Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Sadie Horton's avatar

This selection of chapters had me thinking about perspective- Cather’s women are filtered through her via the lens of a male narrator (who is in turn influenced by the values and expectations of the rural early 20th century.) There is a pervasive strain of judgement here- what makes a good woman? Being a novice Cather reader, and not having read any scholarship about her until your substack, I’m not exactly sure what her POV is. Does she agree with the harsh judgement of society about good and not so good girls? About women going into business? Being the good 21st century reader, I want a definitive feminist stance and am not getting one. But this ambiguity is keeping me interested in her story, I am hopeful that we’re not heading toward a hidebound morality tale.

I’m not bothered by the pace of the book at all, and don’t mind the POV shifting from Jim to his interlocutors. I’m calling this a distant first person and don’t feel the need to question his authority or theirs.

Thanks again for all your notes!

Sadie

Expand full comment
Jill Swenson's avatar

I wept at the end of this section. While it may be all these second-hand accounts of events and confusing POV, it worked for me on an emotional level. That Jim is initially mad at Antonia is not surprising. He didn't think she was in her right mind taking up with Larry Donovan. He's mad because she fell for Larry instead of him. He has this romantic idea of unrequited love with Antonia. She is not made for being the wife of a Harvard law graduate and she knows it. She belongs there. Or at least she makes him feel she belongs there in his heart with the place he leaves behind. An unconsummated love with the prairie as he heads to city and office life. Jim's views of Tiny and Lena (of Jim's views through Cather's narrative perspective) reveals a critique of feminism. The costs to a woman who defies social expectations for fulfilling the roles of wife and mother are spelled out by Jim. When he softens at seeing her toddler's photograph, it's because she found her own way to fulfill his feminine ideal: mother (which he did not have). It was interesting to read the parallels of Jim's leaving Antonia like other narratives of men leaving for war, but that hadn't been my first impression of this section. For a "middle" it's lovely muddling mess and another key turning point in Jim's tale.

Expand full comment
10 more comments...

No posts