My Antonia by Will Cather
A nostalgic retelling of a long train journey across the plains of North America, ‘My Antonia’ by Willa Cather employs a first person narrative of Jimmy who was, at the time of the journey, only ten years old. The combination of the tiring train journey, his parents’ death and the feeling of isolation leads him to a state of indifference and to a certain extent, misery and self-belittlement.
Moving across the ‘great midland plain of North America’, Jimmy is, at the end of the extract, at a entirely different setting. The description of Black Hawk, at first, creates a sense of isolation and uncertainty to the protagonist. When he gets off the railroad train, he sees, quite literally, nothing in the wide open space but darkness. ‘There seemed to be noting to see; no fences, no creeks or trees, no hills or fields’. The internal rhythm in the sentence creates a feeling of continuity, meaning that the ‘nothingness’ seems to continue forever. He admits that there is ‘nothing but land’ and, more directly, he states that ‘the world was left behind’ and that he is now ‘outside man’s jurisdiction’. This sense of being lost, isolated and uncertain creates fear within the character. The uncertainty of the location is more evident when he could no longer see the ‘familiar mountain ride’ when he looked up in the sky. The setting, overall, creates an apprehensive mood.
