The Forgotten Reaping-Hook: Sex in My Antonia

The Forgotten Reaping-Hook: Sex in My Àntonia by Blanche Gelfant explains in busy detail why Jim Burden, from the legend My Àntonia by Willa Cather, is an undependable bank clerk. She in any case states that the fresh, along with other Willa Cather storys, involves the falter of characters to involve in sexual and physical relations. Gelfant uses Jims involuntariness to accept change and she ties this in with her idea of Jim being an unreliable cashier.\nGelfant views Jim as a self-deluded narrator (Gelfant. p 60) in the novel because he often remembers events how he wants to recount them, non how they actually comeed. He similarly forgets things as often as he remembers them. Jims account of twain history and himself seems to me disingenuous, indeed, suspect; only(prenominal) it is for this very reason passing pertinent to an understanding of our proclaim uses of the by (p. 63) Gelfant uses Jim as an poser as to why we cannot confidence our own memories becau se Jim admitted at the starting line of the novel that he did not remember everything and that he only wrote down what he remembered. Jims admission, in Gelfands opinion, proves that he only remembered what he precious to and some of the details from the novel were either changed in his pass or on paper. This right away adds to her stance that Jim is an unreliable narrator because although Jim cannot remember everything, he also does not remember authoritative things correctly. \nSome memories argon realities, are better than anything that could ever happen to one again Gelfant uses Jims quote as an pillowcase of how he is stuck in the past and cannot accept the ever-changing future(p. 64). He remains finally fixated on the past, returning to the vast and ineffaceable word-painting that dominates his memories She addresses the quote from the novel as proof that Jim refuses to accept the parade and future and would rather anticipate and recount his past (p. 64).\nGelfant anal yzes Jims failed r...