Willa Cather in her novel My Antonia offers her view of life during the pioneer time.
If Antonia had written My Antonia, she would have added more bias than Willa Cather. For example, when Ambrosch fought Jake, she would have made the event sound like Ambrosch was the victim. Also, when Mr. Shimerda died, Antonia might have been able to describe how she felt and what the loss meant for her family's situation. While hearing the story from Jim, Willa might not know all the specifics of both sides, just Jim's take on everything. Since Cather was only told, and never experienced the story, she could leave out crucial details.
Willa did not do a good job at narrating the story from a man's viewpoint. The book often seemed to lack emotion, where if written by Jim, there would be passion emanating from the page. She had no way of completely conveying how Jim would feel during certain events, and Jim, most likely, did not feel inclined to share every intimate detail with her.
Jim obviously grew to love Antonia. Not only as a friend, but more than that at times. While their comradeship started out rough, they learned to appreciate one another and their backgrounds. My Antonia, in a way, was a love story and the title reflects Jim's possessive nature towards Antonia. He was not controlling, but rather wanted what was best for her and looked out for her well-being. Although marriage was not in Jim and Antonia's destiny, they became close and would never forget their history.
Willa's book was full of twists, misadventures, love, and loss. The overall point of the story is not how great she wrote the book, but the obstacles Antonia and Jim went through to become the people they were. They were meant for each other in many ways, but neither wanted to see what was right in front of them. So instead, they parted ways and went on to be uniquely successful.
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