thoroughly understood subject. Cather met Jewett in Boston, and Jewett urged her to develop her talents, advising her to ‘find your own quiet center of life and write to the human heart, the great consciousness that all humanity goes to make up.’ It was not until 1912 that Cather found her subject, after a trip home to Red Cloud. When she no longer saw her adolescence on the prairie as deprived and stifling, she was able to feel that her own experience was significant enough to write about. O Pioneers! (1913), the first of her three novels about immigrant life on the western frontier, was followed in 1915 by The Song of the Lark and in 1918 by My Antonia, a portrait of a pioneer woman that is generally regarded as her masterpiece.”
Cather was very careful about the language and the structure of her novels. She was celebrated by critics for writing in plainspoken language about ordinary people. Her novels include only the most basic and plain information, giving much space to the readers for their own imagination and judgment. It is this distinct feature that adds to her work some traits of Modernism. The language of Cather’s novels is fluent, natural, straightforward and non-artificial, from which the readers feel her geniality and sincerity.
“Cather went on to publish a total of twelve novels and several collections of stories, but she didn’t value her stories as highly as her novels.” She was widely recognized by the public and she received both national and state honors. In 1923 Willa Cather was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours, published in 1922. “In 1931, Princeton University broke the tradition that it had kept for 184 years to grant Cather an Honorary Doctorate Degree, making her the first female in history who have won the laurel. After that, University of Nebraska, University of Michigan and Yale all awarded her the same degree. Besides, she got the maximum bonus in 1944 as an academician of American Academy of Arts and Literature.”
Apart from writing novels and stories, Cather was also a perceptive literary critic. “She published a collection of essays and analyzed the subtle magic of the storyteller’s art.” She devoted herself to literature and never got married. Her works are still highly appreciated by people nowadays.
1.2 A Brief Introduction to My Antonia
Antonia Shimerda, the protagonist of My Antonia, was the descendant of a Bohemian family. The Shimerdas’ immigrated to Nebraska from Czech when Antonia was a little girl. The family was extremely poor and had to confront the harsh environment on the prairie. Antonia was the only person in the family who could speak a little English and she was eager to learn. Antonia’s father committed suicide because he couldn’t bear the intense homesickness and desperation. Since then, Antonia began to work like a man in order to help her mother support the family. Several years later, she was introduced to work for the Harlings’ in Black Hawk. Antonia had a good time there and became fond of dancing when the dancing tent came into town. However, Mr. Harling requested her to quit dancing. Antonia wouldn’t give up easily and wanted to pursue her dancing dream. So she left the Harlings’ without hesitation and then went to work for the flagrancy moneylender, Wick Cutter. She was so innocent and trusted other people so easily that she almost got raped by Wick Cutter. With the help of Jimmy, her best friend from childhood, she managed to get away from the disaster and left the Cutters’. But the misfortune was not over, when she finally fell in love with Larry Donovan, a passenger conductor, she did all the preparation to marry him and thought that would be the beginning of her happy life. Unfortunately, she was abandoned by her fiancé, pregnant with his baby. Driven to despair, Antonia returned to the prairie. She acted calm and quiet no matter what other people said. On a cold winter night, she gave birth to a daughter. Some time later, she married a simple farmer and they raised a big family together. Through her tenacious perseverance, they created a happy life of their own and Antonia finally found her ideal homeland in the prairie.
1.3 Literary Review
My Antonia is no doubt the most famous and widely read novel of Willa Cather’s. Many critics believe that the novel alone is sufficient to ensure Cather’s status in American literary history.
Willa Cather was celebrated by critics like H.L.Mencken for writing in plainspoken language about ordinary people. When novelist Sinclair Lewis won the Nobel Prize in Literature, he paid homage to her by saying that Cather should have won the honor.
Over the years, scholars have made various comments on My Antonia from the aspects of Feminism, Naturalism and the writing skills of the novel. Some of them have stated that My Antonia was a paean of the early female pioneers in American history. The female characters in the novel show that women are actually much stronger both mentally and physically than people uauslly think, and that they are able to be the masters of their own destinies. Some scholars have also seen the novel as an interpretation of the subtle relationship between human being and nature. During the time on which the novel is based, the pioneers had to fight with the harsh environment, but at the same time, people depended on nature in order to make a living.
“In Willa Cather’s novels, the lifestyle of people living in the traditional farming culture forms a sharp contrast with the fallen society under the influence of modern industry. These are inseparable with the author’s own living experience.” In her opinion, the towns and grassland of the western border represent the noble spirit. Although the environment is abominable, the immigrants are simple, noble and lead a meaningful life. “In her work, she did her utmost to pay tribute to the seemingly barren prairie which was actually full of vitality and praised the early immigrants, portraying their images as life-loving, longing for happiness and creating their own life.”
It is clear that in the eyes of Willa Cather, Antonia is a great creator as well as a great mother. Her spirit is as eternal as the land. In Cather’s description, there is nothing other than land in Nebraska, however, the land is the material that makes up the country. People come and leave Nebraska, but the land exists forever. The spirit of the early female pioneers symbolizes endless power, vitality, and the hope for better life. It is never weakened, but grows stronger and stronger as time goes by. The theme of My Antonia can also be seen in other novels of Cather’s, she highly admired the pioneering spirit and looked down upon the materialism and money worship in the society. Antonia is a representative of the female pioneers who strive all their lives for a better life in Nebraska. She is a depurated model, we can see the most pure and sincere affection in her.
On the prairie, the equality and freedom is a gift from nature, however, people are also confronted with severe challenges. In the progress of conquering the frontier, women have no other ways, but to accept all kinds of challenges like men. In fact, practice has proved that women are equal to or even better than men mentally and physically. “Cather did some serious thinking about women’s experience in the westward movement. And creatively shaped women as self-reliant, self-esteem and strong-minded. In her novel, she shows us a image of typical independent women with a realistic foundation.”
