Alumni Reading Group: My Ántonia

Readings:

• My Ántonia, Introduction & Book 1 (pp. 3–112)
• From the Third Georgic of Virgil, translated by David Ferry (see below)

Discussion Questions:

1. Why does Cather give us the framing device of the introduction?
2. Jim claims he didn’t “arrange or rearrange” his manuscript, but “simply wrote down what of herself and myself and other people Ántonia’s name recalls to me. I suppose it hasn’t any form” (p. 6). Is this assessment correct? Is there any form to the novel?
3. What is Jim’s initial impression of Nebraska? How does his perception of his new home evolve over Book 1?
4. Consider the various inhabitants of Black Hawk and the surrounding farm country: the Burdens, Jake Marpole, Otto Fuchs, the Russians Peter and Pavel, the Shimerdas, and Anton Jelinek. What different models of adaptation to frontier life do we see among the Burdens, hired hands, immigrant families, and others?
5. What brings Jim and Ántonia together? What do they share in common, and how are they different?
6. Why is Mr. Shimerda unable to adapt to life in Nebraska while Ántonia thrives?

Readings:

• My Ántonia, Book 2 (pp. 113–92)
• Tocqueville, “How the Americans Understand the Equality of Man and Woman,” Vol. 2, Part III, Ch. 12

Discussion Questions:

1. What differences does Jim perceive between the town and townspeople of Black Hawk and the country? In what ways is town life better than the country, and vice versa?
2. The women are the center of this book: Mrs. Harling, Frances, Mrs. Gardener, the hired girls. Why does Jim admire these women over the more “refined” town girls?
3. To what extent is Jim expected to attend college, and how does this compare to the expectations placed on the hired girls? What do these differing expectations reveal about social class in Black Hawk? Why do the hired girls inspire both admiration and suspicion? Does moving to town ultimately benefit them?
4. Harling and Mrs. Burden both object to the dances, leading to a quarrel between the Harlings and Ántonia. Are they right to object? Are the dances innocent recreation, social rebellion, or something more threatening?
5. What different models of marriage do we see in the Burdens, Harlings, Gardeners, Cutters, and Shimerdas?
6. After the encounter with Wick Cutter, Jim feels ashamed rather than heroic. Why? How does this moment compare to the rattlesnake episode earlier in the novel? What do the Cutter and Blind d’Arnault episodes reveal about Jim’s development?
7. Jim delivers a well-received speech on his graduation and the hired girls seem impressed by his knowledge of the Spanish conquistador Coronado. How does this moment change their perception of him and his relationship to them? How should we understand Ántonia’s disapproval of his behavior with Lena? Are personal feelings or class dynamics more important here?
8. Jim calls Ántonia “the finest of them all.” Besides physical beauty, does he see something in her different from the town girls? From Tiny Soderball and Lena? Do we see anything remarkable in Ántonia?

Readings:

• My Ántonia, Books 3 & 4 (pp. 193–242)
• Tocqueville, Footnote XX and “How the Girl Is Found Beneath the Features of the Wife,” Vol. 2, Part 3, Ch. 10

Discussion Questions:

1. Why is Book III titled “Lena Lingard” rather than, for example, “Gaston Cleric”? Why make Lena the focus of this section?
2. Trace Jim’s developing interest in art, particularly through his reading of Virgil (Ch. 2) and his experience of Camille (Ch. 3). What do these encounters reveal about him?
3. In Book II, Ch. 12, Ántonia warns Jim that Lena is “soft,” while in Book III, Ch. 2, Lena claims that Ántonia is the one who is “soft.” How does each woman define “softness”? Who, if either, is correct?
4. Why does Lena seek Jim out in Lincoln, and what expectations does she have for their relationship?
5. Jim claims a connection between “girls like [Lena and the hired girls]” and the poetry of Virgil, suggesting that without such women “there would be no poetry” (p. 203). What does he mean by this? What role do these women play in his aesthetic imagination?
6. The townspeople foretell “trouble” for the “bad one,” Lena Lingard (p. 223, 233), yet she goes on to achieve material success (Book IV, Ch. 1). To what extent is her reputation deserved? Is she a bad influence on Jim?
7. Why is Book IV titled “The Pioneer Woman”? What does Ántonia’s story exemplify about pioneer life?
8. Ántonia “comes to grief” yet perseveres (Ch. 3). How does she respond to her hardship, and why does this response win the sympathy of both the town and the country, as well as Jim?
9. In the final chapter of Book IV, Jim and Ántonia reflect on their relationship. What do they mean to one another?

Readings:

• My Ántonia, Book 5 (pp. 243–76)