Immigrations Role Throughout the Novel My Antonia, by Willa Cather
...f Immigration. This was exposed to Antonia throughout her whole life. Not only was nativism “present from the beginning of the century of immigration, but infected all sections of the country and every class”(Wells 6). It effected Antonia and her family because they were “different”. It also affected Jim because of his different views and opinions on things. Throughout the novel, Antonia and Jim were, at some point, outcasts. These times were considered Xenophobic. “Xenophobia in America fed, from the beginning, on a set of ideas that can only be termed racist ideas… [the were said] by racial groups… ideas of a dark shadow or a black tide”(McNall 71). These ideas of dark shadows and black tides created two types of immigrants, the old and the new immigrants. The “new” immigrants were seen as more pleasant like than the “old”. The old immigrants, the Harlings, Mrs. Gardener, and Mr. Jensen, are more easily integrated into out society than were the new immigrants. Although they both arrived around the same time, the national picture was different, and the Shimerdas reflect this change. They arrived late on the largest wave of Czech immigration.(McNall 70) The fist book in the novel is titled “The Shimerdas”. This book introduces the main character Jim Burden, and his love, Antonia. We also find out that her father “lived in his mothers house… and she, [Antonia’s mother] was a poor girl come in to do the work”(Cather). By examining this quote, one can see that Antonia’s mother, a immigrant, was a poor girl who had a poor job. Throughout the novel, the immigrants are the ones who are stuck with the lower class jobs. They, along with Antonia, are among the bottom of the totem pole and they honestly could not do much about it. One can see from the following quote that Jim Burden, along with everyone else, knew that this is how the world was going to be. “[Jim] did not say his prayers that night: here I felt what would be, would be”(Cather). Willa Cather does a good job getting the point across that there is nothing Jim can do to change what is going to happen to him or to anyone. He just has to try and do the best with what he has. The following quote from the novel explains how the daughters of the immigrants, like Antonia, were not only constrained by the people around them, but by their families as well. The daughters of Black Hawk merchants had a confident, uninquiring belief that they were refined, and that the country girls, who worked out were not. The American Farmers in out country were quite as hard pressed as their neighbors from other countries. All alike has come to Nebraska with the capital and no knowledge of the soil they must subdue. All has borrowed money on their land. But no matter in what straits the Pennsylvanian or Virginian found himself, he would not let his daughters go out into service. Unless his girls could teach a country school, they sat home in poverty. (Cather) This quote explains that Antonia’s only hope to succeed in life would be to teach a country school. Not only did her father die, but her mother needs her moral support and will not let her out of her sight. Another hurdle that faces immigrants at this time was adapting to the frontier life. Mr. Shimerida, Antonia’s father, is not the kind of man who can adapt to Frontier conditions, hence his death. Antonia and her brother on the other hand, can and so adapt to the prairie. Jim on the other hand, finds his pain from “suffering because he is too romantic and falls for foreign girls”(Martain 105). Jim always finds himself in bad situations because he falls for every girl he sees. He finds his pain from suffering over romances that he should not even be involved in. Education is a key role in everyone’s life. Americans take public education for granted where immigrant are thrilled to be schooled for free. Most immigrants never had public ed...