List of Immigrant Groups

What is this distinguished looking gentleman doing on the Read Antonia--Discuss Antonia blog? His name is Oscar Micheaux and he is considered by film historians to be the father of African American cinema. His first movie? A silent titled The Homesteader (1919). Micheaux did come close to Cather's Nebraska. He was a homesteader and farmed in South Dakota for several years.

Happy Black History Month.

Cather's famous novel is, among other things, very much about immigrants. (African American migrants from the South after the Civil War are not among these groups, but there is little doubt that African Americans did settle on the plains of Nebraska.) Cather's novel mentions a number of European and Asian immigrant groups. I invite you to do a little research and report on how many different ethnic groups are mentioned in the novel. All contributions to this list are appreciated.

Jim Burden--Can this marriage be saved?

Chris Schellenberg opens up a whole other area for discussion with this:

I think Jim Burden's marriage is interesting. Not much is said about his wife, but she is described as a "restless, headstrong girl." And on the same page (page 2) we hear about Jim's quiet tastes. It is not a happy marriage. Had Jim married Antonia, would their marriage have been happy? Did Jim look for some of the same qualities in his wife that he respected in Antonia?