Subject Areas |
History and Social Studies
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U.S. History - Immigration/Migration |
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U.S. History - The West |
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U.S. History - Women's Rights/History |
Literature and Language Arts
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American |
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Fiction |
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Time Required |
| 6-7 Class periods |
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Skills |
| Close Reading
Map Studies
Literary Analysis: Plot and Character Development
Rhetorical Devices: Structure, Diction, Tone, Mood
Literary Criticism and Synthesis: Take-home essays
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Additional Data |
| Date Created: 11/27/02 |
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Date Posted |
| 11/27/2002 |
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Pioneer Values in Willa Cather's My Antonia
IntroductionWilla Cather's classic pioneer
novel My Antonia fuses two stories to produce a powerful literary work
that details nineteenth-century pioneer life in Nebraska, with all its hardships
and beauties, and explores traditional American pioneer values, such as hard work,
self-reliance, and the refusal to submit to adversity. Cather fuses the fictional
life story of Antonia Shimerda, a Bohemian immigrant who symbolizes the grit and
optimism of those coming to America to make a new start, with aspects of her own
emotionally-rich life story to produce an archetypal tale that fully illustrates
the struggle of American pioneers, the rewards of hard work, and the emotional
price the pioneers sometimes paid for their modest successes. Combining
the study of history and literature, the goal of these activities is to guide
students in a self-directed exploration of how Cather's novel interprets and represents
the values of fortitude, hard work, and faithfulness that we associate with pioneer
life. How does literary form affect the ways readers perceive and interpret these
values? How does literary form shape our perception of history? To help students
explore these questions in some detail, this lesson begins with a brief review
of key historical topics. Subsequent activities ask students to work together
to analyze how our perception of these historical and social contexts is shaped
by the style and form of My Antonia. Guiding Question:In
her novel My Antonia, how does Willa Cather represent and interpret the
values of fortitude, hard work, and faithfulness that we associate with pioneer
life? Learning ObjectivesAfter completing
the lessons in this unit, students will be able to - Name key pioneer values
as demonstrated in My Antonia and background materials
- Understand
the relationship between the historical settling of the American Great Plains
and the values of the settlers that enabled them to succeed as settlers
- Analyze
the cultural and historical context of a work of literature
- Analyze how
an author shapes his or her own life experiences and knowledge about a particular
historical era to provide the setting, tone and theme for a work of fiction
- Understand
how literary form influences our perception of content and meaning.
Preparing to Teach this Lesson- Review
each lesson in this unit and select archival materials you'd like to use in class.
If possible, bookmark these materials, along with other useful Web sites; download
and print out selected documents and duplicate copies as necessary for student
viewing.
- Both an objective
close-reading quiz and an in-class/take-home
essay test are included. They may be used at any point the teacher deems suitable.
- This lesson assumes that, prior to beginning activity
1, students have read and annotated My Antonia at home, perhaps using
close reading techniques found in the EDSITEment lesson plan, Practical
Criticism, which uses poetry to illustrate the basic principles of close reading.
You can adapt the exercises in that lesson for students reading Cather's novel.
For example, you could assign the following journal exercises: paraphrase key
sections of the work, expressing in your own words; note the use of imagery, and
explain how the imagery enhances the work by adding emotional color or associations
to the plain sense; describe the overall tone or mood of the work, the "feeling"
that it communicates to you as a reader; and express an opinion about the work--is
it good or bad literature, and why? (As an aid to students working on a specific
passage of the text, you may wish to consult the annotated hypertext
edition, described below.
- Online resources. To gain an overview of
Cather's life and literary contributions, as well as a broad sense of the cultural
and historical context of My Antonia, begin with the EDSITEment resource
Women of the West Museum, which can also
be used by students in composing the synthesis and evaluation essays. The site
contains biographical information on Willa Cather in an exhibit entitled Women
of the West Online.
A range of resources for teaching and studying Cather's
The Song of the Lark
are available from the EDSITEment-reviewed American
Collection: An Educator's Site; although focused on resources related specifically
to Song of the Lark, this site also links to useful materials on Cather's
life and career as a writer, such as the Willa
Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation, from Red Cloud, Nebraska.
A further source of information and activities related to the study of
women in the American West is the EDSITEment lesson plan, Women's
Suffrage: Why the West First?. In this lesson, students compile information
to examine hypotheses explaining why the first nine states to grant full voting
rights for women were located in the West. Although designed for grades 6-8, most
of the activities and resources in this lesson can be adapted or are appropriate
for older students as well. - E-texts. A scrupulously
edited and annotated hypertext
edition of My Antonia (based on the 1994 edition published by University
of Nebraska Press) is available from The
Willa Cather Electronic Archive, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed American
Collection: An Educator's Site. This scholarly edition presents the text in
a convenient and attractive format. Explanatory notes and essays, linked to specific
locations in the text, provide historical and biographical contexts as well as
illustrations, photographs, maps, and facsimiles relevant to My Antonia.
Plain, but suitable for searching, is the etext version of My
Antonia from Project Gutenberg, a link
on the EDSITEment-reviewed Internet Public Library.
Additional poems and stories by Willa Cather (although not the text of
My Antonia) are available from the Electronic
Text Center of the University of Virginia, a link on the EDSITEment resource,
Center for the Liberal Arts.
- Pioneer Values and Literary Form in My Antonia. American literary
and historical mythology has enshrined the settlement of the heartland (the Great
Plains) with a nostalgic glow, painting a picture of strong pioneers taming an
unbroken wilderness through sheer determination and willpower. My Antonia
reflects this vision of pioneer life and values in the character of Antonia, the
female who takes on traditionally masculine characteristics to take equal part
with her brothers in working the Shimerda homestead after her father's death:
"Tony could talk of nothing but the prices of things, or how much she could live
or endure. She was too proud of her strength."
As this quotation suggests,
the settlement of the Great Plains entailed great struggle, and could exact a
heavy price. "[Antonia] was a battered woman now, not a lovely girl . . . she
was a rich mine of life, like the founders of early races." Mother of many sons,
wife of an immigrant ignorant of the ways of farming, Antonia gave her youth and
beauty as a sacrifice to build the American way of life in the heartland.
In this lesson, students will consider how these and other examples illustrate
how a literary text portrays and transmits, but also raises questions about, values.
Careful attention will be paid to the links between literary forms and the content
they convey. For example, how do readers' expectations about genre affect their
interpretations of a work's meaning? My Antonia can be read as a memoir,
told by Jim Burden, member of an established family in pioneer Nebraska; as a
biography of Antonia Shimerda, member of a European immigrant family trying to
adapt to the harsh conditions of pioneer life; as a social commentary on the trials
and rewards of the American pioneer experience in Nebraska; as a moral tale, by
comparing the happiness and satisfaction of Antonia's life of devotion to family
with the superficiality of Jim and Lena's lives of self-fulfillment; or as a poetic
celebration of the rare beauty of the untouched land found by the pioneers. By
focusing on selected passages from the text in terms of one or more of these literary
genres, students gain a more precise sense of Cather's methods and meaning. Taken
as a whole, the novel encompasses all of these generic possibilities; by combining
the conventions of several literary genres, Cather presents a rich and complex
portrait of pioneer values, showing us their strengths as well as their costs
for the men and women who settled the Great Plains.
My Antonia
is a useful novel to teach students about literary form and genre because, despite
the interweaving of literary conventions suggested above, the prose of the novel
is straightforward and reflects the diction of its characters. Character and plot
development are easily traced. The tone is optimistic, in spite of the hardships
encountered by all the characters. This optimistic tone is fitting for the exposition
of traditional pioneer values of hard work, dedication, faithfulness to family
and hope for the future.
The contest between a fertile but sometimes
unforgiving landscape and the spirit of those who worked it, is powerfully captured
in the brief poem that serves as a preface to Cather's novel, O Pioneers!:
PRAIRIE SPRING—
EVENING and the flat land,
Rich and sombre and always silent; The miles of fresh-plowed soil, Heavy
and black, full of strength and harshness; The growing wheat, the growing
weeds, The toiling horses, the tired men; The long empty roads,
Sullen fires of sunset, fading, The eternal, unresponsive sky. Against
all this, Youth, Flaming like the wild roses, Singing like the larks
over the plowed fields, Flashing like a star out of the twilight; Youth
with its insupportable sweetness, Its fierce necessity, Its sharp desire, Singing
and singing, Out of the lips of silence, Out of the earthy dusk.
Suggested Activities
1.
Mapping the Great Plains: Nebraska 2.
Living in the Great Plains 3.
Tracing the Autobiographical Aspects of My Antonia 4.
Concluding Activities: Classroom Debate, Essay Exam, or Writing Assignment
1. Mapping the Great Plains: Nebraska
After you have begun your reading and
discussion of My Antonia (see the third bulleted item in Preparing
to Teach, above), ask students to produce, either individually or in pairs, a
map of Nebraska in the late nineteenth century, then trace Jim's journey from
the Blue Ridge (Virginia) to Nebraska. Suitable maps of Nebraska may be found
on the online exhibit, Solomon
D. Butcher Photographs of the Nebraska Homestead Experience, a link on the
EDSITEment resource, American Memory Collection.
Additional maps suitable for this assignment
can found on the following websites: - Map
of the Toledo, Wabash, and Gt. Western Rail Road Line, and its connections.
This 1859 map of the Toledo, Wabash, and Great Western Railroad line, and its
connections throughout the northeastern and north-central United States, also
shows the gold mines of Kansas and Nebraska. (From the EDSITEment-reviewed American
Memory Collection.)
- This Map
of Nebraska from the EDSITEment-reviewed National
Geographic Xpeditions, is a printable map and is suitable for classroom use.
It can be displayed in a detailed or basic view.
- This Locator
Map of Nebraska, from the EDSITEment resource New
Perspectives on the West, contains a wealth of information on the American
West.
By examining the path of Jim's journey, can students predict some
of the possible dangers and surprises? How can this map of his journey help us
to better understand Jim's perspective? (And why is it so important to keep Jim's
perspective in mind as we read this novel?) 2.
Living in the Great Plains Next, ask
students to read and annotate historical background information gained from the
some of the Internet addresses described above to gain insight into pioneer living
conditions. So that students develop a shared focus and common body of evidence,
it is recommended that they incorporate primary and secondary resources found
in archives of Prairie
Settlement: Nebraska Photographs and Family Letters, part of the American
Memory Collection's special exhibit, "Prairie Settlement: Nebraska Photographs
and Family Letters, 1862-1912," from the Nebraska State Historical Society. Students
can record notes in a journal, or can tie historical artifacts to specific passages
in the text of the novel, perhaps modeling their annotation on the example of
the annotated hypertext
edition of My Antonia, as discussed in the Preparing
to Teach section, above. As an alternative
to or extension of students' independent annotation of the text, you can assign
groups of students to one of the following tasks: - Class
Presentation. Divide students into groups of three. Assign each group one
of the following topics: laws on homesteading, portrait of a "typical" homestead,
educational opportunities for homesteaders, especially females. Each group prepares
a ten-minute oral presentation, using at least one visual aid, on its topic.
- Quiz.
Divide students into groups of two. Have each group produce a 5-question quiz,
with answers.
Depending on the options
chosen, students can then present their findings in class in one of several formats:
an individual oral report, a presentation by each group, or an exchange of quizzes.
(For further ideas about projects for learning
about pioneer living conditions in nineteenth-century Nebraska, see Extending
the Lesson, below.) 3.
Tracing the Autobiographical Aspects of My Antonia Students
can use information gathered thus far to explore parallels between Cather's own
life and that of the Great Plains pioneers depicted in the novel. Further biographical
materials are available from the following sources: If each student or
small group of students has access to a computer (if, for example, the class is
held in the school's computer lab), students may go to the websites noted below
and take notes individually. If this option is not available, you can go to the
websites and collect resources, providing students with handouts or providing
the information as a lecture. However the
biographical contexts of this novel are learned, there are several options for
considering the links between Cather's life and the persons and events described
in her novel. One option is for students to record notes in a journal, tying biographical
information to specific passages in the text of the novel, and perhaps modelling
their annotation on the example of the annotated hypertext
edition of My Antonia (discussed in the Preparing
to Teach section, above). As an alternative
to or extension of students' independent annotation of the text, you can assign
groups of students to one of the following activities: - Present
to the Class. Dividing students into groups of four, assign each group one
of the following topics:
Important Values of Pioneer Life Life
story of Willa Cather Comparison of My Antonia to the Song of
the Lark Life stories of women during the Western expansion Each
group prepares a fifteen-minute oral presentation, using at least two visual aids,
on its topic. - Design a Quiz. Divide students into groups of
two. Have each group produce a 5-question quiz, with answers.
Depending
on the options chosen, students can then present their findings in class in one
of several formats: an individual oral report, a presentation by each small group,
or an exchange of quizzes (one possibility is to collate the quizzes and choose
the best five questions for use as a study guide). 4.
Concluding Activities: Classroom Debate, Essay Exam, or Writing Assignment There
are several possible capstone activities for this lesson, each of which asks students
to analyze the cultural context of a work of literature and to respond to the
guiding question: How does Willa Cather represent and interpret the values
of fortitude, hard work, and faithfulness that we associate with pioneer life?
- Classroom critical debate. Divide students into two groups. Assign each
group one either the "pro" or "con" stand on this thesis: My Antonia is a
thinly-disguised retelling of the life of Willa Cather. Allow the groups
ten minutes to prepare, using this class lecture notes and any other information
gained during the previous lessons. Use the balance of the class for the debate
itself. The teacher may judge the debate or bring in an expert to do so. The debate
may be videotaped.
- Essay exam. Download and distribute the Essay
Exam for Willa Cather's My Antonia, available here as a PDF file.
- Writing Assignment. The following are some examples of writing
assignments that ask students to synthesize the research they completed for the
activities above:
Write a 350-word formal essay, correctly citing
all reference materials in MLA format, on this topic: "Pioneer Living Conditions
in Nineteenth-Century Nebraska"
Invent a character of your own, and write
a 450-word short story detailing pioneer living conditions from that character's
perspective.
Write a 350-word formal essay, correctly citing all reference
materials in MLA format, on this topic: "Willa Cather's Life: An Illustration
of the Key Values of the Heartland."
Write a 450-word short story detailing
pioneer living conditions from a woman's point of view.
Extending the Lesson- Additional
activity: Students will write, as a group or in pairs, character sketches of Antonia,
Jim, Lena, and Mr. Shimerda and analyze them as to the qualities and values they
represent. Depending on class length, completing the sketches and producing the
analysis can be individual homework. The focus in these sketches is to produce
a list of pioneer values that enable a person to succeed, as Antonia did. Mr.
Shimerda can be analyzed for lacking such values.
- The lesson may be extended
by an analysis and comparison of the short story "A Wagner Matinee" which has
a similar theme of a woman giving up all the refinement of European culture for
a life on the American frontier.
Selected
EDSITEment WebsitesAmerican
Collection: An Educator's Site American
Memory Internet
Public Library New
Perspectives on the American West
Standards Alignment
View your state’s standards
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