The Plight Of The Immigrants:A Legal Reading Of My (?)ntonia

My (?)ntonia,the representative work of Willa Cather,excels at its realistic depictions of the immigrants and the relationships between the native-born white and the immigrants.The setting of this novel is Nebraska against the background of the floods of eastern and southern Europeans into America and the rise of nativism against those new immigrants.The novel is narrated by Jim Burden,a native-born white.What are the true relationships between the native-born white and the immigrants behind the narration of a native-born white? What plight do the immigrants encounter? To reveal the answers,the thesis employs the interdisciplinary method of law and literature to analyze the relationships between the native-born white and immigrants.The thesis focuses on the work and life of those immigrants under relevant laws concerning immigrants and the native-born white’s treatment of immigrants from the jurisprudential doctrines.The interdisciplinary method of law and literature provides a better understanding of the hidden injustice suffered by those immigrants under the legal system and Jim Burden’s efforts to justify and reinforce the discrimination against them by employing jurisprudential principles.The thesis unfolds from the following three aspects: immigrants’ sufferings,the native-born white’s justification of aliens’ hardships,and the native-born white’s reinforcement of nativism.The first chapter connects those immigrants’ situation with the immigration laws and by unveiling the regulation and implementation of the laws,offers an insight into the legal reasons for their pauperism and isolation.The second chapter draws attention to jurisprudence,and by applying relevant jurisprudential doctrines,the thesis explores the relationships between the native-born white and the aliens and unveils the hypocrisy of those Americans and the real discrimination against aliens.It centers around the theory of consent to analyze Jim Burden’s narrative and his attitudes towards immigrants and their hardships as a witness.By analyzing the constituent elements of valid consent,the thesis further explores the consensual transactions conducted by immigrants and reveals the flaws and invalidity of the consent,thus subverting the consent discourse of Jim Burden.The third chapter digs into the prevalent doctrines that negate the aliens’ constitutional rights and further analyzes the Burdens’ treatment of immigrants in daily life by casting light on the nativists’ doctrines including right and privilege distinction and the selfpreservation principle.Those doctrines reveal Jim Burden’s efforts to reinforce nativism against immigrants and to establish the superiority of the native-born white by constructing the otherness of immigrants.The thesis concludes that the novel unveils the injustice imposed on immigrants and the nativism and discrimination inherent in those native-born white including Jim Burden.Since Jim Burden is the representative of the native-born white,Cather chooses him as the narrator to criticize those Americans for their ways of treating immigrants,and to some extent,to critique the corrupt legal system concerning immigrants.