My Antonia
Antonia FM12/12/012:51 PMPage i My AntoniaWilla Sibert CatherWITH RELATED READINGSTHE EMC MASTERPIECE SERIESAccess EditionsEMC/Paradigm PublishingSt. Paul, Minnesota
Antonia FM12/12/012:51 PMPage iiStaff CreditsLaurie SkibaManaging EditorValerie MurphyEditorial AssistantBrenda OwensHigh School EditorLori Ann ColemanEditorial ConsultantBecky PalmerAssociate EditorShelley ClubbProduction ManagerNichola TorbettAssociate EditorJennifer WreisnerSenior DesignerJennifer AndersonAssistant EditorLeslie AndersonSenior Design and Production SpecialistPaul SpencerArt and Photo ResearcherParkwood CompositionCompositorCover photo of Webster County, Nebraska: Farrell Grehan/CORBISCover Photo of Willa Cather: Bettmann/CORBISLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataCather, Willa, 1873-1947.My Ántonia / Willa Sibert Cather.p. cm. – (The EMC Masterpiece Series Access Editions)Contents: My Ántonia – Introduction to the 1926 edition / by WillaCather – Letter to Frances Samlund / by Anna Pavelka – [Excerpt] fromHistory of the State of Nebraska /by William G. Cutter and A.T. Andreas – The Fir Tree / by HansChristian Andersen – Mint Snowball / Naomi Shihab Nye – The PrairieGrass Dividing / by Walt Whitman –Riding into California / by ShirleyGeok-lin Lim – Plot analysis of My Ántonia – Creative writing activities– Critical writing activities –Projects.Summary: In the late nineteenth century, a fourteen-year-old immigrant girl from Bohemia and a ten-year-old orphan boy arrive in BlackHawk, Nebraska, and in teaching each other, form a friendship that willlast a lifetime.ISBN 0-8219-2509-11. Frontier and pioneer life—Fiction. 2. Farmers’ spouses—Fiction. 3.Women pioneers—Fiction. 4. Married women—Fiction. 5. Farm life—Fiction. 6. Nebraska—Fiction. 7. Cather, Willa, 1873-1947. My Ántonia.[1. Farm life—Nebraska—Fiction. 2. Frontier and pioneer life—Nebraska—Fiction. 3. Friendship—Fiction. 4. Nebraska—Fiction.] I.Title. II. Series.PS3505.A87 M8 2002813’.52 [Fic]—dc212001055669ISBN 0-8219-2509-1Copyright 2003 by EMC CorporationAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be adapted, reproduced,stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without permission from the publisher.Published by EMC/Paradigm Publishing875 Montreal WaySt. Paul, Minnesota 55102800-328-1452www.emcp.comE-mail: educate@emcp.comPrinted in the United States of America.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xxx 07 06 05 04 03 02
Antonia FM12/12/012:51 PMPage iiiTable of ContentsThe Life and Works of Willa Sibert Cather . . . . . . . . . . . . vTime Line of Cather’s Life and Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viiThe Historical Context of My Ántonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ixCharacters in My Ántonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvEchoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxImages of My Ántonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiiIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Book I, The Shimerdas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Chapter 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Chapter 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Chapter 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Chapter 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Chapter 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Chapter 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Chapter 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Chapter 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Chapter 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Chapter 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Chapter 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Respond to the Selection, Book I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Book II, The Hired Girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118Chapter 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126Chapter 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129TABLE OF CONTENTSiii
Antonia FM12/12/012:51 PMPage ivChapter 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137Chapter 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140Chapter 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chapter 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chapter 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Respond to the Selection, Book II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Book III, Lena Lingard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Book IV, The Pioneer Woman’s Story . . . . . . . . . . . .Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Respond to the Selection, Books III – IV . . . . . . . . . .Book V, Cuzak’s Boys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Respond to the Selection, Book V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Plot Analysis of My Ántonia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Related Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Introduction to the 1926 Edition by Willa CatherLetter to Frances Samlund by Anna Pavelka . . . . .from History of the State of Nebraska byWilliam G. Cutter and A. T. Andreas . . . . . . . .“The Fir Tree” by Hans Christian Andersen . . . . .“Riding into California” by Shirley Geok-lin Lim .“Mint Snowball” by Naomi Shihab Nye . . . . . . . .“The Prairie Grass Dividing” by Walt Whitman . .Creative Writing Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Critical Writing Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Handbook of Literary Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ivMY 281284287297301
Antonia FM12/12/012:51 PMPage vTHE LIFE AND WORKS OFWilla Sibert CatherThe oldest of seven children, Willa Cather was born in1873 in western Virginia. When she was ten years old, herfamily moved to rural Nebraska to live in Willa’s grandparents’ house. The landscape she encountered there, with itsmiles of waving red grasses, its few isolated trees, its openness to brutal weather, and its determined, lonely settlers,permeated Cather’s imagination and became the source ofand setting for many of her most significant literary works,including My Ántonia.In fact, many events from Cather’s life following the moveto Nebraska show up in the life of Jim Burden, the narratorof My Ántonia. Like Jim, Cather spent hours listening toimmigrant neighbors tell stories of the old country and oftheir earliest years in Nebraska. Cather would never forgetthese stories, and many of them would later appear in herfiction.Less than two years after arriving in Nebraska, the Cathersleft the farm and moved into Red Cloud, a small prairie townwhere Willa attended school for the first time. Red Cloudappears in Cather’s fiction under a number of names, including My Ántonia’s town of Black Hawk. It was in Red Cloudthat Willa met Annie Sadilek, a Bohemian girl who workedfor the neighboring Miner family. The character of Ántoniais based on Annie, whose difficult life and vibrant personality fascinated Cather. A letter from the real Annie is includedin the back of this book as a related reading.The adolescent Cather and the townspeople of Red Cloudhad mixed feelings about each other. Cather was gifted atseeing beneath the surface of the people around her anduncovering their unique stories. Her eccentricities, however,did not mesh well with a relatively conformist town. Atomboy, Cather often dressed in boys’ clothing and evensigned her name as William or Willie Cather for most of herteenage years. She was out of place in Red Cloud and oftenfound companionship among the older residents and in herbeloved books.After graduation from high school, Cather, like Jim,attended the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. While shewas at the university, a professor submitted one of her essaysto the Lincoln newspaper for publication, kindling Cather’sdesire to write and publish. She began reviewing books,Willa Sibert CatherTHE LIFE AND WORKS OF WILLA SIBERT CATHERv
Antonia FM12/12/012:51 PMPage viplays, and music for the Lincoln newspaper before she finished college.Soon after graduation, Cather’s writing aspirations drewher toward the East coast, where most of the magazines andjournals of the time were published. In the first years of thenew century, Cather lived in Pittsburgh and published manyshort stories and poems, including collections of both. Shelater moved to New York City to serve as editor of McClure’s,a popular and controversial magazine, known for muckraking journalism that exposed scandals in industry and politics. In New York, Cather soon met Edith Lewis, the womanwho would be her roommate and closest companion for therest of her life.Cather continued to write up until her death in 1947. Intwelve novels and several collections of short stories, Catherexplored her fascination with pioneers both literal and figurative.In some cases, Cather’s pioneers were sodbusters in theAmerican Midwest. Several of her most important works,including O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and One of Ours, describethe hardships and rewards of life on the frontier. The valuesCather associates with the Midwestern prairie are celebratedand contrasted with the values of an increasingly urban,industrialized East coast.Other books, including The Song of the Lark and LucyGayheart, trace the lives of artists breaking new ground in amore figurative sense. These artistic pioneers are strugglingto maintain a connection to their own heritage while seeking artistic fulfillment.Woven throughout Cather’s body of work are themes oflove and friendship, longing for connection to home, andthe difficult decisions faced by those who choose to leavetheir homes to pursue a career, an artistic life, or militaryglory.viMY ÁNTONIA
Antonia FM12/12/012:51 PMPage viiTime Line of Cather’s Life and WorksWilla Cather is born on December 7 in her grandparents’ house, whereher parents live and farm, in western Virginia. She is the first child ofseven children in her family.1873Willa, her parents, and several other family members move to southwestern Nebraska, sixteen miles northwest of the town of Red Cloud.Cather is initially frightened by the vast expanses of nothing but waving red grass and the loneliness of the landscape. Soon, however, shebegins to enjoy visiting the neighbors, many of whom are immigrantsfrom Norway, Bohemia, and Germany, and listening to their stories ofthe Old World.1883The Cather family moves to Red Cloud, where Willa starts school. There,too, she meets Annie Sadilek, a “hired girl” from Bohemia who becomesthe inspiration for My Ántonia.1884Cather graduates from high school in June, one of a class of three, andleaves in September for Lincoln, where she begins studies at theUniversity of Nebraska.1890A professor has the essay Cather wrote for his class published in theNebraska State Journal. From the moment she sees her initials in print,she knows she will be a writer.1891One of the first short stories Cather ever wrote, called simply “Peter,” ispublished in a Boston literary weekly. “Peter” tells the story of FrancisSadilek’s suicide, an event that later appears in My Ántonia.1892Cather is hired as a critic for the Nebraska State Journal. She reviewsbooks, plays, and music for the paper while finishing her universitycoursework and continuing to write short stories and poetry.1894Cather graduates from the University of Nebraska.1895The publisher of Home Monthly, a new magazine based in Pittsburgh,offers Cather the editorship of the magazine. She accepts and moves toPittsburgh, where she soon also begins writing reviews for the PittsburghLeader.1896Cather becomes a full-time critic for the Pittsburgh Leader.1897Cather resigns from the Pittsburgh Leader to accept a position teachinghigh school English and Latin.1901Cather’s book of poetry, April Twilights, is published.1903The Troll Garden, a book of short stories, is published.1905Recruited by the popular magazine McClure’s, Cather moves to New YorkCity and begins work as a contributing editor. She will eventuallybecome managing editor and will remain with the magazine until 1912.Shortly after moving to New York, Cather meets Edith Lewis, whobecomes and remains her roommate and companion for the rest of herlife.1906Cather publishes her first novel, Alexander’s Bridge.1912TIME LINE OF CATHER’S LIFE AND WORKSvii
Antonia FMviii12/12/012:51 PMPage viii1913The first of Cather’s Nebraska novels, O Pioneers!, is published.1915The Song of the Lark is published.1918My Ántonia is published.1920The short story collection Youth and the Bright Medusa is published.1922Dismayed by what she perceives as a decline in values in the country,Cather suffers a period of depression.1923Cather wins the Pulitzer Prize for her new novel, One of Ours. A Lost Ladyis published.1925The Professor’s House is published.1926My Mortal Enemy and Death Comes for the Archbishop are published.1930The novel Death Comes for the Archbishop receives the Howells Medalfrom the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.1931Shadows on the Rock is published.1935Lucy Gayheart is published.1936The essay collection Not Under Forty is published.1941Sapphira and the Slave Girl is published.1944For her outstanding body of work, Cather receives the Gold Medal forFiction from the National Institute and the American Academy of Artsand Letters.1947Cather dies on April 24 of a cerebral hemorrhage in her Park Avenue,New York City apartment. She was seventy-four years old.MY ÁNTONIA
Antonia FM12/12/012:51 PMPage ixTHE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OFMy ÁntoniaMy Ántonia tells the story of a lifelong friendship betweenJim Burden and Ántonia Shimerda. When Jim was ten yearsold, both of his parents died, and he was sent by train to livewith his grandparents in Nebraska. Although he couldn’thave known it at the time, the fourteen-year-old girl fromBohemia, traveling just a few train cars away, was to becomeone of the most important people in his life.The novel chronicles this friendship from the late 1880sthrough the early 1900s. Most of the events take place in ornear the fictional town of Black Hawk, Nebraska. Black Hawkis based on the real town of Red Cloud in south centralNebraska, which was Willa Cather’s home for nearly tenyears of her childhood and adolescence.In the early nineteenth century, this part of the countryhad been called “The Great American Desert.” Because theland lacked trees, it was presumed to be useless, and few people had settled there. All of that was changing, though, asthis novel begins. Between the end of the Civil War and1890, new settlers flocked to Nebraska, and the populationof Red Cloud reached approximately 2,500. This influx ofpeople into the area was the result of several factors.The Opening of the Frontier“Free land!” This was the message sent by passage of theHomestead Act of 1862. This act granted 160 acres of publicland to anyone who agreed to pay the ten dollar filing feeand live on the land for five years. For the government, theHomestead Act ensured that land in the west would be developed and made more valuable. For adventurous individualsand families, it meant hope for a new start, a chance to makea successful living outside the cities of the East, wherepoverty was rampant. By the time the Civil War ended in1865, more than fifteen thousand families and individualshad claimed land in the western states. Hundreds of thousands more filed claims in the years to come.The railroad also contributed to the population boom, notonly by providing easy passage to Nebraska—no more long,difficult trips by covered wagon—but by selling the land oneither side of the tracks for the low price of 2.50 an acre.Railroad brochures advertised the land west of theMississippi as a New World paradise, and people responded.THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF MY ÁNTONIAix
Antonia FM12/12/012:51 PMPage xLife on the Nebraska homestead was not easy, however.Many settlers, used to the more forested landscapes of theEast, were unnerved by the wide open spaces of nothing butlong grasses. Loneliness was sometimes crippling. Winterswere harsh, bringing extremely cold temperatures, heavysnows, and bitter winds that whipped across the prairie withnothing to break them. In the mid-1870s, locusts devouredseveral years’ worth of crops. Drought also took its toll during those years.Because trees were so scarce, few people could afford tobuild wood homes. Instead, they lived in cave-like dugoutsand sod houses (see illustrations on page xxii). Composed ofthree-foot blocks from the tough upper layer of prairie soil,sod houses were held together by the tangled root systems inthe sod. While the dense material provided insulationagainst cold, the same material made attractive homes forinsects and mice.The same dense root systems that held sod housestogether made prairie ground extremely hard to plow. Aboutthe first farms in Nebraska, Willa Cather wrote, “The recordof the plow was insignificant, like the feeble scratches onstone left by prehistoric races, so indeterminate that theymay, after all, be only the markings of glaciers, and not are
My Antonia Willa Sibert Cather WITH RELATED READINGS THE EMC MASTERPIECE SERIES Access Editions EMC/Paradigm Publishing
6 A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of Willa Cather’s My Ántonia worse and changing Ántonia’s possibilities forever. While Jim begins school, Ántonia works in the fields like a man. When the Burdens decide to move into Black Hawk, Mrs. Burden convinces her
She participated in YMCA volleyball and was . named an Academic All-Star in 2013. Monika plans to attend Binghamton Univer-sity, where she will study computer science. Class Rank: #4 - Antonia Poplawski. Antonia was a member of the French Club . and the French Exchange pro
FLORIDA GRAND OPERA 1 THE TALES OF HOFFMANN WELCOME TO THE OPERA! Opera is for everyone Opera is not an art form that only the experienced appreciate. . Antonia begins to sing passionately. The phantom Miracle plays a demonic accompaniment on a violin. Antonia sings until she falls to the floor. CrespelFile Size: 773KBPage Count: 27
Superstar student: Antonia Hatzistefanou, Majd Abdul Latif and Brylee Ellem Congratulations to the following Silver Bennett Anderson, Antonia Hatzistefanou, Brylee Ellem, Rayce Pacey and Majd Abdul Latif Congratulations to the following Gold Superstar students: Eileen Zhou, Tyce De Bruyn, Tarhjae Roberts, Darcy Kelly,
Charles Chesnutt, “The Passing of Grandison” (each of these stories will be made available on D2L) Unit Twelve: The Future of America Dec. 2 Willa Cather, My Ántonia Dec. 7 Willa Cather, My Ántonia Assignments and Evaluation Assignment Due date Value Length Partic
PERFILES DE LA VIOLENCIA ESCOLAR. VÍCTIMA, AGRESOR Y ESPECTADORES. Antonia Penalva López1. Universidad de Murcia Antonia.penalva@um.es . RESUMEN . La familia, el grupo de iguales, los medios de comunicación y la institución escolar son algunos de los principales agentes de socialización de los menores y adolescentes, sin
daughter of a distinguished man. Her marriage with young Burden was the subject of sharp comment at the time. It was said she had been brutally jilted by her cousin, Rutland Whitney, and that she married this unknown man from the West out of bravado. She was a restless, headstrong girl, even then, who liked to aston-ish her friends.
Introduction to Quantum Field Theory for Mathematicians Lecture notes for Math 273, Stanford, Fall 2018 Sourav Chatterjee (Based on a forthcoming textbook by Michel Talagrand) Contents Lecture 1. Introduction 1 Lecture 2. The postulates of quantum mechanics 5 Lecture 3. Position and momentum operators 9 Lecture 4. Time evolution 13 Lecture 5. Many particle states 19 Lecture 6. Bosonic Fock .
