My Ántonia by Willa Sibert Cather (September 28 - October 4, 2003)
This was the first book that I read by Willa Cather, and also the first book I’ve read set in Nebraska. I was impressed by Cather’s ability to tell stories of everyday life, emotions and ambitions. Instead of falling into typical story-telling of love or heartbreak, she wrote of a friendship that stood the test of time with a story of the American heartland and those that made it. Writing in first person as a male character, Jim Burden, must have been a challenge, but Cather was convincing. In telling his story of Ántonia, a Bohemien immigrant, from girlhood to womanhood, Jim shows how enduring her character is to him and all that she represents to him: "She was a rich mine of life, like the founders of the early races."
What makes the story is life. Tales of murder and death have their place in Cather’s tale, but she never dwells on the dramatic events as other authors would. Instead, she focuses on the everyday events that compose lives. The descriptions of the landscape are vivid
What rings truest is Jim and Ántonia’s friendship. From childhood romps, to rivalry, to affection, to jealousy, to love, to shame, the emotions Jim feels for her energize his story. The choices they each make are different, and in part designated by their gender and social classes. While Jim leaves the Midwest, Ántonia stays with the land. She is four years older than him; he ends up far more educated than her. In spite of being a woman, Ántonia is stronger than most men. While Jim chooses to stay in the boundaries of what is expected of him, Ántonia ends up an unwed mother. Once she marries, her life is bustling and filled with children. She ends up happy, while Jim is unhappily married without any offspring. The choices these two characters make are contrary, Jim and Ántonia are connected by their shared childhood.
Jim tells her "Do you know, Ántonia, since I’ve been away, I think of your more often than any one else in this part of the world. I’d have liked you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister – anything that a woman can be to a man. The idea of you is part of my mind; you influence my likes and dislikes, all my tastes, hundreds of times when you don’t realize it. You really are a part of me." She responds with the same affection, "...Ain’t it wonderful, Jim, how much people can mean to each other?..." The simplicity of this passage is stunning. It is a true depiction of a friendship that is meant to survive time.
