Reading Response
In Willa Cather’s My Antonia, the author shows the different viewpoints of the settlers in the Midwest. Antonia and her immigrant family experience life out in the country much differently than that of Jim and his grandparents. With many people looking down on immigrants and questioning how trustworthy they may be, this shows how racism and stereotyping have been ingrained within the fabric of American history. This novel gives a realistic outlook on America, rather than the idealized features that we often like to think of. These differences ultimately lead to the questioning of the definition of happiness and how each person feels about how happiness is achieved. This embodies the ideals within America, with many believing that hard work leads to success when that is not actually the case. Today, many of these ideas are still prevalent, showing that this novel has stood the test of time. My Antonia is an insightful representation of America and shows that the American dream is more of an illusion rather than a realistic ideology and should be required reading to college students.
Life in the Midwest is vastly different for the immigrants, because their priorities are not aligned with those of the Americans. For example, while growing up, Jim was able to enjoy his childhood and be a kid while Antonia had to become an adult early on and begin to do hard labor. Jim never had to worry about whether or not he would have food for the next day or if he would survive the winter, because his grandparents offered him stability. This is apparent in a conversation that Antonia has with Jim where she explains that she is not able to view the world in a romanticized way because she has to work and cannot just enjoy the labors of others like he does (Cather 1, 19). In a way this novel gives a bit of a history lesson by explaining the difficulties that the immigrants faced. Often times, we discount the struggles of others because we are so future oriented so this novel spurs thinking about what people actually have to go through to gain stability and safety. The immigrants did not have the same opportunities in the Midwest because they left their homes in search of the American dream, not understanding completely what it would actually entail. This embodies the ideas of those often coming to American, with the ideals of a white picket fence and the possibility of attaining a better lifer for a person and their family.
Cather shows that racism is ingrained within the American people, with many of the people in the Midwest looking down on the immigrants even though the immigrants often work harder than them. It is important for students to remember this and to constantly keep this in mind so that there is always a movement towards progress. A reduction in racism should be a goal, and we should not discount others hard work just because it does not align with our personal beliefs. From early on Jim is drilled with the idea that “they aint the same”, creating an us vs them mentality, and driving a wedge between the Americans and the immigrants (Cather 1,15). With many people feeding into this mindset it makes sense why they looked at the immigrants as untrustworthy or as cheats. Cather ties this with the gender roles of the time, because despite the hard work that Antonia and the other immigrant girls did other women were unhappy that they did not act how young women were supposed to act at that time. In some ways it is a double-edged sword, because regardless of whether they acted like ‘young ladies’ or not they would still be looked at differently because they were immigrants. Social issues still plague America today, so Cather’s depiction seems accurate especially for the time period that it was written in.
Achieving happiness and success within the novel was attained in many different ways, and this is an interesting perspective for students to always keep in mind. The definition of success for each character within the novel were vastly different. For example, Tiny found success in money however she did not necessarily find happiness because of it. Antonia on the other hand was not wealthy at all, but she found happiness and success within her children. When Antonia gives birth to her first child Ambrosch suggests that she kills the baby, however Antonia finds happiness in this child and wants to raise her even though others would think of her negatively (Cather 4,3). Often times we think success is connected to wealth and this novel challenges these ideas. Happiness can be found in alternative ways and places, and a person’s decisions can affect where they find this happiness. Each person has a different idea of what their happiness is and though it may completely differ from someone else’s ideas it does not discount that happiness. By students reading this novel, they would be given many different perspectives of these ideas and it would be useful in forming personal ideals and opinions.
My Antonia is truly a novel about America and how society functions and reacts to immigrants. The American dream is the center of this novel, showing that happiness is not always achieved in the way that we think it should be. Each person makes decisions and those decisions have a real impact on their personal lives, as Cather has shown. Stereotyping and racism are still apparent in America today, and though this novel is set in the almost 100 years ago the ideas still apply. This novel should be read to American college students because it still does apply to America and the ideas of society today. It gives us the perspectives of immigrants and the hard work and struggles that they have been through, garnering empathy and understanding for the ‘other’. It also gives insight to how different people truly are, and though we all may be different each of us have ideas of value and can find happiness and success in our own way.