My Antonia: Feminist Criticism and the American Dream

Willa Cather’s novel, My Antonia, is a story telling of the hardships and ever-lasting memories of those who lived during the pioneer era. Such times are shown through the eyes of the native farmers and the success-bound immigrants who suffer from dramatic changes of lifestyles by risking everything for the “utopia” placed upon America’s reputation. Women also played a major role on the prairies and evidently impacted Cather in her writings. Cather uses symbolism of the pioneer era to convey her feminist ideals and the American Dream.
Cather portrays harmonious relationships between women and the land. The connection between these two factors is obvious since the majority of My Antonia’s characters are of a feminine gender and the setting takes place on the roaming prairies of Nebraska. R. Thacker once pointed out, “The women in Cather’s writings understand the strengths of the land and adapt to the prairie to preserve it, not to conquer it” (Harvesting 3). ...