July 16, 2013
This novel is acknowledged as Cather's most famous. I first heard of this novel years back, but didn't know much about the premise. I was, however, fascinated by the possessive pronoun in the title. I imagined the novel to be some kind of great epic romance. To some extent I was correct, but it definitely wasn't romantic in the sexual sense. But Cather's loving descriptions of the characters and setting, told through the eyes of young Jim Burden, are romantic in themselves.
I heard that some people believe that Cather was a lesbian. While this surprised me at first (I would have assumed she was Mormon, or at least sympathetic to Mormons, from the fact that the narrative mentions their trek to Utah and because one of the Burden's cows was named Brigham Young), I guess I could maybe see where they're coming from, without knowing much of her personal life (besides what I could get from the text itself). The narrator Jim isn't just enamored with Ántonia, a hard-working young woman who came to Nebraska with her Bohemian family, but with all of the daughters of immigrants who live in his town and in the surrounding country. His descriptions of them, how beautiful they were, how hard they worked, how they had a special view of life and a special glow that none of the pampered girls in town would ever have...I will admit that, when I first read the introduction to the text, I thought that Jim Burden really had been real, and that he had written the manuscript, because clearly whoever wrote this book was very much in raptures over those girls. It has been proven that Cather based Ántonia on a childhood friend; perhaps she felt she had to change herself, in the story, into a boy, so that her feelings for these girls could be expressed openly and honestly. One can really only speculate...
Anyway, for the most part I found this book to be kind of boring. Kind of...I did enjoy the characters, particularly the girls like Ántonia and Lena. I found the stories that Cather came up with for how their lives turned out to be fascinating; like Tiny, the girl who went to the Yukon, preceding the major gold-rush, helping to found Dawson City and becoming a very rich woman in the process (this story only meant anything to me because I've read The Call of the Wild by Jack London). But I was disappointed in how things turned out with Jim and Ántonia. The thing of it is, I sometimes felt like he was never any more in love with her than he was with any of those other girls, especially Lena, since the story is almost as much about them once Jim and his grandparents move to town. Still, it was disappointing that Jim couldn't marry Ántonia and save her from the life of drudgery to which she was doomed (though happily, it would seem) at the end. Now, why couldn't Jim be with her again? It isn't clear, and that would lead me to believe that he never was as much in love with her as he might have supposed. However, if one is to speculate that Jim is standing in the place of Cather herself, then of course it wouldn't be possible to be with Ántonia.
Now, I have to wonder if I would have even enjoyed the book as much as I did (I didn't hate it) if I didn't have some small personal connection to the setting. See, for two years I taught in a very small rural community. Not exactly in Nebraska, but very close to the border. Now, I had a colleague from Nebraska at the time who swore that she could tell the difference between the air in the different states, but I don't know about all that. I know that I'm not impressed with Omaha, though I did think that Lincoln was a pretty little city. It was interesting to read a little bit about the start of the University of Nebraska, as Jim (in the story) was one of the first attendees at the very young school. And when the text described the vast plains and farmlands, and the rough country winters...I knew a little bit of what they were talking about. It didn't make me miss living there, I will say that much. I'm definitely a "city girl" (though not a BIG city girl, as I didn't really like Phoenix, either). I enjoy the convenience in a larger city, but I still feel like I live in a relatively safe place, too, so it's basically the best of both worlds as far as I'm concerned.
Now, the little town described in the novel (based, I would suppose, on Cather's own little hometown in Nebraska) sounded like a charming little prairie town, and it seemed like it was beginning to grown and expand a bit. But Jim, visiting there after living in New York for a time, detects a depressed feeling in the air. Is it the people, with nothing to do? The failure of the economy? It isn't clear; most signs in the novel would point to success in this little community. But young people leaving for the larger towns and cities was going on even then. Well, I noted in a previous entry about the decline of small rural communities, so I won't harp on that subject any further. I will say this, though; I found myself thinking about corporate farms versus small, family-owned farms. I know that if corporate farms keep growing, and family farms fail, then the small rural communities will be wiped out effectively. How could they not be? And I think that would be a real shame, so I'll just put in a plug here (for anyone who cares to read this) that it is important to support local businesses, and local farmers. I live in a Midwest state, mind you, so it's very easy to go out and purchase corn from a local seller in some parking lot anywhere in town during the summer, or to go to a farmer's market and partake in locally produced goods. But, even though I detest larger corporations, and I try to do all of my shopping at local or regional groceries stores, sometimes I find myself at a certain big-box international chain store. I hate myself whenever I go there, not just because I am aiding in the success of that horrible company, but also because I always find myself being annoyed at the other patrons. It is ALWAYS busy at this particular place (if you know what I'm talking about, then you know what I'm talking about), and (to put it nicely), many of the people there are interesting...Anyway, I try to support local businesses and such, because duh, when you spend money in your community, it goes back into your community, right?
The characters in the novel are a supportive community, though gossip is common in the little town. Still, when it came down to it, neighbors helped each other out as best they could, in spite of everything. That's the spirit that people expect in small towns, and I could sense that in the community that I worked in for a couple of years. Unfortunately, this was a failing community. Oh, and the year that I moved away, an expanded, say, super, version of the aforementioned chain store was opened just down the street from my old house. I would be curious to see if this place has helped or has only further hurt this already struggling community.
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Kolaches, spelled kolacbes in the novel. These are very popular where I live (my sister is especially addicted to them); a nearby small community even has an annual Kolach Festival.
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