RECOUNTING THE STORY OF THE NEBRASKAN PRAIRIE: THE PIONEER’S PERSPECTIVE OF SENTIMENT AND PERSEVERANCE
RECOUNTING THE STORY OF THE NEBRASKAN PRAIRIE: THE PIONEER’S PERSPECTIVE OF SENTIMENT AND PERSEVERANCE

Summary/Abstract: Willa Cather’s novel My Ántonia (1918) gives a profound insight into the life stories of the newcomers, people of different origin who came to America, their new patria, in search of brighter future and better prospects. For many of them the vast and “merciless” Nebraskan prairie would become their new home. Therefore, the grass of the plain, the demanding farm life and the barren land, the language as well as the class and nationality barriers, the “pioneers” who succeeded to hold out due to their heroic perseverance and self-reliance, vivid memories of their far-away, mostly European, homeland, present some of the major issues Cather masterfully discusses in the aforementioned novel. The aim of this paper is to highlight the “Vergilian sentiment” of nostalgia and melancholy with a special emphasis on the protagonists, primarily the main heroine, a strong-will woman “pioneer” who endures the hardship of life from her childhood and who, despite all the challenges and obstacles on her path, proudly proves to be “a rich well of life”.

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