My Antonia Books 3, 4 and 5

“My Antonia, that had so much good in her, had come home disgraced. And that Lena Lingard, that was always a bad one, say what you will, had turned out so well, and was coming home here every summer in her silks and her satins, and doing so much for her mother” (214)

• ·      Lena

o   “I don’t want a husband…. They begin to tell you what’s sensible and what’s foolish, and want you to stick at home all the time. I prefer to be foolish when I like it, and be accountable to nobody” (203)

o   “I like to be lonesome” (203)àwants to enjoy her life for herself and not be taking care of other people.

o   Busy family where they were all taking care of each otherà “that’s no life for a girl” (204)

o   “Lena’s success puzzled me” (197) àJim expects there to be some conventionality where Lena was “a bad one” and so her life shouldn’t be as good as a result. He expects conventional gender roles, but he is still attracted to Lena/her independence.

o   Lena has already been caretaking. She took care of babies and developed a distrust of men. This turned her away from having a family; however, she still managed to retain her “feminine” qualities that make her a good businesswoman (much like Frances).

o   Exemplifies blending of gender roles.

• ·      Antonia

o   “She won’t hear a word against him. She’s so sort of innocent” [Lena about Antonia in regards to Larry Donovan] (192)

o   “’Antonia,’ I used to say, ‘don’t run that machine so fast. You won’t hasten the day none that way” (212)àAntonia jumped right into things with Larry Donovan while Lena spent a long time developing her skills and saving money to move to Lincoln

o   Antonia is “never ashamed” of her baby (216)

o    “She was there, in the full vigor of her personality, battered but not diminished” (223)

o   “I know so many women who have kept all the things that she had lost, but whose inner glow has faded. Whatever else was gone, Antonia had not lost the fire of life” (225)

o   The energy/vigor that drew Jim to her wasn’t suppressed by her difficult domestic/gendered position.

o   She also had to take on both masculine and feminine roles, especially when she and her husband were beginning to farm. With the intense struggles of farm life, the roles are not gender specific, but rather just doing whatever is needed for the betterment of the large family.