My Antonia: A Novel Depicting American Dreams and Experiences

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My Antonia: A Novel Depicting American Dreams and Experiences
Will Cather's novel "My Antonia" was published in 1918 as a novel depicting and honouring the life and struggle of immigrants who enter America with the shared dream of equal job opportunities, social equality, and freedom. The book is centred around the life and work of Antonia Shimerda, her bohemian immigrant family, and other secondary characters. It retells the story of their pursuit of the American dream in separate ways. Antonia's hard struggle, her final settlement, and the hired girl Lena Lingard's defiance of tradition and successful accomplishment of the American dream manifest the novel's central theme. Additionally, Jim Burden's social failure in life also depicts a different dimension and direction of pursuing the American dream. Thus, it is easy to understand that the novel's characters and themes corroborate James E. Miller's comments that the book is a realistic commentary on the American experience. The following paragraph substantiates this fact.
The story of Shimreda's family's immigration to Nebraska to live a healthy, accessible, and prosperous agricultural life is quite inspiring for an aspirant of the American dream. Mr Shimreda came here to plough and cultivate the land and live a decent life; however, his wife, Mrs Shimreda, consistently laments about her lower social and financial status despite her hard struggle in the new land. Consequently, Mr Shimreda gave in to consistent complaints and a sense of failure and committed suicide (Cather 44). His suicide manifests a sad reality of the American experience where failure in accomplishing one's goal leads to the end of one's life. However, Mr Shimreda's daughter Antonia's life depicts an entirely different story altogether. She is a young, ambitious, energetic, and pretty girl whose character gradually emerges from a lonely and sad girl to a reliable, self-reliant, and successful woman. Her struggle to accomplish her version of the American dream is mired with several hurdles, including the cultural differences that make her appear an alien in the rural American society.
Besides, Antonia's poor financial status compels her to do menial jobs as a servant girl, first on farmland and then as a hired girl at Mrs Harling's house (Cather 65). While working in this capacity, she faces social conflicts as her tendency to attend dance makes her unacceptable to the social norms and ethics. Antonia's consistent inclination toward dance lets her lose her job; afterwards, she receives yet another blow to her pursuit of the American dream when her new boss Wick Cutter attempts to seduce her leading her to lose her job again (Cather 94). Despite repeated discouragement and impediment that society throws in her way to accomplish her dream, Antonia consistently fights back for her freedom. For instance, she prefers to work for the notorious womanizer Wick Cutter than to surrender her desire...