Fiction Analysis: My Antonia; due 10/1
Write a 1,000-word, MLA-formatted essay about one of the following topics. Your essay must
incorporate quotations from three critical articles found in HCC’s online research databases.
A
In a review of a certain landscape painting, Cather praised “the bracing, exhilirating effect” of its
“air and sunlight, its abundance of clear atmosphere.” Focusing on the endings of certain
chapters in My Antonia, show how Cather uses a method of description similar to landscape
painting as a way of supporting the novel’s themes.
B
One critic notes Antonia’s “intimacy with the earth.” Show how this intimacy develops
throughout the novel. On one level, Antonia’s rural soul accounts for Jim’s intimate feelings for
her. But what are some other reasons Jim is infatuated with her?