Gold Medal Winner in the Varsity Division with a Score of 975

Prompt: In Willa Cather's novel, "My Antonia", the main character Antonia struggles with the land for survival. The major theme in My Antonia is man's relationship with the land. Discuss this theme in relationship to the text, the characters, events, and setting. Be sure to give clear examples from the novel to support and represent your ideas.

In reference to the novel "My Antonia" by Willa Cather, it is apparent that the characters and themes depend a great deal upon the setting of the story. Cather's delicately crafted naturalistic style is evident not only in her colorfully detailed depictions of the Nebraska frontier, but also in her characters’ relationship with the land on which they live. The common naturalist theme of man being controlled by nature appears many times throughout the novel, particularly in the chapters containing the first winter.

The Burden's and the Shimerda's, try as they might, cannot fight the harsh climate of the Nebraska prairie. Rather than attempt to control the environment around them, they must learn to work with it and adjust to make do with what they have. Jim learns this his first winter, as well as the Shimerda's, for they are both newcomers to a strange place. They realize that trying to fight the wind and snow will do more harm than good, and adapt themselves to work when weather permits and hope nature is kind in the end.

The spring and summer months, however, are far more enjoyable and easy-going for the families. It isn't difficult to see how the changing climates affect the characters’ moods as well. Many of the squabbles between Jim and Antonia and hardships faced by the two families occur in the fall or winter, whereas the author focuses on the more pleasant aspects of life and the prairie when the weather is glowing. The very lives of the men and women on the frontier are almost entirely dictated by the world surrounding them. They learn to live by the months and the weather, and develop symbiotic relationships with the land they till. As proved in the novel through the characters, the more work man puts into the earth, the greater reward he will receive.

A particularly good example of nature's impact on the characters in the novel occurs when Antonia's father, overcome with grief and despair for his distant homeland, kills himself in the midst of a blizzard. The gray, dead appearance of the land in winter surely accounted for much of Mr. Shimerda's pain, and the rolling plains of "sheet metal" could not begin to compare with his own beloved country. Man must learn to live with Nature, to work with it and still survive. Cather presses this theme time and again, not only in this novel but in 0, Pioneers! and One of Ours as well. Her own childhood on the Nebraska frontier is responsible for this humble attitude towards the natural world.

Cather's story takes place at a turning point in American history, when unsettled lands were trodden by the feet of many hopeful settlers, eager to make a fresh start on the unblemished territories. Nature at its finest, the Nebraska plains provided a new kind of life for those who would settle there, and a new philosophy on man as well. A new beginning, and a new understanding of man's relationship to the natural world was taking place. The setting of the novel plays just as important a role as any of the main characters, if not more so, and it remains clear today that despite the growth of the human race and its advances in technology, nature will always have the upper hand.