Willa Sibert Cather's O Pioneers ! And My Antonia

Anntotated Bibliography
1) Shoba V, Nagarai P. “Lovers of Nature in Willa Sibert Cather’s O Pioneers! And My Antonia –An Econcritical Analysis Language in India [serial online]. February 2013..13(2) 637-653. Available from: Communications & Mass Media Complete. Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 9. 2013
a) This articles speaks of the relationship with man and nature, how the Shimerdas undergo a struggle that faces them right against nature itself. It also relates the land from Nebraska to death. The land of Nebraska has killed many before, and even though the new world calls for great opportunity, to the Shimerdas, like for many other immigrants it called for destruction and misery. The article also speaks how in the end mother nature was great to Antonia and Jim, how their life’s turned out great after all and they couldn’t be anything else but happy.
a.i.
This article triggers questions about Antonia and Jim. It makes me think of how much nature, or better yet destiny shaped their life. The question of how it affected them and if they had been under another type of nature if their life’s had meant to be together. An argument that provoked thought in me was that the Nebraska land could signify death. I had never thought about that but it could be considered truth since Mr. Shimerda committed suicide. I can accept what the critic is saying because it makes sense to me and it many ways it relates to the theme of nature and landscape that maybe Willa Cather was trying to portray. In this article I feel like I am a part of it, because I can relate it to what I am going to write about in my essay, and it just makes it Seasier to understand the meaning of nature in My
Antonia.
2) Wihite K. “Unsettled Worlds: Aesthetic Emplacement in Willa Cather’s My Antonia. Studies In The Novel [serial online]. Fall2010;42930:269-286. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 9, 2013.
a) This article also points out to the Nebraska landscape, through the immigrant experience. The articles emphasizes Nebraska, or nature, as the site were in the novel the immigrant and migrant experiences struggle to find identity and home. It also speaks of how at first Jim might have been displaced from his migrant experience to Nebraska, and how Antonia could have been homesick though the experience of being in a new unknown place. The article also points out how much of Jim’s past is not mention making it seem not noteworthy, unlike Antonia’s who is full of obstacles and bad and good turns. But overall it show us that the world in were Antonia and Jim might have lived, meaning the nature around them, could be the reason why they didn’t end up together after all.
a.i. The article again triggers the question of whether Jim and Antonia had ended up together if they had been under other circumstance. I start to ask what if nature had treated them differently and if their destiny was not so incompatible would they have been happier than they were at the end. A thought that had never come to mind before, or better yet something that I had not noticed before was that Jims past is not really mentioned in the story, it just Antonia who is beautifully represented through her struggles and triumphs. This article will give me a few ideas about my topic, on how nature indeed played a major role with the lives of Jim and Antonia. I feel a little excluded because throughout the article it is easy to get lost and forget what the article is actually trying to establish or analyze.
3) Citation
a) This article depicts nature through the eyes of Jim, and how he meets Antonia and nature serves as the explanation to everything. The article also says that, Jim uses nature to relieve or tell of Antonia’s existence. How even though Jim and the Narrator seemed to have moved away from Nebraska, how they went on to life other lives, for some reason they still feel that the country in Nebraska is still their real home. They have never felt complete or at home other than that prairie in Nebraska.
a.i. To me the article bring about questions of why it is that Nebraska still feels like home to Jim. Jim is successful and is a lawyer so how can he miss what to me seemed to be a little less than what he has now. Though, in a way I can see why. Antonia is there, the person that he could never have is there and neither of them ended up together. I can tell that Jim is unhappy in a way with his new life and maybe in secret hopes to regain that lost life in nature with Antonia and Nebraska. The article brings thoughts of Antonia and how she might have felt if the story was told from her eyes. As if she was the one who talked about her Jim and maybe we would have found out that if things had been different she would have loved him.