I don’t know why I find it hard to write about My Ántonia, as it reads like a different sort of book than other bildungsroman of its kind. There is really little story or plot that happens in the book, although in my mind I secretly wish that there was more, but this is through no fault of the book. The book after all, reads like an autobiography which it partly is. It is a chronicle of a time gone by in rural America, when immigrants still see the Statue of Liberty as an angel of saviour and they begin their lives anew.
Much of the book is written from real snippets of Willa Cather’s life — the description and prose of the agricultural landscape is so vivid because this really was her life. She also lived next to immigrant neighbours who tried to make do with what they have away from their land of origin, and the evolution of the place, from the red grasses, to the prevalent farmlands, to the new roads were reflective of how things progressed. There is grit to this book, especially in the earlier chapters.
It is not a typical migrant story written by the migrant themselves, but from an observer. Cather wrote beautifully about the unpreparedness of the migrants to this foreign landscape where the winter is harsh and the solitude even harsher still. But as it is a story of adaptation, especially how the children adapt to the norms and consequently, find a place for themselves as adults. It is a chronicle of a time gone by, but some parts of the book are written almost from an anthropological perspective.
Even though I loved the first 100 odd pages of the book as young Jim and Ántonia as children in the farm, the second part of the book captivated me the most — The Hired Girls, when the two are in their teenage years living in the town of Black Hawk. During this time, Ántonia made friends with other immigrant girls working in the town, going to dances together and becoming the belles of the town. But they still managed to work hard, send money to their family and as a result, these migrant families become more well-off than their local neighbours.
One of the girls, Lena merit her own part of the book when Jim was already a student in Lincoln. Having a tainted reputation as a teenager, she was able to pick up a job as an assistant dressmaker in Black Hawk before owing her own business in Lincoln. This is in contrast to what happened to Ántonia, who fell in love with a wayward man, moved for his sake, and ended up pregnant. Sadly for her, she ended up back in the farm even though arguably, that’s where she preferred as it is akin to her nature.
Who is to say when Jim reconciled with Ántonia years later that she didn’t have a happy yet isolated life? This is open to interpretation, and we can argue that Jim had also ended up with a successful career and a happy family, but who is to say that he was truly happy? Isn’t his writing of Ántonia and his youth a cry to a time gone past, something that he can never get back? But he has found comfort in his mid-life to be a friend of Ántonia’s family and even a close friend to Ántonia’s husband. I think the ending is a good and appropriate compromise.
But for me, I think it hits home a little because who never had loved someone from a distance? And to grow older and have those memories, regardless of the outcome. It is a book full of yearning, and though Ántonia’s name dominates the title her presence doesn’t dominate the book. There are close innuendos here for that lost time, to be secretly in love with a friend like Lena Lingard while all the other men are in love with her too and perhaps what could have been.
But fall in love with the other characters here, this book is full of them, even the ones who appear as cameos. Some of their backgrounds are morally ambiguous and you’d feel undecided about the Russians, but will love them all the same, you’d grow to like the farmhands Otto and Jake who are loyal to Jim’s grandparents beyond anything, you’d despise the Cutters whose marriage are constantly on edge. And of course, Jim’s grandparents, who were sadly barely mentioned in the latter parts of the book. The list in endless of these endearing and engaging characters and you’ll love them all.
