Comparing My Antonia And As I Lay Dying

When thinking of pairing something as influential as As I Lay Dying with another great American work of literature, the task could be achieved in a variety of different ways and assembled in several different themes. The themes of love, loss, betrayal and redemption are rampant throughout the entire scope of American literature of this time period; but if one were to choose two things to combine and contrast, it would be the wisest decision to choose agrarianism and the Southern Renaissance, on a count of the migrations taking place all over the United States, and the Civil War just recently ending. The first of the important aspects of literature in this time period, the concept of agrarianism, is what some Americans today and in yesteryear …show more content…
These two oeuvres encompass the underlying theme of American Literature and Culture after 1914: the simple fact that nothing is certain, and someday all things will pass away. To put it simply, the complexities of the human condition and all it entails, has entailed, and may yet still entail. But it is what humanity does with its fleeting time on Earth that will make more difference than any of us could ever imagine. To instigate with My Antonia, this tale speaks of everything that America was built on; Faith, family, and immigration to name just a few. To put it in excerpt form, “At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep” (Cather 51). That was the hope and it still is for many Americans today; to return America to the strong power that it once was; without all of the racism, violence, bloodshed, and general unpleasantness that one could find on nearly every street corner. And when one speaks of As I Lay Dying, one can see the agrarian spirit as was briefly touched upon in the previous paragraph as depicted in the lives of the various characters in the narrative. One can also see the economic system that the United States was built upon, “Cash turns back into the wagon” (Faulkner …show more content…
These facets can range anywhere from love, loss, betrayal, and the American Dream. But the things to be focusing on if one really wanted to pick the brain of American Literature, one would have to focus on the titans of text known as My Antonia and As I Lay Dying. These two great pieces can be read for their own literary merit, or the readers can take upon themselves the laborious yet greatly rewarding challenge of picking apart the many layers of these chronicles and see the numerous realities of American life that they have captured and held between their pages. The first layer that can be peeled back is that of love, one of the most evident. In My Antonia, Antonia Shimerda herself could be called a veritable Aphrodite of post-War America, attracting all kinds of attention, some of a sexual nature and not. As well as with As I Lay Dying, it can be said that some lovers can get “…Too high up” (Faulkner 84) in their infatuations and not only cause damage to themselves, but to their friends and family around them. Another slice of literary “onion,” although not without shedding a tear to all who try, would have to be that of betrayal. When Mr. Shimerda, the patriarch of the Shimerda clan up to then, had shot himself, he betrayed not only himself, but also his friends and family who knew him and cared for him more than he could ever know. And as with As I Lay Dying, betrayal