Move to Black Hawk serves as a shift from:
- Jim's childhood to young adulthood
- the land being a huge part of the book to the people/characters being the main focus
- succession of important events to more episodes (kind of like Robinson Crusoe)
Why might Cather have made Black Hawk more people-oriented? What might that reflect about Jim?
How are social norms different between the country and the city? How do we see the characters adapt to the change?
What is the significance of the title "The Hired Girls" for this second book?
Why can't Jim put Antonia in his dream?
What is the significance of the tractor in the sunset? Something fleeting? like adolescence?
I noticed that Cather will have a character appear and do something and then describe them and give background info... Lena, for example, comes and has a conversation with the Harlings before we find out that everyone thinks she's a skank... If she had been introduced before she entered the house, would your opinion of her be changed?
Other interesting parts:
Suicide: "'He cut bands all right for a few minutes, and then, Mrs. Harling, he waved his hand to me and jumped headfirst right into the thrashing machine after the wheat'...'Now, wasn't that strange, Miss Frances?' Tony asked thoughtfully. 'What would anybody want to kill themselves i summer for?'" (146)
Why is she more concerned that he did it in nice weather than the fact that he committed suicide?!
- Wick Cutter's relationship with his wife; his return to Black Hawk without her...
- What is a Lapp? Why does it make Lena wild?
- I loved when Lena was trying to be all seductive and then Antonia came in and treated him like a brother... Where is their relationship going? What are they doing?
- Monotony Breaker: blind pianist - probably could be taken really offensively now, even though it's what people wanted to hear when it was published...
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