Gender Roles In Willa Cather's My Antonia

The most common advice given to novice writers is to ‘write what you know’. Although cliche, and sometimes unappealing to authors who want to expand and diversify their writing, this tip holds its credibility. When an author draws from personal experience, it not only makes her writing more genuine and convincing, but also allows gives her an outlet to express her unique struggles, desires, and beliefs. Willa Cather’s My Antonia is a poignant romantic novel about westward expansion, following the story of recently orphaned Jim Burden and his childhood in Nebraska. The parallels between the most impactful events in Jim’s life and that of Cather’s become glaringly obvious when the two are compared. Willa Cather shapes Jim’s story in My Antonia
The female characters are dynamic and powerful, while the male narrator Jim is significantly more fickle and sensitive. When Antonia’s father commits suicide, Jim is able to empathize with him, saying " Mr. Shimerda had not been rich and selfish: he had only been so unhappy that he could not live any longer"(52). Jim is able to comprehend the magnitude of this tragedy in a way most adolescent boys would not, showing his remarkable emotional keenness. Although sensitivity is typically viewed as a weak, feminine trait, Jim’s ability to intuit and comprehend feelings is portrayed as an advantage. Cather also accurately shows the struggle between fitting into antiquated gender roles of civilized society and the need for women to overcome this in order to make themselves useful in the vastly uncharted American west. Antonia is glorified by Jim for her psychical and mental strength, as she tells him, "’Oh, better I like to work out-of-doors than in a house!...I not care that your grandmother say it makes me like a man. I like to be like a man.’ She would toss her head and ask me to feel the muscles swell in her brown arm” (68). Antonia is needed to do farmwork in order to help her family survive, regardless of it being a stereotypically masculine role. While most boys would feel emasculated by Antonia, Jim admires her all the more for it. This mirrors Cather’s own desire to subvert gender roles. Cather as an adolescent insisted on being called ‘William’ instead of Willa, and was “described by her classmates as intelligent, outspoken, talented, even mannish in her opinions and dress.” Just like Antonia’s masculine side aided her in making use of the uncharted American west, Cather’s persona made her a naturally adept journalist and writer. Through My Antonia, Cather promotes readers to leave societal norms behind in order to expand their