Weak Structure and Powerful Drama in My AntoniaMuch of the early criticism of My Antonia focuses on the apparent failure of the narrative. Many critics take the story's title and its introduction literally. When the story says it's about Ántonia, it must be about her! Therefore, many critics see the pieces as incredibly designed "variation from a theme" - the stories of Peter and Pavel (the Russians and their wolves) and the sections of the novel dealing with committed girls Lena Lingard and others - like divergences. which weakens the overall structure of the novel. In other words, these stories distract us from the real story, that of Ántonia and her relationship with Jim. Other critics talk primarily about the landscape of Cather's stories, how pioneer history and the struggle with nature are an essential part of her work. This is partly why, I think, Cather was considered a minor writer of “local color” for so long. Because she draws her landscapes with such simplicity and detail, many critics do not look beyond the landscape to see the characters and the real drama they are playing. An example of a critic who accepts the critical view that the novel is "structurally defective" is James E. Miller's 1958 essay "My Antonia: A Frontier Drama of Time". I am grouping his essay here because that he devotes the majority of his essay to arguing that the structural flaw is overcome when we consider the cyclical nature of time in the novel as its unifying theme. This article appears to be one of the first to seek to refute "l. 'failure' of Cather's narration Of course, in refuting this argument, Miller is still working in a context of failure/success that I don't think other writers (read male authors) are judged by. argument by pointing out that many critics "felt the unified emotional impact of My Ántonia and grappled with the puzzling problem of the real lack of coherent central action or uninterrupted representation of the book's characters" (Miller 52). Miller argues that there does not seem to be a coherent portrayal of the characters: “The action in My Ántonia is episodic, lacks focus, and is full of irrelevances” (Miller 52). But Miller believes that there is a coherence within the novel, that of the evocation of the feelings that the reader feels..