Chastity In Willa Cather's My Antonia
What Willa Cather seems to admire most about her character Antonia
Shimerda are her courage and fortitude, her similarities to Cather herself, and her mixture
of masculinity and femininity. My Antonia is considered Cather's most biographical novel
, and thus it is difficult to divorce any analysis of its themes from her personal life.
intelligence. She was among the first women to graduate the University of Nebraska and
enrolled in it at only 16 years old and practiced medicine as William Cather, M.D.
beforehand, and later went on to be the first woman to recieve an honorary degree from
Princeton University (https://www.willacather.org/about/willacather/timeline) . Her
academic achievements are not, of course, limited to those and she "shocked the
audience"
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Based on the connection between Francis Sadilek's suicide and Mr. Shimerda's, as well
as the similarity between names, that was most likely an Annie Sadilek, though there
were other women in Cather's life as well, her college love likely represented by Lena
Lingham. The chastity present in Jim's interactions with Antonia and Lena suggests
strongly the story was autobiographical and the narrator was made male because an
openly lesbian novel would almost definitely not be published, but was that all that was
going on? While it would be remiss to retroactively gender her differently as she never
made any explicit statement to the effect, it's not unlikely Cather was in fact transsexual,
based on her male "fraternal twin" persona William. While the "disguise" could be argued
to be a tactic to gain advantage in a very maledominated field and world overall,
biographers do agree Willa was hardly a person who concealed or suppressed her
identity. Antonia herself displays both feminine and masculine traits, stating she "like(s) to
be like a man" (pg. 68), doing what was considered men's work, emulating her
My Antonia Analysis
937 Words | 4 PagesIn My Antonia, Willa Cather pens a nostalgic story focused on a two people with a unique connection. Jim Burden narrates the story of Antonia Shimerda, the girl next door who happens to be a Bohemian emigrant. Jim moves to his grandparents’ house after his parents die; Antonia arrives in the United States with her family and little else. The two are vastly different, but bond quickly on the Nebraska prairie. Most people who study the novel acknowledge the obvious impact that Antonia has on Jim and see Antonia as “in one way or another, the center of the novel” (Lucenti).
Sex And Temperament Analysis
742 Words | 3 PagesLike Mead analyzing each culture she experienced and their different societies she created her ideas of gender temperaments. “The Arapesh believe that painting in color is appropriate only to men, and the Mundugumor consider fishing and essentially feminine task.” (713) These two examples illustrates her idea that different cultures and societies have different gender temperaments and vary throughout the places you visit. Butler uses a story about David Reimer to further simplify her ideas of gender normalities.
The Changeling By Judith Ortiz Cofer Summary
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Degrassi Next Classroom Theory
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The Use Of Figurative Language In Willa Cather's My Antonia
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Realism In Willa Cather's O Pioneers !
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Theme Of Immigration In Willa Cather's My Antonia
855 Words | 4 PagesChallenges of Immigration: The Shimerda’s Struggle Willa Cather’s novel, My Ántonia sheds light on the topic of immigration. Immigrants have many different reasons for why they might migrate to the United States. Some were trying to escape something from their old country such as avoiding a war, trouble with the law, or shame as is the case of the Russians Pavel and Peter. Reasons for immigrating could also relate to chasing the American dream as is the case with the Shimerdas.
Psy 311 Week 2 Gender Roles Research Paper
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Gender Roles In Poisonwood Bible By Barbara Kingsolver
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Margaret Mead Sex And Temperament
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My Antonia Character Development
565 Words | 3 PagesIn the book My Antonia, the characters developed a lot throughout the story, but one character development that stood out to me was Antonia Shimerda. Antonia's character developed so much in this novel, she becomes a more independent character, but that's only because of the challenges she faced when she moved from Bohemia, her dad committed suicide, she had to work as a servant girl and when her fiancé left her. In the beginning of the novel, Antonia and her family are welcomed into Nebraska. They stay next to Jim Burden and his grandparents, they are the ones who welcomed them.
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