Themes and elements to look for and think about in My Antonia (1918):

The significance of the seasons (e.g. winter, summer) – look at beginnings of many chapters

Religion, spirituality, death

Memory, and relationship between past & present

Author’s characterizations of places/spaces/settings in the book: the different places in Nebraska in particular, places in the United States, places outside of the U.S.

Town, city, country

Mobility. Benefits and costs.

Descriptions of natural world, landscapes

The appearances and significances of the “Old World” in the novel

Cultural interactions, borrowings, & conflicts

Class conflict? Ethnic, religious conflict?

Characterizations of the many women in the novel. Weak women?

Uses of the idea of “proper” womanhood/femininity, or “real” womanhood.

Of course: the character of Antonia -- how does Cather have Jim describe her/remember her? What is Antonia’s importance to Jim? What does she signify? What is Jim’s importance to Antonia?

Importance of the character Mr. Shimerda, even after his death

What do we learn about Jim, by knowing this story, these characters, these places, through his eyes? How do we know him through other’s eyes? What are his feelings, his perspectives, desires, and values? Is he in a social “space in between”?

Why did Cather choose to use a male narrator? What ideas can she convey through him?

Characterization of the mulatto piano player

Appearance of Native Americans in the novel?

Does it matter that the book has a woman author?

Does it matter that so many things in the novel were part of the author’s actual life? Should that affect the way we interpret the book?

Is it a feminist (i.e. pro-woman) novel?

On the back of the Penguin Edition of My Antonia, there's a blurb from the great
writer Wallace Stegner in which he declares, "No writer every posed that
essential aspect of the American experience more warmly, with more nostalgic
lyricism, or with a surer understanding of what it means."

What do you think? What does this novel have to do with the "American
experience"?