The novel My Antonia by Willa Cather has characters from different backgrounds and settings. The novel shows them trying to create social and economic identities for themselves as Americans while heavily influenced by their unique cultural backgrounds mostly from Europe. The novel’s title is borrowed…
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by Willa Cather
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Willa Cather
United States
English
Historical fiction
1918
Emmaline Burden, Ántonia Shimerda, Jimmy Burden, Josiah Burden, Lena Lingard
Black Hawk, Nebraska
The novel is centered on the stories of an orphaned boy from Virginia, Jim Burden, and the elder daughter in a family of Bohemian immigrants, Ántonia Shimerda. They are each brought as children to be pioneers in Nebraska towards the end of the 19th century.
The character of Antonia Shimerda is based upon Annie Pavelka, a real-life childhood friend of Cather's.