Anyway, I looked through my Google Docs trash folder, and randomly found this old paper that I was forced to write comparing two novels by the same author, Willa Cather. The caustic tone made me laugh, so I thought I'd share it. If you don't feel like reading the whole paper, you can skip to the emboldened summary at the end. And just so you know, it was really, really hard not to edit my grammar and punctuation. =(
ENG 351-01
Feb 28, 2012
Comparisons between My Antonia and O, Pioneers!
Considering the numerous similarities of these two novels by Willa Cather, I will only focus on three: the themes, which are basically the same; the plots, which are almost non-existent, and the characters, half of which are disappointing.
Both of these novels take place in Nebraska, during the early 1900’s, when immigrants and settlers were trying to tame the wild prairies into farmland. The ongoing theme at times seems to be the grueling monotony of life as a whole. There is the struggle between man and nature in trying to farm the land, between a woman’s strength of character against society, a woman’s potential and ability to succeed as well (or better) than a man. There is the search for meaning or happiness that both Carl and Jim embarked on, only to return and wonder: what might have been. What Jim and Carl could have had, or could have accomplished if they had stayed and struggled with the women.
The plot for My Antonia was mostly exposition. Jim Burden rambles on about this memory, and that memory, and that one time he and Antonia did this and that, but it is a very long story, in which he does maybe two interesting things. Cather uses these memoirs as a foil to thrust Antonia’s stamina and spirit into the reader’s admiration. In O, Pioneers!, Cather focuses more on a present timeline, on how the heroine, Alexandra, finds security and satisfaction in life, loses it, and finds it again at the end. More pertinent events take place in these specific chunks of Alexandra’s life, but as in the case of My Antonia, nearly two decades are skipped by without anything important happening during them. Life can be so very long, dull, and grueling in Cather’s books...
These two books seem to focus mainly on the women: Antonia and Alexandra. They are both strong, independent women who make it their business to succeed and to take care of their families. Alexandra took charge of her brothers as the eldest, and Antonia worked how and wherever she could. While working hard and sacrificing (Alexandra for her brother Emil, and Antonia for her children), they learn to love the land, and find most of their happiness and satisfaction in farming it. These heroines are tough, yet compassionate, smart, yet blind to those they love, and in spite of death, loss, and hardships, still find a way to continue living with joy and spirit.
The male leads in these two books are very similar; they are rather static side characters. In My Antonia, Jim Burden is merely an observer, relating his memories to the reader. He grows up playing like a child with his peers instead of struggling to get by like Antonia, and then he leaves his hometown and his Antonia for college and a career. By the time he is reunited with Antonia at the end of the story, as readers we know that he travelled around the world and married, but we are unaware that he has actually accomplished anything. He is merely a boring, complacent man.
Carl Linstrum in O, Pioneers! is also a rather static character. He also leaves, and then returns to Alexandra, having accomplished nothing. But unlike Jim Burden, Carl does feel a need to become something, and to find a place that feels like a true home. Again, whether he accomplishes anything by the end of the book is not revealed, but he does conclude that his home is with Alexandra, and he is satisfied. Unlike the outcome of My Antonia, these two actually do snatch at their chance for happiness together, thus providing a more satisfying ending for the reader or audience.
In conclusion, there is just enough of a story in O, Pioneers! to differ from My Antonia, but essentially both have the same messages in them: a tribute to land of Nebraska, and the satisfaction of an agricultural and meaningful family life. It loudly demonstrates the potential strength of a woman, and advocates her ability for authority and management. These novels may be critically acclaimed, and made Willa Cather famous enough to be read by a university Fiction class a century later, but when there are far more interesting and better books to be read, all the effort of thinking and writing a two-page paper on them was a waste of time. This may seem to be a harsh conclusion, but in the life of a struggling college student, trying to tame the old hourglass itself, time is so very precious.
