The Analysis of the Heroine in My Antonia from the Perspective of Eco-feminism

LONG Liwei

Hebei Normal University,Shijiazhuang,050024,China

HOU Jiakun②

Tianjin University of Technology,Tianjin,300384,China

WANG Xu③

Hebei Normal University,Shijiazhuang,050024,China

[Abstract] Willa Cather is an outstanding American female writer in the early 20th century.She experienced American transformation from a traditional society to a modern industrial society.Men dominated society at that time.Men exploited nature wantonly and destroyed ecological balance of the natural world.Many of her works are set in the pioneering era of the American Midwest.Among the novels in the Nebraska series,My Antonia is one of the popular novels.This novel shows us a beautiful picture of harmonious coexistence between man and nature,equality between men and women,harmonious coexistence between people and social stability.

[Keywords] Willa Cather;Antonia;Eco-feminism

Introduction

My Antoniais one of the American novels about prairie life in the Midwest.Set in the prairie of Nebraska,it describes the story of Antonia,the offspring of a Bohemian immigrant,who cultivates wasteland in the wilderness.The portrayal of Antonia is Willa Cather’s reference to her own childhood life.The stereotype of Black Hawk town in the novel is Red Cloud town where the author lived.Red Cloud town and Nebraska Prairie are the starting point of Willa Cather’s Eco－feminism,which also enables her to criticize patriarchy and pursue Eco－feminism and the harmonious and fair society of nature.Willa Cather is a supporter of feminism through the analysis of Antonia’s female characters.

I.Eco－feminism

Eco－feminism is opposed to anthropocentrism and androcentrism.It is against the human dominance of nature and the patriarchal bondage of women.Women are in harmony with nature in the image,work,birth,and feelings,and are close to nature.Eco－feminism aims to establish a more harmonious relationship between man and nature.Nature provides human with various survival resources,and human beings should pay more attention to nature and protect them.Man and nature need to coexist in harmony.Eco－feminism also criticizes patriarchy,advocates the pursuit of feminism and equality between men and women,and establishes a society of ecological balance and equality between men and women.

II.Ecological Consciousness of Nature in Antonia

Antonia’s passion and love of the land are completely different from the nature under patriarchy.InMy Antonia,the depiction of women is compatible with nature.For example,Antonia has the same skin color as the local soil,and her bright eyes speak volumes about the energy that nature gives her.Antonia’s untidy hair also expresses her stubborn vitality and natural wildness.

1.Antonia’s Pursuit of Harmonious Coexistence with Nature

The novel begins with a natural landscape full of life and vitality.Like the warm sunshine and the wide west,the country is the whole pasture.The pasture chases breeze as if the whole country is running.Nature is the beginning of all life and the root of all things.In a purely natural state,it exhibits an active life.

Antonia can establish a harmonious relationship with nature.Antonia relied on her unyielding will to help her husband build a spacious farm.Antonia encouraged her husband to keep trying and persevere in these difficult times,as he always chose to run away and give up in the face of difficulties.Antonia believed that if they took good care of the land,it would bring them great rewards some day.Therefore,during the drought,she would water the trees every day.

Middle－aged Antonia weathered the ordeal and gave birth to a large brood.She could stand in the orchard,look at the apples,touch them,and feel that her efforts had paid off.Antonia became the goddess of infinite life and human spiritual sustenance.She communicates with nature,integrates herself with the grassland,and combines the vitality of nature with the course of civilization.Antonia understood the wonders of the earth and the rewards it gave her.The vast land has people’s feelings.This was because she had dedicated her love to every inch of the earth,treating every living thing as if it were a living creature.Antonia can maintain a harmonious coexistence with the land and nature.

2.Antonia Embracing Nature

After giving birth,Antonia realized that returning to nature was the life she wanted,and only in this way could she realize her self－worth and gain happiness.Antonia,as a mother,was reconnected with the land.

In Jim’s eyes,Antonia appeared to be like a successful Earth Mother.Like Earth Mother she is fertile and has ten children.She also owned her own farm.Antonia’s children are also full of passion and energy.Antonia loves each of her children.She also loves every plant and animal on the farm.She operates the land where nature is an important part of Antonia’s life rather than be trampled and plundered.Antonia was attentive,nurtured and took care of them.Of course,nature also gave Antonia her sincerest rewards.The farms Antonia managed,the orchards she tended,and the cellars she worked were all evidence of the bounty and abundance that nature had given her.What Jim saw allowed him to find peace in this place.

Towards the end of the novel,Jim says Antonia is “as rich a mine of life as the founder of the early race”.So Antonia was able to embrace nature.The analysis of Antonia from the angle of Eco－feminism is helpful for the re－identification of female identity.Antonia is a friend of nature.She is Earth Mother,connects herself with the destiny of nature,and finds her place in nature.At the same time,as a representative of Eco－feminism,Antonia has advanced ideas and strong character,and has been constantly pursuing freedom and independence.She does not accept oppression or control from anyone,especially men.She dared to fight against the era and bravely wrote a new chapter.She enjoys being with nature and living in symbiosis with the land.Surrounded by her family,Antonia lived a happy pastoral life.Antonia’s final happy life points out a new path for the contemporary women.

III.Social Ecological Consciousness in My Antonia

My Antoniatells us that men and women should have equal status and need to respect each other.The harmonious atmosphere brought by the harmonious coexistence of man and nature changed a small part of the social outlook at that time,and also triggered people’s self－reflection,which is also the mainstream of future social development.

1.The Establishment of Female Subject Identity in My Antonia

Antonia,a young worker in Black Hawk town,shows that she loves life and pursues freedom.Antonia longed for love and a family of her own,but she was played with and abandoned.Traditional women have neither the courage of self－affirmation nor the power of self－choice and action.They are weak in heart and dare not resist.They can only be oppressed and played with by men.But Antonia is very different from traditional women.She is strong and brave.She gave birth alone,took care of her illegitimate daughter,and proudly displayed her picture in the town’s large gold frame.Antonia has maintained her dignity as she should have.Antonia is not a flower or a blade of grass to be trodden on.She is a tree that stands tall and strong no matter what happens to her.She won the respect of others by her independence and self－improvement,which caused a great impact on the unequal treatment of women under the patriarchal system at that time.In most agricultural households,men are the main labor force and dominate the household,while women are not so important.Instead,Antonia helped her husband build a large farm full of life and vitality,and Antonia was the main creator of the family’s wealth.She is practical and capable,leading her husband and children to create a large happy family.

Willa Cather’s Antonia is not only an Eco－feminist,but also embodies the unique charm and value of women.The females are strongly independent,confident,and optimistic.Antonia was not overwhelmed by life,and all the unfair treatment she experienced awakened her consciousness as a female subject.From her obedience to involuntary resistance to the pursuit of freedom she finally obtained economic and spiritual independence.She and her husband respect and love each other,thus providing an excellent model for the harmonious relationship between males and females.

2.Harmony Between People

InMy Antonia,Willa Cather shows us a perfect family environment of equality and harmony between men and women.Antonia and her husband treat each other equally.Even though Antonia was abandoned by Larry Donovan and gave birth to an illegitimate daughter in the traditional feudal sense.But Antonia was not ashamed of it.She took care of her children.Later,she got married on the prairie.Her husband never cared about her past nor had any prejudice against Antonia’s illegitimate daughter.He loved and cared for her very much.Antonia was also very gentle and attentive to her husband.Antonia encouraged and helped her husband when he felt powerless to work on the farm.When her husband was lonely,Antonia gave him warmth and strength.In this way,Antonia and her husband got along and built a beautiful family.

Jim’s grandfather and grandmother are two very kind and friendly old people.When the Anthony family first came to the Nebraska prairie,they were poor and had no friends or relatives.They have nothing,little access to farmland,and even less food to eat.Jim’s grandmother offered to take Jim’s family to the new neighbor and brought them potatoes,bacon,toast,butter,and pumpkin pie.Jim’s grandmother also agreed to Mr.Simelda’s request that Jim would teach Antonia English.After Mr.Semelda committed suicide,Jim’s grandfather and grandmother helped Antonia deal with her father’s death.The neighbors on the prairie came to see Mr.Semelda off on his last journey.The two families have been at odds over some things but when Antonia asked Jim’s grandfather to help save the sick red－brown horse,Jim’s grandfather helped her.It is because of Antonia’s sensitivity and kindness as well as the great feminist consciousness that she has won people’s love.Willa Cather gives us a beautiful picture of a loving,helpful,harmonious human relationship and harmonious coexistence between people.

IV.Spiritual Ecological Consciousness in My Antonia

Antonia proved that women can be as capable,courageous and responsible as men.Antonia’s success in this land also proves that women should never be trapped in their homes as housewives.They should step out of home,especially in the modern age,to pursue and create great things.

1.Lost People in Industrial Civilization

During the second industrial revolution,the world had amazing “advanced” development.“Advanced” has become a core word in western modern civilization,and behind“advanced”,human beings seem to have stepped into a materialistic and increasingly barren spiritual world.Willa Cather realized that behind the rapid economic development was the decay of human moral.Thus,Willa Cather clearly expresses the conflict between agricultural civilization and industrial civilization on the vast prairie of Nebraska,and the contrast between the pioneer spirit on the prairie and the material desire in the city.

Some main characters in the novel have poor spiritual life.First,there was Jim.When Jim returned to the Nebraska Prairie,he became a lawyer representing the railroad company.Despite his business success,he has no children and no spiritual happiness,confused and empty.The second is Tiny’s indifference to people.Influenced by the material world,Tiny wants nothing but money.Even after losing two toes in the process of gold mining,he was still obsessed with money.Tiny’s desire for money deprived herself.And so did Lena,who longed for life in the city and hated life on the farm.Lena felt carefree in the city and didn’t want to go back to the farm where she worked hard every day.Lina became a famous tailor in the city.Although she is rich physically she has no desire,spiritually poor.

On the contrary,Antonia prefers the open prairie to boring city life.Antonia said she felt uncomfortable and upset in the city,but only in the land and nature did she feel at home.In the end,Jim and Antonia were on the same path that they had come.It’s at a fork in the path.Jim chose to return to the city,a place full of confusion and impetuousness,a colorful world.Antonia chose to follow the path back to her prairie.Antonia said she would get lost and unhappy in the city,but on the prairie,she just felt happy.Even though Antonia’s life on the prairie is not as rich as her life in the city,her heart is full of hope for her future.

2.Miracles Antonia Created on the Land

In Antonia’s mind,land determines not only her destiny but also the source of every living thing on the prairie.Antonia and her husband raised their child on the land,and Antonia saw the child as a symbol of new life and strength.Antonia shows us that we are all connected to land,which is the ground that sustains everything.

Antonia’s life was full of tribulations.She left home with her family to become a pioneer in the American wilderness.Bright as she was,she had no access to higher education.She dropped out of school very early to work on the farm,doing the same heavy manual labor as men.At the age of marriage,she fell in love with the wrong man,got pregnant but was abandoned,and gave birth to her daughter alone.Yet she was as resilient and tolerant as the Nebraska prairie beneath her feet.But with hard work,she built a bright house there and built a rich farm.She got remarried,had ten children,and was the busiest mother.And her sons were tall and straight as prairie trees.Her daughter was beautiful and industrious,like flowers on the grassland.The whole family loves each other.

InMy Antonia,through the analysis of Antonia’s female characters ecological feminism is deeply illustrated.Antonia expressed her strong resistance to the unfair social system under the control of paternity and called for the awakening of feminist consciousness with her actions.She hopes people should reject gender and racial discrimination and keep awe for nature.She wants to express the good wish that people and nature,men and women should coexist harmoniously and develop together to make the world a better place.Even though she encountered many difficulties and challenges,she still chose to face them firmly.Therefore,she created a miracle on this grassland,which ultimately not only proved the great power of nature but also realized her value.

Conclusion

Through the analysis of Antonia’s character image,we have an in－depth understanding of Willa Cather’s Eco－feminist ideas.My Antonianot only tells us that there should be harmony between man and nature,but also between woman and man,and between man and society.Gender equality is an important factor for the development of society.Antonia has the independent will of women,and she has her own clear goal.She knows exactly what she wants and likes.

She likes all things in nature.Through the classification of Antonia’s characters,we learn how to deal with the relationship between man and nature.Only by respecting,conforming to,and loving nature can nature bring us wealth.The result of Antonia’s image analysis warns us that only by living in harmony with nature can human beings achieve a longer development.It was Willa Cather’sMy Antoniathat inspired us to take a proactive approach to the ecological crisis.We should give top priority to the construction of ecological civilization.Only by respecting,complying with and protecting nature can we achieve harmony between man and nature and unity of economic benefits,social benefits and ecological benefits.

Analyzing Antonia’s character not only tells us to live in harmony with nature.It also tells us how to deal with gender issues and get along.Women should establish a correct sense of female sovereignty.Women should dare to oppose the oppression of patriarchal society and pursue freedom and what they like.As a woman,she can also manage her family and career well.We also learned from Antonia that neighbors need to help each other.We need to take care of the elderly at home.Neighbors should set a good example,be strict with themselves and generous to others.