n My Ántonina, Cather addresses the theme of optima dies prima fugit and the issues that “new immigrants” faced when they moved to the United States of America during the 1880s to 1910s in the novel and post WWI in the material world.
The “new immigrants” that came to America during the peak immigration period, between 1880 and 1914, were usually from southern and eastern Europe. New immigrants, unlike their western and northern European neighbors, could not as readily adapt to the new country as the majority of them could not speak English and religious differences caused fights with their Protestant neighbors. In My Ántonia, the Burdens are a Protestant family, but the Shimerdas are a Catholic brood. This was evident when Mr. Shimerdas visits the Burdens during Christmas and he bent down in front of the Christmas tree and prayed to it thus making the evergreen a religious symbol instead of the decorative purpose the Burdens had intended it for. The division between these two neighbors is clear when grandfather Burden “merely put his finger-tips to his brow and bowed his venerable head, thus Protestantizing the atmosphere” (Cather n. pag.). The Burdens
In book II of My Ántonia, the Burdens move into the town of Black Hawk, away from the outskirts where they had owned a farm, Jim experiences life in a prairie town. Within the town there are many immigrants, old and new, showing the differing levels of success from each cultural region. The old immigrants such as the Harlings are a good example of Scandinavian immigrants, in which Sally Allen McNall, teacher of American literature at the University of Arizona and the University of Kansas, states “tend to be upright and cosmopolitan” (70). The Shimerdas and the other groups of new ...
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...irie Dawn” Cather also shows an immigrant working in a environment, in which he or she is not accustomed and longs greatly for his or her home in the hills:
A crimson fire that vanquishes the stars;
A pungent odor from the dusty sage;
A sudden stirring of the huddled herds;
A breaking of the distant table-lands
Through purple mists ascending, and the flare
Of water ditches silver in the light;
A swift, bright lance hurled low across the world;
A sudden sickness for the hills of home. (Cather, “Prairie Dawn” 41)
Works Cited
Cather, Willa. My Antonia. n.p. 8 July 2008. Project Gutenburg. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.
---. “Prairie Dawn.” April Twilights. Boston: The Gorham Press, 1903. 41. Web. 12 Feb.
2014.
McNall, Sally Allen. “My Ántonia and Immigration on the American Frontier.” Readings on My Ántonia. eds. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2001. 67-75. Print.
Mark Wyman, the author of the brief essay known as Coming and Going: Round-Trip to America, had a different perspective about immigration to America from the various counties during the 1880’s through the 1930’s. A common belief, regarding the immigration to America, held that immigrates stayed in America during the massive shift of population, due to the enormous creation of factories and cities that erupted in America. The past day literature entices readers to believe that all immigrates came to America to work and eventually settled down to create their own families. It’s taught that all of these families stayed in America for their entire life span. Although despite the common belief, Wyman held to his own thoughts on the controversial debate and pioneered a new way of thinking. He believed that countless immigrates, which came from all over the world, actually only
According to Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life, between 1880 and about World War I, the vast majority of Eastern European Jews and Southern Italians came to the United States populating neighborhoods in New York and the Lower East Side is the best example. One thing, which was common to the immigrant experience is that, all immigrants come to the United States as the “land of opportunity”. They come to America with different types of expectations that are conditioned by their origins and families. But every immigrant comes to America wanting to make himself/herself into a person, to be an individual and to become somebody. In this case, the author showed in Bread Givers, Sarah’s desire to make herself into something and bring something unique to America, which only she can bring. It is an effort to understand the immigrants, particularly Jewish immigrants, from a woman’s point of view. The book shows that it was a challenge for Jewish immigrant children, particularly females, on the account of the intensity of their family’s connections and obligations that was so critical for the immigrant communities. This was true for the immigrants who came to settle in the neighborhoods like the one Sarah and her family settled in.
In order to obtain religious, social, political, and equality 23 million Jews immigrated to America during the years between 1880 and 1920 (Chametzky, 5). Anzia Yezierska wrote about her experiences as a poor immigrant in her fictional work becoming a voice of the Jewish people in the1920s. She struggled to obtain an education that allowed her to rise above her family’s poverty and gain a measure of autonomy. Rachel and Sara, the female protagonists, mirror the author’s life going from struggling immigrant to college graduate. Yezierska uses her own experiences to portray the Jewish immigrant experience with a woman’s perspective. She successfully gained a commercial following that allowed her to mediate the cultural differences between the mainstream culture and the Jewish people that helped resolve differences between the established Americans and these new immigrants for a time (Ebes...
Moving from the unpleasant life in the old country to America is a glorious moment for an immigrant family that is highlighted and told by many personal accounts over the course of history. Many people write about the long boat ride, seeing The Statue of Liberty and the “golden” lined streets of New York City and how it brought them hope and comfort that they too could be successful in American and make it their home. Few authors tend to highlight the social and political developments that they encountered in the new world and how it affected people’s identity and the community that they lived in. Authors from the literature that we read in class highlight these developments in the world around them, more particularly the struggles of assimilating
The United States, possibly more than any other country, was not very welcoming during the early 1900s. Foreigners, who were uneducated about America’s customs, were unable to find jobs or prevent swindlers from causing their already insufficient wealth to subside. Because of this, Jurgis and his family’s economic and social lives changed drastically. For insta...
The novel is an exposé of the harsh and vicious reality of the American Dream'. George and Lennie are poor homeless migrant workers doomed to a life of wandering and toil. They will be abused and exploited; they are in fact a model for all the marginalized poor of the world. Injustice has become so much of their world that they rarely mention it. It is part of their psyche. They do not expect to be treated any different no matter where they go.
The book, “The Irish Way” by James R. Barrett is a masterpiece written to describe the life of Irish immigrants who went to start new lives in America after conditions at home became un-accommodative. Widespread insecurity, callous English colonizers and the ghost of great famine still lingering on and on in their lives, made this ethnic group be convinced that home was longer a home anymore. They descended in United States of America in large numbers. James R. Barrett in his book notes that these people were the first group of immigrants to settle in America. According to him, there were a number of several ethnic groups that have arrived in America. It was, however, the mass exodus of Irish people during and after the great famine that saw the use of the word “immigrant” being used to refer to them. Irish people descended to America fully loaded with their culture and religious beliefs that according to the writer of this book enabled them to assimilate faster into the American society more than any other group. Phrases and words like, Irish-American policemen, Irish-American teachers, Irish –American politicians were coined in social cultural set up of America. This wave shaped the process of assimilating other immigrants that came after them.
Irving Katrina. "Displacing Homosexuality: The Use of Ethnicity in Willa Cather's My Antonia." Modern Fiction Studies 36 (1990): 91-111.
...n the trying time of the Great Migration. Students in particular can study this story and employ its principles to their other courses. Traditional character analysis would prove ineffective with this non-fiction because the people in this book are real; they are our ancestors. Isabel Wilkerson utilized varied scopes and extensive amounts of research to communicate a sense of reality that lifted the characters off the page. While she concentrated on three specifically, each of them served as an example of someone who left the south during different decades and with different inspirations. This unintentional mass migration has drastically changed and significantly improved society, our mindset, and our economics. This profound and influential book reveals history in addition to propelling the reader into a world that was once very different than the one we know today.
Immigration is a very important part of the history of the United States and continues to be today. Immigrants during the 1900’s had many hardships to face and sometimes the “golden land” was not so golden. Many immigrants had very high hopes about what their lives could have been like here in the U.S., and unfortunately only very few got to experience that great life. Although each of the readings had their differences, the theme of hardship seemed to prevail throughout.
The warm blackness of summer nights, settling over your lawn and drifting down familiar street signs, over coffee shops closed for the night and broken down asphalt. Dust, collecting on creaking wooden floorboards and swirling through age-old sunlight. A song forgotten, notes away from your ears. Nostalgia is an emotion that all human beings experience and know well. Willa Cather expands on this fact, infusing her award-winning novel, My Ántonia, with sentimentalism and melancholy. Cather tells a tale of home, drawing from the idealistic “American dream” that all Americans know well. Jim Burden, a young orphan, moves to the countryside, spending his days watching men work in the dusty fields and find community amongst themselves. He adores
The new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe experienced a great deal of prejudice simply because they were different. The earlier settlers also felt resentment because they thought that the new immigrants were taking away all of the jobs. There were also fears that the poverty of the new immigrants would cause most of them to turn to crime. Many people at the time argued that the new immigrants “threatened to overwhelm American culture” (Anderson
Memories are a stockpile of good and bad experiences that are retained of a people, places. How do you remember your childhood memories? Do certain people, places or things trigger these memories to the past? Does the knowledge of these experience still affect your life today? Throughout the novel My Antonia, Jim's nostalgia for the past is represented by nature, symbolic elements, and above all Antonia.
Typical American by Gish Jen demonstrates the different struggles that a traditional immigrant family encounters. The book being discussed will be explained by means of historical influences and biographical influences during Jen’s life that affected the novel. This essay will also contain a critical analysis of the book and an analysis of the critical response from others.
Today, in most cases, people don’t spend very much time thinking about why the society we live in presently, is the way it is. Most people would actually be surprised about all that has happened throughout America’s history. Many factors have influenced America and it’s society today, but one of the most profound ways was the way the “Old Immigrants” and “New Immigrants” came to America in the early to mid 1800s. The “Old Immigrants were categorized as the ones who came before 1860 and the “New Immigrants” being the ones who came between 1865 and 1920. The immigrants came to the United States, not only seeking freedom, but also education. Many immigrants also wanted to practice their religion without hindrance. What happened after the immigrants