My Antonia

Last week,I read My Antonia, by Willa Cather, for the 3rd time. (the 1st two times were on tape and this time I physically read it) It is the assigned reading for my ward book club next month.

In the book,the narrator, Jim Burden, becomes orphaned and moves to the Nebraska frontier with his grandparents. A Bohemian immigrant family, the Shimerdas, arrive with him on the same train. Jim becomes close friends with their oldest daughter Antonia, who is a few years older than he. He teaches her English and his grandparents bring food and supplies to her family during their difficult first winter.

Antonia is a symbol for the American Frontier. The Immigrant families left wealth and social status in their old countries, but when they first arrive in America they are desperately poor, and ignorant about farming in the foreign soil. The oldest daughters of immigrant families, must sacrifice a great deal for their families to give their younger siblings a better life. Their parents, mired in their old country ways, find it more difficult to adapt.

Antonia and her girl friends work and plow the land themselves, and later move to town and work as maids so they can send the money home to their family farms. The immigrant working girls in town are looked down upon in the community, but Jim admires their courage and passion and watches as they grow up to become successful Americans.

I love this book! The landscape is described so beautifully. Willa Cather paints indelible images of the hardworking fortitude of the pioneer settlers.