The Sense Of Care In My (?)ntonia

Willa Cather's My Antonia has been interpreted from a variety of angles. My Antonia embodies Willa Cather's concern for the relationship in family and community and between human beings and nature. In recent years the feminist or ecocritical interpretation of her writings has become dominant. Critics using feminist approach tend to claim women's voices and rights, or emphasize the positive influences of women on the improvement of social relations. Critics using ecocritical approach study it from the dignity of and people's respect for nature in My Antonia. In effect, the mutuality is emphasized in relationship between genders and between human beings and nature. This thesis will reinterpret My Antonia by referring to the ethics of care which highly values caring disposition and mutual caring relationship.With the growth of Antonia's moral personhood as the clue, this thesis undertakes a study of the older generation and the peer friends'care for Antonia and Antonia's struggles out of moral perplexity to accomplish her ethical ideal. Antonia has to transcend the limitations in her search for the moral standards as well as in the course of establishing a harmonious relationship in family and the community. During the process of her moral improvement, Antonia is greatly influenced by the older generation and her peer friends. The older generation shows their care for her and her family, as well as forces her to adhere to the patriarchal constraints for girls. Out of understanding, Antonia's peer friends encourage her to transcend patriarchal norms. So she comes to realize the importance of mutual caring which reflects the equity between men and women in dealing with relationship. Experiencing the perplexity, Antonia transcends the limitations of her disposition and the patriarchal norms, and finally develops her sense of care, with which she builds a harmonious relationship in her family and the community. The thesis comes to the conclusion that caring disposition and caring relationship are important in building a harmonious relationship. Caring relationship is healthy social relation in which people's needs both in life and emotion will be satisfied and caring personality will be highly valued.