Three Beneficial Facts About The Frontier From My Antonia

The American West
Three Beneficial Facts About the Frontier From My Antonia Westward Expansion was still a new concept for many Americans during the time of Willa Cather’s novel, My Antonia, but there had been a lot of progress as well. According to Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier, although the Westward Expansion began in 1803, it didn’t make its way into Nebraska until around 1867. (Billington) My Antonia was set in the 1880s, around ten to fifteen years after the first settlers entered Nebraska. Westward Expansion was still a large interest for immigrants, mainly Northern Europeans. Both Americans and immigrants were coming into this new land to learn just how difficult it was to start a life in the uncharted areas.
Cather describes three main points about the American Frontier in this novel. The struggles of beginning a new life on the land, the hardships and trials immigrants went through, and the use of hired girls in the new American Frontier.
When Westward Expansion was first introduced, there was no thought about how difficult it would be to actually begin life in a new land.
It was close to impossible to grow crops along the eastern seaboard, and settlers hoped for a better chance in the west. This was not quite the case, though. According to The Interrelationship of Literature, History, and Geography in Western Writing, getting off your feet and beginning a new crop was the hardest part of starting a life in the west. (Sellars) In My Antonia, the land is described as beautiful, but it is also described as a force powerful enough to break even the strongest man. Especially for the immigrants, like the Shimerda family. Once you finally got past the initial struggle of starting up the land, it became easier to have your fields succeed. The struggle was often more difficult for immigrants, as they had been there for a lesser amount of time, and the American settlers already had the advantage of their crops being turned over more than once. All in all, the American Frontier did not turn out to be as easy of a place to start a homestead for the Burden’s or the Shimerda’s, as it was expected to
be. Taking care of the land was not the only struggle that immigrants faced when they brought their families to the west, including the Shimerda’s in My Antonia.
According to Two Centuries of Economic Growth: Europe Chasing the American Frontier, proving yourself was an important role in a man of the Frontier’s life. Even though this was a task for American settlers as well, immigrant fathers and male figures especially felt the heat. (Gordon) They had brought their families halfway across the world, and they had to make sure that it was a good choice for their well being. Immigrants never really knew what to expect when making their way across the ocean to this new land, and often it was a great surprise and disappointment when they arrived in the “infertile” American Frontier. In My Antonia, Mr. Shimerda does not even want to move his family to the west in the first place; it is his wife and eldest son’s idea. The Shimerda family came from a wealthy family in Bohemia, and Antonia’s dad wasn’t interested in leaving that lifestyle behind. It was the goal of Ambrosch and Mrs. Shimerda to turn Ambrosch into a rich man. When the family is treated as a second-class group of citizens, and Mr. Shimerda is not doing as well as he hoped, the pressure becomes too much, and he shoots himself. This was proof of just how hard the men worked to come out on top in the new west, and how sometimes it just didn’t work out. The immigrants suffered the most pressure when it came to being
successful, and this is portrayed in My Antonia. Cather also brought up the work of hired girls during the new American Frontier era. It was very common for girls to go into town and work to help their families keep a living. Not only were the hired girls used for labor, but also has entertainment for the town boys. In My Antonia, Antonia, Lena, and Tiny are perfect examples of what a hired girl could do to a man in those days. They were the main attractions at the dances, and many, especially Lena, were able to play with the men’s hearts and make them do whatever they desired. In this case, the hired girls’ employers were not too happy with their actions. According to The Drama of Memory in "My Antonia," hired girls were in high demand and short supply. Although they were treated as second-class citizens, they were a very important aspect in many of the settlers’ everyday lives. My Antonia showed many different reliable facts about life in the beginning of westward expansion, including the hardships of immigrants, the new land conditions, and hired girls. All of these things were very important issues in that era, and they all contributed to what America is today. If settlers had never explored the American Frontier, America would not be as it is today. According to The Significance of the Frontier in American Frontier, without these settlers there would not have been proper “Americanization,” and this country would not be this well developed. (Taillon)