In My Antonia, Willa Cather, like many writers of her time, romanticizes many of the ideas in her novel by seeming to only look at story through idealistic descriptions. My Antonia is a romantic novel in which the narrator, Jim, reveals his thoughts and feelings about growing up in Nebraska among immigrant families. In this novel Cather emphasizes and idealizes the importance of art, education, and the love of the land.
             To begin with, Cather proves the relevance of art to the world through Mr. Shimerda's violin, Lena Lingard's dressmaking, and Blind d'Arnault's piano. Mr. Shimerda relates playing the violin with happiness. He would play the violin in his home country but now in America "he never make[s] music anymore" (70). Since Mr. Shimerda is severely depressed because he can no longer provide, he does not play any more, which makes him sadder because he no longer has a door to happiness. When Mr. Shimerda loses his urge to play, he also loses his will to live and eventually kills himself. Lena Lingard is willing to "[spend] more money on material than her costumer [authorizes]," so the dress will look the best it can. Lena shows that she does not care about cost but beauty. Through Lena's choices, Cather shows how art is a priceless commodity. Blind Sampson d'Arnault's love for the piano encompasses every part of his life. When Sampson first begins to play, his master and the piano teacher walk into the room, and Sampson, "who [is] so sensitive to presence, [does] not know they were there" (142). Sampson gets so into playing the piano he "[sways] to the music" (139). D'Arnault becomes completely absorbed into the music; while he plays all other things seem to no longer matter. To Sampson the piano is "like nothing else in his black universe" (141) it is meant to "make a whole creature of him" (141). While at the piano d&...