Willa Cather's My Ántonia : teacher's guide

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TEACHER'S GUIDE

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WILLA CATHER'S

My Anton ia

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WILLA CATHER'S

My Antonia

TEACHER'S GUIDE

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The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting
excellence in the arts — both new and established — bringing the arts to all Americans,
and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an
independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation's largest
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Additional support for The Big Read has also been provided by the W.K. Kellogg
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Published by

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1 100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20506-0001
(202) 682-5400
www.nea.gov

Sources

Cather, Willa. MyAntonia. 1918. New York: Vintage, 1994.

Acknowledgments

David Kipen, NEA Director of Literature, National Reading Initiatives

Sarah Bainter Cunningham, PhD, NEA Director of Arts Education

Writers: Erika Koss for the National Endowment for the Arts, with contributions by
Philip Burnham and a preface by Dana Gioia

Series Editor: Molly Thomas-Hicks for the National Endowment for the Arts

Graphic Design: Fletcher Design/Washington, DC

Image Credits

Cover Portrait: John Sherffius for The Big Read. Page iv: Book cover of MyAntonia by Willa
( at her courtesy of Vintage Books, an imprint of The Knopf Group, a division of Random House,
Inc., New York; Field of Wheat, © Royalty-Free/Corbis. Page 1: Caricature of Dana Gioia by
John Sherffius. Inside back cover: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Libraries Archives/Special
Collections.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Suggested Teaching Schedule 2

Lesson One: Biography 4

Lesson Two: Culture and History 5

Lesson Three: Narrative and Point of View 6

Lesson Four: Characters 7

Lesson Five: Figurative Language 8

Lesson Six: Symbols 9

Lesson Seven: Character Development 10

Lesson Eight: The Plot Unfolds 11

Lesson Nine: Themes of the Novel 12

Lesson Ten: What Makes a Book Great? 13

Essay Topics 14

Capstone Projects 15

Handout One: The Homestead Movement 16

Handout Two: Bohemian and Swedish Immigrants 17

Handout Three: The Triumph of Antonia Shimerda 18

Teaching Resources 19

NCTE Standards 20

"There seemed to be
nothing to see; no fences,
no creeks or trees, no hills
or fields. If there was a
road, I could not make it
out in the faint starlight.
There was nothing but
land... I had never before
looked up at the sky when
there was not a familiar
mountain ridge against it.
But this was the complete
dome of heaven."

— from My Antonia

Introduction

Welcome to The Big Read, a major initiative from the National
Endowment for the Arts designed to revitalize the role of literary reading
in American culture. The Big Read hopes to unite communities through
great literature, as well as inspire students to become life-long readers.

This Big Read Teacher's Guide contains ten lessons to lead you through
Willa Cather's classic novel, My Antonia. Each lesson has four sections:
a thematic focus, discussion activities, writing exercises, and homework
assignments. In addition, we have provided capstone projects and
suggested essay topics, as well as handouts with more background
information about the novel, the historical period, and the author. All
lessons dovetail with the state language arts standards required in the
fiction genre.

The Big Read teaching materials also include a CD. Packed with interviews,
commentaries, and excerpts from the novel, The Big Read CD presents
first-hand accounts of why Cather's novel remains so compelling nine
decades after its initial publication. Some of America's most celebrated
writers, scholars, and actors have volunteered their time to make Big Read
CDs exciting additions to the classroom.

Finally, The Big Read Reader's Guide deepens your exploration with
interviews, booklists, time lines, and historical information. We hope
this guide and syllabus allow you to have fun with your students while
introducing them to the work of a great American author.

From the NEA, we wish you an exciting and productive school year.

"r^J&JlAfc WpAo^

Dana Gioia

Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • |

1

Day One

FOCUS: Biography

Activities: Listen to Track One from The
Big Read CD. Distribute Reader's Guide
essays, "Willa Cather," "The Model for
Antonia Shimerda," and "Cather and Her
Other Works."

Homework: Read My Antonio, the
Introduction (pp. 3-6)* and Book One,
Chapters 1-7 (pp. 9-42).

Day Two

FOCUS: Culture and History

Activities: Listen to Track Two from
The Big Read CD. Distribute Handouts
One and Two from this guide along with
the essay "Willa Cathers Nebraska" from
the Reader's Guide.

Homework: Read My Antonio, Book One,
Chapters 8-16 (pp. 43-91).

3

Day Three

FOCUS: Narrative and Point of View

Activities: Tell a story by focusing on a
significant person from your childhood.

Homework: Read My Antonio, Book One,
Chapters 17-19 (pp. 92-106) and Book Two,
Chapters 1-5 (pp. 109-130).

4

Day Four

FOCUS: Characters

Activities: Explain protagonist and antagonist.
Introduce foil. Perform character review
of Antonia, Jim, Mr. Shimerda, Lena, and
the Land.

Homework: Read My Antonio, Book Two,
Chapters 6-12 (pp. 131-169).

5

Day Five

FOCUS: Figurative Language

Activities: Using imagery, write about a
childhood memory.

Homework: Read My Antonio, Book Two,
Chapters 13-15 (pp. 170-189).

"Page numbers refer to the 1994 Vintage Classics edition of My Antonia.

2 * THE BIG READ

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.Av'TI*. .• »

6

Day Six

FOCUS: Symbols

Activities: Analyze the major symbols of the
snake, the crossroads, and the plough.

Homework: Read My Antonia, Book Three,
Chapters 1-4 (pp. 191-218).

7

Day Seven

FOCUS: Character Development

Activities: Map the development of three
major characters: Jim, Antonia, and Lena.

Homework: Read My Antonia, Book Four,
Chapters 1-4 (pp. 221-238).

8

Day Eight

FOCUS: The Plot Unfolds

Activities: Review the stages of plot
development. See if students can identify the
crisis, conflict, and resolution of the novel.

Homework: Finish My Antonia, Book Five,
Chapters 1-3 (pp. 241-272).

9

Day Nine

FOCUS: Themes of the Novel

Activities: Develop an interpretation based
on a theme: memory, the taming of the land,
the immigrant experience in America, or
happiness.

Homework: Write outlines and begin essays.
Read Handout Three.

10

Day Ten

FOCUS: What Makes a Book Great?

Activities: Explore the qualities of a great
novel and the voice of a generation. Examine
qualities that make Cather's novel successful.
Have students review each other's paper
outlines or drafts.

Homework: Essay due next class period.

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • 3

Lesson One

FOCUS:

Biography

Examining an author's life can inform and expand the reader's
understanding of a novel. Biographical criticism is the practice of analyzing
a literary work through the lens of an author's experience. In this lesson,
explore the author's life to understand the novel more fully.

Willa Cather did not want her novels to be read as veiled autobiography,
but My Antonia (1918) parallels many of her life's experiences. Many literary
scholars argue that Jim Burden is Willa Cather. For example, Jim and
Cather both left Virginia as young children and lived on the Nebraska
prairie. Cather's family then moved to Red Cloud a year later; Jim's family
moves to the fictional town, Black Hawk. Cather gave her high school
graduation speech, as does Jim; then they both studied at the University
of Nebraska in Lincoln. After graduation, they leave Nebraska for the east:
Jim to study law at Harvard; Cather to work as editor at Home Monthly in
Pittsburgh.

In addition, many of the characters in My Antonia are based on people
Cather knew. Most importantly, Antonia Shimerda is drawn from a
Bohemian immigrant, Annie Sadilek (later Pavelka). Cather taught Sadilek
to speak English as they played together on the prairie. After the first
terrible winter, the Cather and Sadilek families moved to town, where
Annie became a "hired girl." Despite Cather's many travels, she and Sadilek
remained friends until Cather's death in 1947.

Discussion Activities

Listen to The Big Read CD, Track One. Have students take notes as they listen.
Ask them to present the three most important points they learned from the CD.

Copy the following essays from the Reader's Guide: "Willa Cather" (pp. 4-5),
"The Model for My Antonia Shimerda" (p. 9), and "Cather and Her Other
Works" (pp. 12-13). Divide the class into groups, and assign one essay to each
group. After reading and discussing the essays, each group will present what they
learned.

Writing Exercise

Read the last paragraph of Chapter One aloud to your students, which describes
Jim's first glimpse of Nebraska as he travels by wagon at night. Ask your students
to write about a life-changing moment from their childhoods.

Ul Homework

Read My Antonia, the Introduction (pp. 3-6) and Book One, Chapters 1-7
(pp. 9-42). Ten-year-old Jim Burden arrives in Nebraska at the same time as
14-year-old Antonia Shimerda. Make a chart that describes several similarities and
differences about their arrivals in a new land.

4 * THE BIG READ

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FOCUS:

Culture and
History

Cultural and historical contexts give birth to the dilemmas and themes at
the center or the novel. Studying these contexts and appreciating intricate
details of the time and place help readers understand the motivations of the
characters.

Although life on the prairie was difficult for all pioneers in the late
nineteenth century, European immigrants experienced even more challenges
than their American neighbors. Use this lesson to focus upon the similarities
a\k\ differences between the experiences of the Burdens and Shimerdas.
For example, the Burdens1 house is the only wooden house around except
for the Norwegian settlement. At first the Shimerdas do not even have the
typical sod house, and they have no garden or tools. As the first Bohemian
family to come to Nebraska, they are often cheated financially because
they cannot speak English. Mrs. Shimerda later says they never would have
survived their first winter without the kindness of the Burdens.

Discussion Activities

Listen to The Big Read CD, Track Two. Ask students to take notes as they listen.

Copy Handouts One and Two from the back of this guide, as well as "Willa
Cather's Nebraska" (pp. 7-8) from the Reader's Guide. Break your class into
groups and ask them to describe specific ways this historical knowledge enhances
their understanding of My Antonio.

Writing Exercise

Does life in Black Hawk feel anything like the town in which you were raised?
What are the most distinctive similarities or differences?

n Homework

Read My Antonio, Book One, Chapters 8-16 (pp. 43-91).

Interview an older family member, asking them about your family's history. When
did your family first come to America? Why did they leave their homeland?
Gather some songs, stories, or recipes from your family's native country.

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • 5

FOCUS:

Narrative
and Point of
View

The narrator tells the story with a specific perspective informed by his or
her beliefs and experiences. Narrators can be major or minor characters,
or exist outside the story altogether. The narrator weaves her or his point
of view, including ignorance and bias, into telling the tale. A first-person
narrator participates in the events of the novel, using "I." A distanced
narrator, often not a character, is removed from the action of the story
and uses the third-person (he, she, and they). The distanced narrator may
be omniscient, able to read the minds of all the characters, or limited,
describing only certain characters' thoughts and feelings. Ultimately, the
type of narrator determines the point of view from which the story is told.

Willa Cather begins My Antonia with an "Introduction" from an unnamed
female acquaintance of Jim Burden. After this, the novel functions as
a manuscript by Jim Burden, which he titles "My Antonia" Jim records
his childhood memories as an adult, reflecting more than twenty years
later upon his past. In addition to Jim's narration, there are several stories
narrated by minor characters, and Book Four is told almost entirely from
the perspective of Widow Stevens. The point of view often changes as Jim
moves and grows.

Discussion Activities

Divide your class into four groups. Ask each group to answer one of the
following questions, using evidence from the text to support its answers. Each
group will then present its opinions to the class.

• As an adult, Jim Burden "is legal counsel for one of the great Western railways,"
and he is unhappily — though prosperously — married to Genevieve Whitney.
How do these adult experiences inform the point of view of the novel?

• Cather once said, "One's strongest emotions and one's most vivid pictures
are acquired before one is fifteen." How is this true for Jim Burden? Does Jim
romanticize the past? Does he idealize Antonia?

• Why does Jim title his manuscript "My Antonia"7. What does he mean when he
says, "It's through myself that I knew and felt her"?

• Do you feel the stories narrated by others — such as the story of the young
bride and the wolves — are essential to the novel? Why or why not?

Writing Exercise

Try to imitate Jim Burden, and tell a story about yourself by focusing on a
significant person from your childhood. Is this technique easy or difficult?

EJ Homework

6 * THE BIG READ

Read My Antonia, Book One, Chapters 17-19 (pp. 92-106), and Book Two,
Chapters 1-5 (pp. 109-130). Ask students to consider how the land might be
considered a character in this novel.

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_

FOCUS:

Characters

The central character in a work of literature is called the protagonist.
The protagonist usually initiates the main action of the story and often
overcomes a Haw, such as weakness or ignorance, to achieve a new
understanding by the works end. A protagonist who acts with great
honor or courage may be called a hero. An antihero is a protagonist
lacking these qualities. Instead of being dignified, brave, idealistic, or
purposeful, the antihero may be cowardly, self-interested, or weak. The
protagonists journey is enriched by encounters with characters who hold
differing beliefs. One such character type, a foil, has traits that contrast
with the protagonists and highlight important features of the main
characters personality. The most important foil, the antagonist, opposes the
protagonist, barring or complicating his or her success.

Zi

Discussion Activities and Writing Exercise

Divide the class into five groups, giving one of the following main characters to
each. The group will describe the personality and motivations of its assigned
character. Who is the protagonist, hero, foil, and antagonist according to your
students' reading so far?

Antonia Shimerda — Remember that the reader only sees Antonia through
the lens of the adult Jim Burden. What are her strengths and weaknesses,
according to Jim? How does his view of her differ from others in the town of
Black Hawk?

Jim Burden — Pay special attention to the scene where he "saves" Antonia from
the rattlesnake. What does the novel reflect about his maturity and masculinity?

Mr. Shimerda — What drove him to end his life? What are the consequences
for the family, especially for Antonia? Why does his death affect Jim so much?

Lena Lingard — This Norwegian immigrant is Antonia's foil, which will become
even more apparent in Book Four. How are Antonia and Lena alike? How are
they different?

The Land — Can the land be seen as the novel's protagonist? Could it also
be the antagonist? Identify some passages that describe the land with human
characteristics.

E3 Homework

Read My Antonia, Book Two, Chapters 6-12 (pp. 131-169). Describe the changing
social situation between Jim and Antonia as she becomes a "hired girl" in town.
Why were "hired girls" "considered a menace to the social order"? How do the
different ways Lena and Antonia dance highlight their contrasting personalities?

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • 7

FOCUS:

Figurative
Language

Writers use figurative language such as imagery, similes, and metaphors
to help the reader visualize and experience events and emotions in a story.
Imagery — a word or phrase that refers to sensory experience (sight, sound,
smell, touch, or taste) — helps create a physical experience for the reader and
adds immediacy to literary language.

Some figurative language asks us to stretch our imaginations, finding
the likeness in seemingly unrelated things. Simile is a comparison of two
things that initially seem quite different but are shown to have significant
resemblance. Similes employ connective words, usually "like," "as," "than,"
or a verb such as "resembles." A metaphor is a statement that one thing is
something else that, in a literal sense, it is not. By asserting that a thing is
something else, a metaphor creates a close association that underscores an
important similarity between these two things.

Cather frequently uses figurative language. A description of the Nebraska
Divide incorporates metaphor, simile, and personification:

As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea.
The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains, or of
certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion
in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running.

Cather's metaphors describe the landscape:

[Sunflowers] made a gold ribbon across the prairie.
Cather uses simile to expand her ideas:

The grave, with its tall red grass that was never mowed, was like a little island.

Discussion Activities

Divide the class into groups. Assign each group a different chapter from Book
One, and ask them to identify several images, similes, and metaphors that are
vivid, evocative, and beautiful. How important is figurative language to Cather's
writing style? Groups will present their findings to the class, highlighting their
favorite example.

Writing Exercise

Ask students to reflect on and write about an important memory of their
childhood, using imagery — words that draw on the five senses — to take a reader
beyond a literal description.

E3 Homework

Read My Antonia, Book Two, Chapters 13-15 (pp. 170-189). What happens to
Jim when he spends the night at Wick Cutter's? Why does Jim respond with
hatred for Antonia?

8 * THE BIG READ

National Endowment for the Arts

FOCUS:

Symbols

Symbols are persons, places, or things in a narrative that have significance
beyond a literal understanding. The craft of storytelling depends on
symbols to present ideas and point toward new meanings. Most frequently,
a specific object will be used to refer to (or symbolize) a more abstract
concept. The repeated appearance of an object suggests a non-literal, or
figurative, meaning attached to the object. Symbols are often found in
the books title, at the beginning and end of the story, within a profound
action, or in the name or personality of a character. The life of a novel is
perpetuated by generations of readers interpreting and reinterpreting the
main symbols. By identifying and understanding symbols, readers can
reveal new interpretations of the novel.

Discussion Activities and Writing Exercise

A symbol is a visible object or action that suggests additional meanings. Use
this class period to analyze three major symbols in My Antonia: the snake, the
crossroads, and the plough.

The Snake (Book One, Chapter 7)

After Jim kills the snake in Book One, he becomes boastful and then considers
himself "a big fellow." Why does Jim compare this snake to "the ancient, eldest
Evil." To what evil does he refer? Is Jim right to be so proud? The allusion to the
Garden of Eden extends this symbol even deeper.

The Crossroads (Book One, Chapter 16)

Mr. Shimerda could not have a Catholic funeral or burial since he killed himself
without — presumably — repenting. European folklore taught that the crossroads
were the haunts of demons, ghosts, or witches — the only appropriate place for
murderers to be buried. Why does Cather choose "Jesus, Lover of my Soul"
as the hymn sung at Mr. Shimerda's burial? Why does Jim recollect "in all that
country it was the spot most dear to me"?

The Plough (Book Two, Chapter 14)

One of Cather's most famous symbols, the plough "stood out against the sun,
was exactly contained within the circle of the disk. There it was, heroic in size,
a picture writing on the sun." How does this image correspond to the novel's
epigraph? What does this ordinary farm object have to do with Jim's and
Antonia's diminishing childhood?

23 Homework

Read My Antonia, Book Three, Chapters 1-4 (pp.
title, why is Antonia absent from Book Three?

191-218). In light of the novel's

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • 9

FOCUS:

Character
Development

Novels trace the development of characters who encounter a series of
challenges. Most characters contain a complex balance of virtues and vices.
Internal and external forces require characters to question themselves,
overcome fears, or reconsider dreams. The protagonist may undergo
profound change. A close study of character development maps, in each
character, the evolution of motivation, personality, and belief. The tension
between a characters strengths and weaknesses keeps the reader guessing
about what might happen next and the protagonist's eventual success or
failure.

Jim Burden recounts his coming-of-age from a backward glance, always
weaving into his story his immigrant friend, Antonia. Willa Cather s
characters rarely make long speeches; instead, they reveal their personalities
through their actions.

Discussion Questions

Re-evaluate three major characters analyzed in Lesson Four. Ask students
to discuss these characters' external changes of setting, profession, and/or
landscape. Do these outward changes result in internal change? Have their
motivations altered?

Jim Burden

The prairie orphan boy leaves Black Hawk to attend the University of Nebraska,
and later Harvard Law School. What does he learn from Gaston Cleric? How
does this inform his view of Antonia and his past?

Antonia Shimerda

Antonia leaves Nebraska to get married, only to find herself a deserted woman
carrying an illegitimate child. Why does she return to Black Hawk? Does she act
in the way you would expect?

Lena Lingard

Lena becomes a well-respected dressmaker in Lincoln and has a brief romantic
relationship with Jim. Why does it not last? Why does she remain in Lincoln? Is
she content with her life?

Writing Exercise

How does Jim's education remove him further from his past? How does it bring
him closer? Discuss the relevance of the novel's epigraph: "Optima dies... prima
fugit" (The best days are the first to flee).

Homework

Read My Antonia, Book Four, Chapters 1-4 (pp. 221-238). Consider Cather's
choice to structure the novel in five books. Why would she break up her book
this way? Identify two important turning points in the novel's action.

1 0 * THE BIG READ National Endowment for the Arts

Lesson Eight

FOCUS:

The Plot
Unfolds

The author crafts a plot structure to create expectations, increase suspense,
and develop characters. The pacing of events can make a novel either
predictable or riveting. Foreshadowing and flashbacks allow the author to
defy the constraints of time. Sometimes an author can confound a simple-
plot by telling stories within stories. In a conventional work of fiction, the
peak of the story s conflict — the climax — is followed by the resolution, or
denouement, in which the effects of that climactic action are presented.

According to Betty Kort, there are three levels to My Antonia: first, the
obvious plot line of Jims and Antonias friendship; second, the development
of the Nebraskan land; third, the "story-scape," which includes the retelling
of myths and stories Gather integrates throughout her novel.

Discussion Questions

Which key events lead to the novel's crisis, climax, and resolution? Discuss the
significance of Mr. Shimerda's suicide, Antonias desire to leave the Harlings'
home, Jim's move to Boston, Lena's move to Lincoln, and Antonias return to
Black Hawk.

Writing Exercise

Some of Cather's contemporary readers criticized My Antonia for its lack of plot
and structure. Do you agree with this opinion? Why or why not?

[JJ Homework

Finish My Antonia, Book Five, Chapters 1-3 (pp. 241-272). Ask students to
consider the parallels between the Nebraska Divide and Antonia Shimerda.

National Endowment for the Arts THE BIG READ • | |

FOCUS:

Themes of
the Novel

Themes are the central, recurring subjects of a novel. As characters grapple
with circumstances such as racism, class, or unrequited love, profound
questions will arise in the readers mind about human life, social pressures,
and societal expectations. Classic themes include intellectual freedom versus
censorship, the relationship between one's personal moral code and larger
political justice, and spiritual faith versus rational considerations. A novel
often reconsiders these age-old debates by presenting them in new contexts
or from new points of view.

Discussion Activities and Writing Exercises

Use the following questions to stimulate discussion or provide writing exercises
in order to interpret the novel in specific ways. Using historical references to
support ideas, explore the statements My Antonia makes about the following:

Memory

How is Jim a nostalgic, romantic, and an idealistic narrator? Does this make
him an unreliable storyteller? What does Jim mean by the final line of the
novel: "Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the
incommunicable past"?

The Taming of the Land

By the novel's end, the once virgin land is fenced and filled with roads, houses,
and train tracks. What does this suggest about the way humans affect the
environment? How is the Nebraskan land both the novel's most significant
symbol as well as a major theme? Does the development of the land parallel the
development of Antonia Shimerda?

The Immigrant Experience in America

The heroism of the settlers is evident by their determination to create a new and
better life for their families. How do the women especially contribute to making
such a life possible? How is this novel a story about the building of a specific
Nebraskan community? How does it transcend Nebraska to become a story
about the making of America and of what it means to be American?

Happiness

An important moment of the novel occurs when Jim says, "That is happiness;
to be dissolved into something complete and great." What does this mean?
According to Jim's definition, which characters in the novel end up happy? Is he
one of them?

P] Homework

Have students read Handout Three in this guide. Ask them to begin their essays,
using the Essay Topics in this guide. Outlines are due the next class period.

12 * THE BIG READ National Endowment for the Arts

Lesson Ten

FOCUS:

What Makes
a Book Great?

Great stories articulate and explore the mysteries of our daily lives in the
larger context of the human struggle. The writers voice, style, and use of
language inform the plot, characters, and themes. By creating opportunities
to learn, imagine, and reflect, a great novel is a work of art that affects
main generations of readers, changes lives, challenges assumptions, and
breaks new ground.

Discussion Activities

Ask students to make a list of the characteristics of a great book. Write these on
the board. What elevates a novel to greatness? In small groups, ask students to
discuss specific books that include some of these characteristics. Do any of these
books remind them of My Antonia7. How is Cather's novel different?

A great writer can be the voice of a generation. What kind of voice does Cather
create through My Antonia7. What does this novel tell us about the concerns and
dreams of those who immigrate to America?

Divide students into groups and have each one choose the single most important
theme of the novel. Have spokespersons from each group explain their decision.
Write these themes on the board. Are all the groups in agreement?

B Writing Exercise

Ask students to write a persuasive letter to a friend, perhaps one who does not
like to read, explaining why My Antonia is a good book. The student should make
an argument that explains why the novel has meaning for many people, not just a
particular group.

Have students work on their essays in class. Be available to assist with outlines,
drafts, and arguments. Have students partner together to edit outlines and/or
rough drafts. Provide students with characteristics of a well-written essay.

|23 Homework

Students will turn in a rough draft of their essay at the next class.

National Endowment for the Arts THE BIG READ • | 3

The discussion activities and writing exercises in this guide provide you with possible essay topics,
as do the Discussion Questions in the Readers Guide on pp. 14-15. Advanced students can come
up with their own essay topics, as long as they are specific and compelling. Other ideas for essays
are provided here.

For essays, students should organize their ideas around a thesis about the novel. This thesis should
be specific and focused, with clear evidence from the text to support its conclusion.

1. Jim Burden begins his study of Virgil during
his sophomore year of college. What is the
significance of the novel's epigraph, and what
is the connection between it and his view of
Antonia? Is it important that Lena reenters his
life while he reflects on his lesson from Gaston
Cleric? Explain.

2. Why does Mr. Shimerda commit suicide?
Take into account as many different factors
as possible. How does his death change his
family's fate, especially Antonia? Why does it
affect Jim so deeply?

3. What double standard do the immigrant
women in Black Hawk face? What unexpected
results occur because of this standard? How
does Jim feel about the "hired girls"?

4. Lena and Antonia take different paths as adults.
How do their personalities and choices in
Black Hawk foreshadow their future destinies?
By the end of the novel, are they both
content? Have they both succeeded? Explain.

5. When Jim finally tries to kiss Antonia, she
pushes him away and tells him never to
succumb to Lena's temptations. Why do
Jim and Antonia never have a romantic
relationship? Why does Jim pursue one
with Lena?

6. How important is figurative language to
Cather's writing style? How does Cather's use
of imagery communicate the themes of her
novel? Focus your essay on one chosen theme.

7. As an adult, Jim tells Antonia, "I'd have liked
to have you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my
mother or my sister — anything that a woman
can be to a man," and he tells her sons, "I was
very much in love with your mother once." Do
you believe him? Why does Jim never try to
marry her?

14 • THE BIG READ National Endowment for the Arts

Teachers may consider the ways in which these activities may be linked to other Big Read
community events. Most of these projects could be shared at a local library, a student assembly, or

a bookstore.

1. Commencement Speech: Jim Burden
gives the commencement speech for his Black
Hawk high school, but we never learn what
he said in it. You can find Willa Cather's high
school graduation speech at: http://cather.
unl.edu/ writings/bohlke/speeches/1890.
html. Ask students to imagine what Jim might
have said to his peers and their parents, and
then have the students compose their own
commencement speech.

2. Photo Gallery: Have one group of students
find historical photographs of immigrants on
the Great Plains. Then ask another group to
find modern photographs of these same areas.
The photos may come from books, from the
Internet, or from family photo albums.

3. Immigrants in Nebraska: Break up your
class into the immigrant groups and characters
represented in My Antonia from the following
countries: Bohemia, Sweden, Russia, Norway,
Denmark, and Germany. Each group will
prepare a report to present to the class,
describing the reasons why the character
might have left his or her homeland. What was
life like when he or she arrived in America?

4. In Performance: Ask students to act out
a scene in which they illustrate the hardships
of the American frontier, using characters
from Cather's novel. The scene may be taken
directly from My Antonia, or it can be invented.

5. Artists' Gallery: Using the illustrations that
Cather commissioned W.T. Benda to draw
as examples, ask students to draw or paint a
scene in the novel.

6. Cultural Heritage: Ask students to collect
songs, stories, and recipes from their own
cultural backgrounds. Create a class book that
reflects the diverse traditions in your class.
This book could also include the photography
and art of Capstones 2 and 5, above.

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • |5

HANDOUT ONE

The Homestead Movement

In 1862, Congress passed and President Abraham
Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. The act
provided 160 acres to the head of a household,
or to an applicant at least 21 years old, including
former slaves, single women, and immigrants.
The homesteader had to pay a minimal application
fee, live on the land for five years, and make
improvements, such as cultivating a farm or
building a house. The applicant had to be a U.S.
citizen (or a declared candidate for citizenship)
who had never borne arms against the United
States. Confederate soldiers could not apply.

The Union Pacific Railroad was chartered on July
1, 1862, when President Lincoln selected a route
that would pass through Kansas and Nebraska.
When the Union Pacific met up with the Central
Pacific railroad in 1869, the transcontinental
railroad made transportation more affordable. The
federal government gave railroad companies large
amounts of land to provide incentives for more
development. These companies then advertised the
sale of cheap land in foreign countries, which often
led to unrealistic expectations among non-English-
speaking immigrants. These changes — along
with the 1862 Morrill Act authorizing land grant
colleges to educate farmers — led thousands of
eastern Americans and even more Europeans to
move to Nebraska and Kansas.

For all its virtues, homesteading had a tragic
side. Native Americans were pushed aside as the
homesteading wave moved westward. Land fraud
was common, especially as non-English-speaking

families tried to negotiate with native businessmen
or farmers. Large companies applied for multiple
homesteads, each one signed for by a company
representative until sufficient acreage was amassed
for large-scale ranching. Failure was a constant
companion. As the homesteaders moved westward
into the dry plains, they discovered that 160 acres
was insufficient for a family farm. The land was
not always cooperative, and heads of families — like
Mr. Shimerda and Willa Cather's father — were not
necessarily successful farmers. Over 60 percent of
homestead applicants never stayed the required five
years to get their deed.

The original 1862 act was later amended to
accommodate the harsh realities of life on
the Plains. Land grants were expanded to a
more reasonable 640 acres, and the residency
requirement was lowered from five years to three.

The Homestead Act and the transcontinental
railroad were benchmarks of American history.
By the end of the nineteenth century, over half
a million homestead farmers had claimed more
than 80 million acres of America. The West was
forever changed by the settlement of families who
left their homelands for a chance to obtain land to
call their own.

16 * THE BIG READ National Endowment for the Arts

HANDOUT TWO

Bohemian and Swedish Immigrants

The three novels that \\ ilia Cather wrote between
1913 and 1918— 0 Pioneers.', The Song of the Lark

and My Antonia — center on immigrant female
artists from Sweden and Bohemia: Alexandra
Bergson, Thea Kronborg, and Antonia Shimerda.
Between 1850 and 1950, some 50 million
Europeans left their homelands — mostly for North
America. What motivated so many thousands of
Bohemians and Swedes to immigrate to Nebraska?

Bohemia

Bohemia was a former kingdom bounded by
Germany, Poland, Austria, and Moravia. In 1918,
Bohemia became the core of the newly formed
state of Czechoslovakia. On January 1, 1993,
Czechoslovakia was split into two independent
states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The
Czech Republic comprises the former province
of Bohemia.

My Antonia begins in 1883, when Bohemia
was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
A growing Czech nationalism led to ethnic
tension between the Czech-speaking population
of Bohemia and their German-speaking rulers.
Such divisions encouraged many Bohemians to
immigrate to the Great Plains, especially since the
circulation of railroad company advertisements in
Czech newspapers and magazines offered cheap
land in Nebraska. Worsening economic conditions
and overpopulation pushed most Czechs out of
their homeland. Many Czechs relied on weaving
industries for their livelihoods, but increased
industrialization made it impossible to support a
family that way.

Contrary to negative stereotypes, many Bohemian
immigrants had education, money, and respect in
their homeland. Coming to America — where they
were lonely, poor, and often manipulated — was

simply too much to bear for many men and
women who, like Mr. Shimerda, "died from a
broken heart." All told, between 1856 and 1914,
over 50,000 Czechs moved to Nebraska.

Sweden

Between 1845 and 1865, severe crop failures and
poverty in Sweden — due partly to large population
growth — caused the first spike in Swedish
immigration. By 1890, approximately 478,000
Swedes had immigrated to America, ultimately
reducing Sweden's total population by one fourth.
As in Bohemia, economic and social circumstances
motivated many to leave. As it became unfeasible
to buy land in Sweden, the Homestead Act made
such a dream possible in America. Religious
persecution, personal misfortune, failing farms,
and unfair employment practices led other Swedes
to leave their homeland. After the Civil War,
Swedish settlements expanded from Illinois, Iowa,
and Minnesota, to the Great Plains of Kansas
and Nebraska. Between 1845 and 1930, over 1.2
million Swedes migrated to America.

My Antonia accurately reflects some of the
difficulties faced by immigrant pioneers, although
the novel should not be read as a history book. For
example, many early settlers had to survive without
wood. Even after the railroad connected Hastings
to Red Cloud in 1878, the transportation and
price of lumber remained too expensive for most
families. Sod houses (built with bricks made from
various kinds of grass) attracted snakes and other
varmints. Dirt floors and leaking roofs made these
homes especially unwelcoming during rainstorms
and blizzards. Most families replaced them as soon
as they earned enough money from their efforts to
tame the Nebraska Divide.

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • 17

HANDOUT THREE

V

The Triumph of Antonia Shimerda

"There was the material in [My Antonia] for a
lurid melodrama. But I decided that in writing it
I would dwell very lightly on those things that a
novelist would ordinarily emphasize, and make
up my story of the little, every-day happenings
and occurrences that form the greatest part of
everyone's life and happiness." — Willa Cather

When Willa Cather wrote O Pioneers! (1913), she
did not expect anyone to see greatness in a slow-
moving Nebraskan novel that featured Swedish
and Bohemian immigrants. Most American writers
had perpetuated comic, negative stereotypes of
these groups, yet in Alexandra Bergson (from
O Pioneers!) and Thea Kronborg (from The Song
of the Lark), Cather created strong Swedish women
who triumphed in the midst of great adversity.

The character of Antonia Shimerda especially
embodied all Cather's feelings about the early
immigrants to the Great Divide. Cather told an
interviewer in 1921 that one of the people who had
interested her most as a child was Annie Sadilek,
later Annie Pavelka, the Bohemian "hired girl"
who worked for one of her neighbors: "She was
one of the truest artists I ever knew in the keenness
and sensitiveness of her enjoyment, in her love of
people and in her willingness to take pains. I did
not realize all this as a child, but Annie fascinated
me and I always had it in mind to write a story
about her."

Since most popular early-twentieth-century
novels highlighted the lives of upper-class ladies
and gentlemen, it was a radical choice in 1918
for Cather to center My Antonia on a lower-class

immigrant "hired girl." Cather always possessed
great respect for her immigrant neighbors,
and a great deal of her education derived from
her German, English, and Jewish friends. She
especially loved listening to the stories of the older
immigrant women and later said, "I have never
found any intellectual excitement any more intense
than I used to feel when I spent a morning with
one of these old women at her baking or butter-
making. . .1 always felt. . .as if I had actually got
inside another person's skin." In several letters and
interviews, Cather claimed that housewives and
farmers were true artists, once even saying that
they contributed "more to art than all the culture
clubs."

With this definition in mind, Antonia is certainly
one of Cather's greatest artists. While most
women — in both history and literature — were
ostracized, exiled, or killed as a result of an
illegitimate pregnancy, Cather writes a different
ending for her heroine. Antonia returns to her
mother's home "crushed and quiet," but she
perseveres, never choosing the path of her father.
She farms the land and is not ashamed of her first
daughter. The real-life John Pavelka (the model for
Anton Cuzak) also defied convention by marrying
a "fallen" woman. With him, Annie bore thirteen
children, and ten survived into adulthood. When
Jim Burden finally returns to Nebraska, he finds
his childhood friend "a battered woman now, not a
lovely girl; but she still had that something which
fires the imagination."

I 8 * THE BIG READ National Endowment for the Arts

Books

The W.T. Benda illustrations, reprinted as Willa Cather
desired, are featured in the scholarly edition of My Antonia,
published by the University of Nebraska Press, edited by
Charles Mignon with Kari A. Ronning.

Biography and Criticism

Acocella, Joan. Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.

Bennett, Mildred R. The World of Willa Cather. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1995.

Lewis, Edith. Willa Cather Living: A Personal Record.
Introduction by John J. Murphy. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 2000.

O'Brien, Sharon. New Essays on My Antonia. Cambridge
University Press, 1988.

Woodress, James. Willa Cather: A Literary Life. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1987.

Especially for Teachers

Cather, Willa. Willa Cather on Writing: Critical Studies on
Writing as an Art. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
1988.

Curtin, William M., ed. The World and the Parish: Willa
Cather's Articles and Reviews, 1893-1902. Lincoln: University
of Nebraska Press, 1970.

Murphy, John J. My Antonia: The Road Home. Boston:
Twayne, 1989.

Rosowski, Susan J., ed. Approaches to Teaching Cather's My
Antonia. New York: Modern Language Association, 1989.

Urgo, Joseph R. Willa Cather and the Myth of American
Migration. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.

Videos

Willa Cather: The Road Is All. The American Masters series
by PBS, 2005. (See www.pbs.org)

Web sites

The Willa Cather Electronic Archive

www.cather.unl.edu

This superb site includes a wonderful photo gallery, as wel

as interviews, speeches, and biographical information.

The Cather Foundation

Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational

Foundation

Willa Cather State Historic Site

www.willacather.org

Teachers will find many helpful links to the study and

teaching of Willa Cather.

For more information about the biannual publication,
Teaching Cather, see:
www.willacather.org/teachingcatherpub.htm

Nebraska Studies

www.nebraskastudies.org

The Nebraska Studies site provides information that

will deepen your students' understanding of the pioneer

experience in Nebraska.

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • 19

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Standards"

1. Students read a wide range of print and non-
print texts to build an understanding of texts,
of themselves, and of the cultures of the
United States and the world; to acquire
new information; to respond to the needs
and demands of society and the workplace;
and for personal fulfillment. Among these
texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and
contemporary works.

2. Students read a wide range of literature from
many periods in many genres to build an
understanding of the many dimensions (e.g.,
philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human
experience.

3. Students apply a wide range of strategies
to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and
appreciate texts. They draw on their prior
experience, their interactions with other
readers and writers, their knowledge of
word meaning and of other texts, their
word identification strategies, and their
understanding of textual features (e.g.,
sound-letter correspondence, sentence
structure, context, graphics).

4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written,
and visual language (e.g., conventions, style,
vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a
variety of audiences and for different purposes.

5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as
they write and use different writing process
elements appropriately to communicate with
different audiences for a variety of purposes.

6. Students apply knowledge of language
structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling
and punctuation), media techniques, figurative
language, and genre to create, critique, and
discuss print and non-print texts.

7. Students conduct research on issues and
interests by generating ideas and questions, and
by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and
synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g.,
print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to
communicate their discoveries in ways that suit
their purpose and audience.

8. Students use a variety of technological and
information resources (e.g., libraries, databases,
computer networks, video) to gather and
synthesize information and to create and
communicate knowledge.

9. Students develop an understanding of and
respect for diversity in language use, patterns,
and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups,
geographic regions, and social roles.

10. Students whose first language is not English
make use of their first language to develop
competency in the English language arts and to
develop understanding of content across the
curriculum.

1 1 . Students participate as knowledgeable,
reflective, creative, and critical members of a
variety of literary communities.

12. Students use spoken, written, and visual
language to accomplish their own purposes
(e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and
the exchange of information).

* This guide was developed with NCTE Standards and State Language Arts Standards in mind. Use these standards to guide and
develop your application of the curriculum.

20 * THE BIG READ National Endowment for the Arts

That is happiness;
to be dissolved into
something complete
and great."

— WILLA CATHER
from My Antonia

NATIONAL
ENDOWMENT
FOR THE ARTS

The Big Read is an initiative of the National
Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading
to the center of American culture. The NEA presents
The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of
Museum and Library Services and in cooperation
with Arts Midwest.

'••>;: - -INSTITUTE ol , .,

■•:.:, Museum.ndLibrary

' .•-•• SERVIfF";

A great nation deserves great art.