Lesson 1: My Ántonia—Book I
Assignment Instructions
Please complete the following assignment in one Word document. When you are finished, go to the Assignments page to submit your document for grading.
In thoughtfully-considered, well-written essays, respond to four of the following five essay questions. Each essay should be about one page in length.
Important: Be sure to support your opinions by referring to specific examples, preferably quotations, from Willa Cather’s My Ántonia.
- Book I establishes the setting of My Ántonia. Nature is a major ingredient of this setting. Discuss how nature plays an important role in Book I.
- In My Ántonia, people struggle against other people, as well as nature. Identify and discuss three examples in Book I of people in conflict with other people.
- By the end of Book I, Jim and Ántonia have formed a relationship. Describe their relationship, including how it changes throughout Book I.
- Choose a character from Book I. Describe the conflicts that this character has experienced so far. How does this character seem to handle conflict?
- Speculate on what each character might mean when he/she says the following.
- Jim: “[T]he grass was the country, as the water is the sea.” (Book I, Chapter II)
- Jim: “It must have been the scarcity of detail in that tawny landscape that made detail so precious.” (Book I, Chapter IV)
- Grandmother (to Jim): “But, you see, a body never knows what traits poverty might bring out in ’em.” (Book I, Chapter XIII)
- Ántonia (to Jim): “Things will be easy for you. But they will be hard for us.” (Book I, Chapter XIX)
