... compared to Lena. Derrida further questions then "what would happen to the structure of western thought if we took the binary oppositions apart?" Cather does this and offers a critique of feminine conventions of the time period she was writing in with this binary opposition and reflecting on her own lesbian experience as well as a lesbian writer of the twentieth century. " ... ;Lena opposes the image of a woman-identified woman whose hidden agenda is to rescue her mother" says Judith Fetterley, showing how Cather deconstructs society's feminine attitude. This binary ... My Antonia w...

• Word Count: 2062
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... from central Europe, which in turn ignited equally unprecedented social and political tensions in the United States. My Antonia, a novel written by Willa Cather, is about the historical period during which the American Frontier closed. Throughout the novel, immigrants start to become more and more exposed to assimilation, nativism, and xenophobia. ... Mrs. Gardener, and Mr. Jensen, are more easily integrated into out society than were the new immigrants. Although they both arrived around the same time, the national picture was different, and the Shimerdas reflect this change. They arrived...

• Word Count: 1322
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... not the same. Although racism is the form of prejudice that gets the most attention, there are other forms of discrimination that are equally insidious and pervasive. In Willa Cather's novel, My Antonia, Cather creates several groups with distinct characteristics and values in Black Hawk, Nebraska- the town in which most of the story takes place. Citizens of Black Hawk discriminate against ... by classist beliefs that reduce those who are not as fortunate down to beings unworthy of respect, and Cather's use of this sends the message of recognizing forms of prejudice besides racism. Along...

• Word Count: 1257
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Women My Antonia is about how a very independent woman of the 1900s influenced the life of Jim Burden. In this book, by Willa Cather, there are several self-sufficient women in the story line. Antonia Shimerda, Lena Lingard, and Tiny Soderball were very independent women for the ... all by herself: "She loved if from the first as dearly as if she'd had a ring on her finger, and was never ashamed of it.""(Cather 204). This was rarely seen in the early 1900s, you either got married or gave the baby away. Lena Lingard had to become independent early because ... moved to Lincoln, Nebraska a...

• Word Count: 458
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Paul's Case "Paul's Case, by Willa Cather, is the story of a young man named Paul, whose appetite for a life filled with riches lead him to stealing and to his ultimate self demise. After being suspended from school ... a pistol. But he hasn't the balls to pull the trigger and suicide finds him in the form of a freight train. Cather implies that people often feel a lack of self-worth once they conceive the fact that their ambitions are unattainable. Cather also indicates that people often covet that in which they cannot attain. Paul is continually driven to his actions by the ... anything t...

• Word Count: 597
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... flappers shocked the older and more traditional members of society. Their short skirts, bobbed hair, and public use of cigarettes were frenetic compared to the previous style of that time. In 1919, Amendment 18 to the Constitution prohibited the manufacture and sale of liquor. This marked a turning point in America's history. Many people resented this new law ... society had such a strong opposition towards it. The Jazz Age was a golden period in American literature, distinguished by the works of such writers as Willa Cather, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Sinc...

• Word Count: 782
• Approx Pages: 3

... inequality and taking a firm stand on what they believed and wanted. The Harlem Renaissance took place in Manhattan, New York in the 1920's. The time period was a revival of art, literature, theater and music, but it was mostly a revival of the African American spirit. African Americans became more politically ... were educating themselves now more than ever and there were a great number of new "critically acclaimed" female writers, poets, and artists. Some such women were Willa Cather, Nikki Giovanni, Anne Tyler, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Zora Neale Hurston and Edith Wharton. Zora Neal...

• Word Count: 2855
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

... believe, because it makes them happy, even if those beliefs exist against logic or opposing evidence.8 In Detroit, "ghost-busting is back big time," with "at least five "ghost hunting" clubs" springing up in the metro area.9 The Great Lakes Ghost Hunters Society and the Ghost Hunters ... But as all of these stories are coming together, the United States is coming unglued. Next, America enters the Pre-Civil War period, a controversial time with equally controversial writers, but there remains the same old craving of the mysterious, if not a magnified one. William Cullen Bryant wrote his ...

• Word Count: 3126
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School