Willa Cather's My Antoni The Happiness And The Curse
851 Words4 Pages
“The American West -- to many it means cowboys, guns, cattle, horses and gunfights. But it was also about homesteading and pioneering the frontier” (Wild West Cowboy). The novel, My Antonia by Willa Cather, expresses this often forgettable side of the American west. My Antonia is a heartfelt story that tells the story of Jim Burden and his life in the western frontier. Jim meets many people in his days living in Nebraska and the memories he shares with them, especially Antonia Shimerda, stays with him all throughout his life and they often give him comfort along with homesickness. Not only does Willa Cather tell of this, but she also reveals many things about the American west. In My Antonia, Cather tells of the beauty of the west, the many different immigrants who travelled to the American west, and the…show more content… “She (Willa Cather) loved the trees and the wildflowers, especially the sunflowers along the roads which she wrote always seemed the roads to freedom. Moreover, she believed that the trees lives were connected with pioneers and that no place in the world grew more beautiful flowers than Nebraska” (“Willa Cather’s My Antonia: The Happiness and the Curse”). The characters that Willa Cather brought to life, were also very fond of the beauty of the prairie. One could open the novel at any given page and one would most likely find a paragraph or page or two describing the beauty and enchantment of it all. “As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of winestains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running” (My Antonia). Willa Cather’s ability to describe the American west so well gave an insight to readers and made them feel as if they were there with the