Play On

http://servefir.ruv.is/vesturfarar/e/NutBill.html

Above is the link to "The Music of Failure," by Bill Holm.  To me, it feels akin to My Antonia, a celebration of the poor, and the spirit of the world that cannot be found in money or in material success.   He writes, "Tomorrow," they said, but this was only another way of saying "yesterday," which did not exist quite as they imagined it,"  Which to me is reminiscent of Jim Burden's infatuation with nostalgia.  Jim wishes to live in the past, and Bill Holm alerts us to the fact that we want to live in the past, despite our apparent wish to live in the future.   He addresses the issue of immigration with poignancy, saying, "The first settlers of America imagined paradise, God's city made visible on earth. Grand rhetoric for a pregnancy, it was, like all births, bloodier and messier than anyone imagined at the moment of conception," which reminds me again of My Antonia.  The Shimerdas, and the Russians came to America expecting something beautiful and wealth-filled.  What they found instead was a life marked by tragedy and poverty- yet at least for Antonia, that life was not void of meaning.  Rather, the poverty and the tragedy marked her for a certain greatness of spirit that could not be bought or earned through traditional means of success.  A similar finding comes when Jim encounters Tiny Soderball after she has achieved success, and he notes that she seems to be almost lifeless, completely neutral to her own success, which theoretically should have made her happy.  Holm gives a similar sentiment when he says that he would love to have all of the world's leaders over for dinner, but that he doubts that they would make nearly as good company as his old neighbor Pauline.  This is where the similarity between Holm's article and My Antonia seemed the most strong.  Pauline seems to me another representation of Antonia, a symbol of vitality and life despite circumstances that don't seem "successful" according to the idea of the American Dream.  Holm writes of Pauline, "In the cities she would have been called a domestic, though her duties at Peterson's and elsewhere always involved nursing the infirm and dying. In Minneota's more informal class labeling, she was simply Pauline."  She is a woman who can do everything, and as such is everything.  She doesn't need to be described or given titles, her name alone suffices, much like Antonia.  What she offers to the world is the same as what the hired girls offer to Jim Burden.  Holm sums this up well, saying, "The gifts of the unschooled are often those we did not know we would need-the right words, the right music...
the Bardals were in that regard truly poor. But not poor in mind and spirit!"  At the end of the day, Holm argues that worthwhile people and worthwhile lives are not made with money or goods or leisure, but rather with an ability to understand others and bring joy to people's lives regardless of circumstance.  It is a beautiful idea, akin to the childhood adage that, "it is what is on the inside that counts,"  and yet I do wonder, always, whether such a concept can transcend the minds and hearts of scholars and college students who wish it to be the truth.  Cather, and Bill Holm, and Whitman, have a certain optimism that is endearing, and yet I am not sure if America, a nation so very set in the ways of materialism, will ever, as a nation, hear the "music," that failure plays. 

What in the WORLD is up with Antonia?

Today's class period helped to relieve some of my confusion over Cather's gender politics: they are complicated, and in that sense, it is okay to be confused.  A less acceptable confusion, perhaps is my apparent inability to read roman numerals.  I am not that dumb, I swear :)

While my group was hashing out our ideas on the wrong sections of The Hired Girls, we came to a few conclusions that helped me with the novel.  While I had been reading Jim as a direct representation of Cather's sexuality, Mary alerted me that I would be less confused if I didn't confine Jim solely to Cather's experience.  She is also doing other things with his character, which makes sense as he doesn't seem to be particularly attracted to any women besides the hired girls.  As he says, "People said there must be something queer about a boy who showed no interest in girls of his own age"(105), yet at the same time he has a sexually charged dream about Lena Lingard.   We discussed how he seems to be attracted to the hired girls more than others because they have more of a physical presence than the town girls.  This intersects directly with class, as the lower class girls had to work with their bodies and thus were strong and tan, whereas the wealthier girls did not do physical labor and remained rather limp and weak.  Jim seems to associate the hired girls with a certain fertility and health, much like the land which he loves so much.  This can be seen in his dream sequence, in which Lena kisses him in the fields, the very image of fertility in a short dress, holding a reaping hook. (While this can be seen as an eerie representation of death, we discussed how reaping also implies the bounty of the harvest- the death of the wheat, but the health of the people who then use the wheat.)

Yet throughout all of this Antonia's relationship to Jim remains puzzling.  He at times seems desperately attracted to her, yet at the same time always remains at a distance from her.  He says of his dream about Lena, "I used to wish I could have this flattering dream about Antonia, but I never did"(109).  Thus we came to the conclusion that while Jim has a certain attraction to Antonia, she represents something much more than sexuality to him.   He seems to put her on a pedestal, such that she is like a muse to him.  While he admires her and desperately wishes to be near her, there is no room on the pedestal for two, and the last thing he wants is to lower her or take her off the pedestal of his mind, thus he remains in constant conflict over his relationship with her.

This becomes even more clear in the end of the book, as Jim leaves Antonia for a period of over 20 years only to find that she has had a child out of wedlock, by a man that then left her, and has gone on to marry a poor man and to have 10 children.  Back on the subject of Gender in the book, I found the end of the story to be particularly confusing and complicated, as with the rest of the book.  While Antonia, throughout the book has been a shifting feminine figure, always a little bit masculine and earthy, with moments of more "civil" femininity, the end of the book finds her completely in the role of a traditional farm woman.  I was angered by this ending, as it seemed as if Antonia had given up herself for this womanly ideal.  She had previously stated that she wanted to create a better life for her children than she had as a child, and yet when she has her own children she doesn't even teach them English- a skill she KNOWS will help them get on in the world.  She also has far more children than they can comfortably raise, such that they aren't starving, but always working to make ends meet.  She even loses some of her own hobbies, as she talks about hunting with Jim and says that she can never shoot a gun anymore because she has children and it makes her squeamish.  I found this awful.  While I am sure that it is true that there are women who become more worried about gun safety after having a child, this just seemed like a complete reversal of her own independent, wild self.  Jim describes her as battered on more than one occasion, yet he also lauds the fact that she continues to have a "fire" and a "light" and "life" in her that other women her age do not hold onto.  In this sense, Cather once again confuses the gender politics of this novel.  While she seems to be lauding a certain compliance with traditional gender roles past a certain age, she also shows Antonia to be rather beaten down by life, though now completely downtrodden.  My best shot at interpreting this would be to say that Cather has Antonia fall into the most realistic roles for a woman of her class in the time period, and gives us a realistic picture of the strain this would take on a woman with ten children, but tries to maintain a certain glamorization and pastoral love for Antonia by allowing her to retain her spirit.   After all, the spirit of Antonia seems to be what Jim is lauding the whole time, it makes sense that that should be the only thing to remain despite the passage of time that Cather disdains so.

Gender and My Antonia

Cather's use of gender roles within My Antonia confuses me.  This is mainly because I feel as if she is not consistent in her portrayal of women.  At times, she seems to adopt a rather "liberal" conception of women, as when she describes Frances Harling.  Frances is a strong, rather "unwomanly" character, who is independent and far less dainty than what I would expect of 19th century women.  Yet Cather's depiction of her is extremely positive.  she is described as very intelligent, and that she was, "as good a judge of credits as any banker in the county"(74).  Similarly, some of Cather's descriptions of Antonia follow this similar vein, as she is described along with Mrs. Harling.  Cather writes, "they knew what they liked, and were not always trying to imitate other people. ..deep down in each of them there was a kind of hearty joviality, a relish of life, not overly delicate"(88).  Her characterization of such females is quite positive, and we are led as readers to like and appreciate both Frances and Antonia, yet these characters break with traditional gender roles.   On the other hand, however, Cather sometimes draws upon traditional gender roles in ways that suggest an adherence to tradition.  Jim, for example, lauds Antonia's motherly instincts, particularly in the way she treats other men.  Jim says, "Nothing that Charley wanted was too much trouble for her.  She loved to put up lunches for him...baked the kind of nut0cake he liked, and fed his setter dog when he was away"(77).  He also says, "I was jealous of Tony's admiration for Charley"(77).  In this way, Jim seems to indicate that he wants Antonia to act "womanly" towards him as well, and later expects her to kiss him.  In these ways, I feel that the Gender politics of the novel are mixed.  While more "manly" women are celebrated within the novel, Jim himself also holds onto certain conceptions of gender roles, and the town often finds fault in the hired girls for being "too scandalous."  It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the rest of the novel, particularly in respect to Jim and Antonia's friendship.

Americanness

"There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before"

This quote by Willa Cather sums up for me why My Antonia is such a relevant book, even in a day and age so far removed from the Nebraska prairie of over 100 years ago.  In the first book of My Antonia, Cather draws upon some of the basic elements of human life, that do not change even as the centuries pass.  These elements include learning to feel at home somewhere, growing up, and the importance of family and neighbors.   While life is certainly different now than the days in which immigrants lived in dugouts with no central heating in the middle of the plains of America, Americans still struggle to find their place in a vast and changing society.  Immigrants today must still work to strike a balance between becoming a part of American culture and holding onto their heritage.   Friends and neighbors still struggle to find understanding despite differences, and children still grow up and struggle with what it means to be a man or a woman, and to be an individual in America.   Cather's novel thus far focuses upon a specific time and place in history, yet the heart of the story is still the undying concepts that affect human life everywhere, making for a novel that continues to be relevant today.   One quote which struck me in reading the PBS article "About Willa Cather," was that she found that ,"the novel, for a long while, has been over-furnished,"  and thus decided to write in a style that was much less presumptuous and "refined."  The article wrote that, "It was risky, in the early part of this century, to presume to write fiction about ordinary, rough-hewn people engaged in the rigors of dry land farming in frontier Nebraska,"  yet Cather chose to do just this with My Antonia.  In this way, I feel that her novel exemplifies a certain "Americanness" that we have been discussing throughout AmCon.  Rather than catering simply to a wealthy, white, upper class, Cather's novel zoomed in on an everyday, ordinary, American life in the frontier.  While this is certainly not the life every single American led, her writing certainly attached itself to a certain element of life that could appeal to a wide section of the population who perhaps weren't familiar with fancy balls and clothing, but were familiar with hard work and feeling like an outsider.  People could identify with characters such as Mr. Shimerda, who loses joy in the American plains as he is too far removed from home, friends who understand him, and a sense of belonging.  Antonia as well could be a sympathetic character for those women who did not grow up acting like "ladies," but rather were expected to do their fair share in taking care of the household and supporting the family.   Beyond this, Cather does an excellent job of describing place.   She situates her novel with much detail, focusing upon the setting in a way that allows the reader to feel at home in the novel.  This ties back to our work with place first semester of AmCon, in which we examined how wide open spaces and a sense of place is an important part of being an American and feeling autonomous in a new land.  In these ways, Cather's novel exemplifies a certain Americanness and continues to be relevant today. 

American Life on the Frontier

Reading Zinn and the linked articles for tomorrow, I was struck by the remembrance of Cullen's "Dream of Upward Mobility."  I felt that this was particularly relevant at this time when the Homestead Act was passed and Western Expansion was at its fullest.   the HOmestead Act of 1862 allowed private citizens to develop land that was previously publicly owned.  If one was the head of a household or over the age of 21, one could claim 160 acres of land to farm and develop and eventually claim, if improvements were deemed sufficient at the end of five years.  I was struck by the fact that even immigrants and single women were allowed to partake in this facet of the dream of upward mobility.  The sheer numbers of people who participated in homesteading indicates the presence of this form of the American dream.   This idea was reflected also in Zinn's chapters on the West.   He mentions that new technology paved the way for different types of jobs for Americans, and that immigrants found themselves working at more strenuous jobs, with political machines, in factories, as servants, housepainting, etc.   However, the dream of upward mobility continued to be prevalent during this time, as seen by efforts to eliminate the control of monopolies and to strike for equal and fair working rights for women and the poor.   The presence of anarchy and rebellion, and eventually foreign expansion under the Monroe doctrine all point to the continued wish for upward mobility from even the lowest of classes.  However, it was not to be certain whether or not everyone would be able to partake.  While, as mentioned earlier, immigrants and women could homestead, there were limits- one had to be preparing to be a citizen, or a single woman.   and strikes and rebellion didn't mean success for many poor workers.  However, in these readings, I found the dream of upward mobility, once again, to be a major source of inspiration for the American people. 

Voyeuristic Tourism

One of Gwendolyn Brook's poems that stood out to me in the context of our studies this semester was "The Lovers of the Poor."  Here is a link to the entire poem: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=8681.    The poem describes the "Ladies from the Ladies Betterment League,"  who venture into the city to find suitable poor who are "deserving" of their charity.  While the poem is quite lengthy to discuss in full, I feel that the general concepts employed in this poem relate well to our previous readings of Riis and even of the Midway at the World's Fair.    In the poem, the women in the Betterment League are all wealthy, in their fifties, and of good intentions.  However, they are horrified by the conditions that they find in the city- "the stench, the urine, the cabbage, and dead beans"  and quickly decide that rather than helping these people, they will "find another Slum/some serious, sooty, half-unhappy home"  in which "loathe-love may likelier be invested."   The poem indicates that while these women believe that they want to help the poor, they don't have any conception of how awful conditions really are.  When met with reality, they would rather pretend as if the problems don't exist and find somewhere else to invest their time- somewhere that is "half-unhappy" rather than completely desolate.   Brooks also uses the term "loathe-love" throughout the piece, making for a fun game of tongue-twister (perhaps also to show the complications and difficulty of ameliorating poverty) and also to demonstrate the concept of voyeuristic tourism.  This is to say, the women love to loathe the poor.  They are terrified by the living conditions of the poor, but they feel important and purposeful by visiting them and giving them money.  Thus, they have a "loathe-love" for those they are trying to help.  This is in contrast to true love, which would not include the element of loathing.  Loathe-love ends at the end of the day, when the women return to "Glencoe or Lake Forest," having never really helped to change anything, trying to "avoid inhaling the laden air."   Rather than viewing the poor as people, they view them as objects to be helped because of the sheer shock of their situation.   This is similar to the conundrum we encountered with Riis' work, in which he revealed many of the squalid conditions in New York tenements, yet at the same time, he created his photographs by intruding on families' home lives, often with police escorts to keep him "safe."   In a sense, the people whose stories he was trying to preserve were treated like animals in a zoo, shocking and worthy of attention because of their status as an "other."   While the intentions were good, it could be argued that Riis' efforts parallel those of the ladies in Brooks' poems by minimizing the dignity of the poor in an effort to bring forth the dream of an idealistic bourgeoisie.  Finally, the poem connects to the Midway at the Columbia exposition in a similar manner.  The different exhibits which displayed nations of the world preyed upon the idea of the "other,"  and shock in order to "teach" upper and middle class Americans about other nations (often impoverished countries.)   While originally the intentions of the Midway were anthropological, the goals of the exhibits were transformed into more of a voyeuristic tourism after a switch in management.   Rather than truly come to understand anything about other places and people, perhaps by interacting with them, visitors to the Chicago World's Fair were subjected to fleeting stereotypical images which encouraged a belief in "otherness."   A sense of common humanity or of necessary humanitarian aid was lost in the search for entertainment and a sense of superiority. 

Spiritual Chicago

I couldn't help but be reminded of the Second Great Awakening in reading Gilbert's chapter on "The Third City," as well as the online article about religion in Chicago.    The attention given to Moody was, in my estimation, similar to that of Finney from our studies last semester, with notable differences.  While both were religious men who led revival/religious movements to the masses, I feel that Finney more clearly shows a connection to a widespread movement that ultimately changed American values.  We discussed in our studies of the Second Great Awakening that the movement led to a more individualized conception of religion for people, and that that spiritual individualism spread to other areas of life. For me, I found myself wondering what, really, was the contribution Moody brought to Chicago and American culture?  The book was rather ambiguous on this fact, flip-flopping back and forth over what he meant to America.   The book spends thirty pages detailing his work and use of technology and popular culture in religion, only to say, "Moody was a paradox.  Despite his remarkable experiments in modern communication and advertizing, his social views were only ordinary, even conservative"(199).  Gilbert goes on to, once again, stress his marketing innovations, but also to say that he really didn't understand the implications of the technology he used or scientific theory, or the realities of an urban environment, and also, most of the people he converted reconverted.   But the book concludes the chapter by saying that his importance was in his use of "culture to overcome discontinuities, to affect behavior, and to apply technology and enterprise in the service of evangelical protestantism"(205).  Gilbert describes Moody's importance through the very things he already said Moody didn't effectively do...so I am mostly confused as to what his point was with this whole chapter.   Essentially, I feel that Moody made good use of technology but didn't ultimately change much about culture, except perhaps to influence others to use popular culture in religion more.  I will have to wait and see what others in class say about this to determine if he is a more useful point of departure for our study of American culture.