1. Jerry Falwell said “If
we do not act
now, homosexuals
will own America! If
you and I do not
speak up now, this
homosexual
steamroller will
literally crush all
decent
men, women, and
children who get in its
way”
ELIT 48C Class 8

3. AGENDA
• My Antonia
• Book II 9-15 Books III
• Themes
• Discussion Questions
• QHQs

4. Discussion
Themes

5. Difference
 It is through the eyes of Jim Burden, an orphan and thus
something of an outsider himself, that Cather considers
differences of class, nationality, and gender.
 Even before young Jim arrives in Nebraska, he is met with
prejudice against foreigners.
 Jake thinks that foreigners spread diseases.
 But Cather makes it clear that prejudice was not invented in
America.
 Otto tells Mrs. Burden, "Bohemians has a natural distrust of
Austrians."
 And Norwegian Lena feels fated by the Lapp blood of her paternal
grandmother. "I guess that’s what's the matter with me; they say
Lapp blood will out."

6. Difference (continued)
 Throughout the novel, Jim himself is a perpetrator of pervading
prejudices and conventions. As a boy, he is indignant that
Antonia, a girl, should have a superior attitude toward him.
After his success in killing a snake wins her admiration, he
cannot help insulting her, "What did you jabber Bohunk for?"
• Q: What are the differences Jim sees between the country girls
and the town girls?
• Q: Why does Cather continue to contrast Lena and Ántonia?
• Q: Why did she include Lena, the complete antithesis of her main
protagonist?
• Q: What characteristics of female role models that Jim admires are
consistent/analogous to characteristics of lovers that he desires? What
similarities can we draw between his female role models and his
potential lovers?

7. Coming of Age
• My Ántonia is a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, that
traces Jim Burden's development from the age of ten.
• It begins when he is orphaned and newly transplanted to his
grandparents' farm in Nebraska, where he first feels erased.
• His escape into romanticism first takes the form of a young boy's
fascination with outlaws, such as Jesse James, and lost
adventurers, such as the Swiss Family Robinson.
• As an adolescent, he remains estranged although conventional.
Bored by the sameness of his small, pioneer town, he is intrigued
by the romantic foreignness of the hired girls, girls he will never
marry, and he keeps away from girls that would be suitable for
him.
• As an adult, he remains virtually without a real home. His marriage
is childless; he and his wife live almost separate lives, his being a
life of travel on the railway through the land that he loves.

8. Are the women coming
of age too?
• Q: on page 127, when the girls are teasing Jim
about his possible future occupation, are they
fantasizing future occupations vicariously
through Jim?
• Q: if the girls are fantasizing about an
unobtainable future through Jim, then why is
there also the switch in gender personalities?
• Q- Why don’t Lena and Jim don’t have a
relationship?

9. Coming of Age
• What is the importance of the dance pavilion to
Jim and Antonia? Does it play a part in their
“coming of age”?
• What is the importance of Jim Burden leaving
Black Hawk for college life? Is this part of his
“coming of age”? Does it serve another purpose in
moving the plot?
• Q- Lena and Jim go to see a new play called “
Camile.” How does play connect with Jim?

10. MORE QHQ Questions
• I continue to be interested in how Cather so
successfully captured the hearts and
imagination of her contemporary audience in
spite of her unconventional depictions of
women…
• Could the fact that Antonia has moved in with
the Cutters be foreshadowing an event to
occur in the future? How does Antonia really
feel about the Cutters, (after all, the Cutters
lead Pavel to “commit suicide” right?)

11. HOMEWORK
Read My Antonia (1918) and Book IV Chapters 1-3 and Book V
Chapters 1-3
Post #8: Answer one of the following prompts:
1. Compare and contrast Tiny Soderball and Lena Lingard’s success
with money.
2. Discuss the reasons why Willa Cather chose to have Antonia
return to the Shimerda farm as an unwed mother.
3. Explain Antonia’s choice of names for each of her children and
how each of these names ties in to characters from her past.
4. . Discuss the differences between the Cuzak household and the
Shimerda household from many years before.
5. Write your own QHQ