Antonia starts out as just a young innocent girl with moral integrity. As the story continues you start to see Antonia’s three main characteristics, over coming hardship, symbolizing freedom, and fearlessness. Antonia goes through harsh winters in severe poverty, her father's suicide, having to work in the fields like a man, Wick Cutter, her fiancé – but she remains unbroken by all of it. "She was there," he says, "in the full vigor of her personality, battered but not diminished" This quote shows that Antonia is very admirable. She remains unbroken and she will keep fighting and overcoming the hardship. Both Jim and Cather admire her and learn from her. “[Ántonia was] a Bohemian girl whom we had known long ago and whom both of us admired.
Antonia knows the struggle firsthand since she has faced the harsh conditions of starting off in a new country since she is a Shimerda. Antonia tells Jim,“’ If I live here, like you, that is different. Things will be easy for you. But they will be hard for us’” (Cather 90). Antonia knows the racial difference between her and Jim. She has to work harder than the native speakers to be able to achieve what might come easily to them. Later on in the novel, Antonia goes off with a guy named Larry Donovan he informs her that his job has moved. This ended up being a lie. He leaves her whilst she's pregnant, so she becomes a single mom. Jim expresses his thoughts, “I was bitterly disappointed in her [Ántonia]. I could not forgive her for becoming an object of pity” (Cather 192). Jim expresses his dismay that Antonia has basically ruined her life by putting faith into a man of words. Antonia’s reputation fell drastically after this and it appears as though it would be hard to pick up. However, when Jim returns, he ends up being wrong. In the literary criticism, Anthony M. Dykema-VanderArk states, “She appears at the end of My Antonia as a figure who has triumphed over the hardships of her life through stalwart struggle...ensuring an easier future for her children” (Dykema-VanderArk 211). Antonia has gone through a lot throughout her life. Her father’s death to ruining her reputation by being oblivious. Her race caused her to be inferior compared to the women that don't have to work in order to survive, but she still gives a good life to her children. Despite her hardships, she still kept to her strong attitude and doesn't sway away from it. That's success through the work she put
Another characteristic that Antonia exhibits that led to Cather's admiration of her is her willingness to learn. For example, Antonia wanted to learn English when she came to America and met Jim. One quote that shows this is "While we snuggled down there out of the wind, she learned a score of words". This quote shows that Antonia was eager to learn because she learned a lot of English words in one day. In conclusion, there are a few admirable traits that Antonia has.
Yet, through this withered appearance, Antonia’s imaginative inner quality still shines through. Through Antonia, Cather draws a picture of an enduring source of compassion and warmth, often providing strength to other characters, such as Jim. Through Antonia, Cather conveys to her audience that the true strength of the pioneer comes from within. She elucidates Antonia’s character to illustrate the pioneer’s ability to survive
Antonia, despite having an enormous warmth about her, is too simpleminded and preoccupied with manual labor in order to have time to reflect on the meaning of happiness; nevertheless, she is always dissolved in the moment which allows her to unconsciously live by Jim's definition of happiness. She often finds herself completely submerged in her joys which predominantly come in form of her work, personal freedoms, and family. She said once, "'I belong on a farm. I'm never lonesome here like I used to be in town... And I don't mind work a bit if I don't have to put up with sadness'"(Book 5, Section1). Here it is evident that her work on the farm allows Antonia to forget her troubles and keep her from being lost in her negative thoughts. She was also found bragging to Jim about the
As Antonia and Jim grow apart, there is a good amount of time that pass both characters. Both Antonia and Jim took different paths that were overshadowed by the past events of their childhood, it could be said that Jim had a much easier life than Antonia had, as Antonia said “Things will be easy for you. But they will be hard for us.” (Cather 159) Jim departs to go to college and to a high paying job, while Antonia remains in the prairie where there will continue to be difficulties for her and her family to survive and overcome the challenges. The Bohemian immigrant family has many hardship they must overcome. From homesickness to language barriers, the family seems to adjust accordingly and end up overcoming these hardships in their lives. After twenty years of not seeing Antonia, Jim is afraid she has changed and no longer is the vivid young girl she once was. When they reunite, Jim now gets to know Antonia as a grown up and is pleased to find out that she is still the vivid spirit he once remembered. Instead of having Antonia as a symbol of his pass, Jim creates a relationship with her new-found husband and children, and is happy with
Antonia and Jim share an enduring bond of friendly love including a regard for family members. Mr. Shimerda, Antonia’s father, died of depression. The Burdens have helped the Shimerdas stabilize their lives from Bohemia to America. After giving his graduation speech, Jim talks to Antonia and says, “I thought about your papa when I wrote my speech,
Antonia, when she first moved to America was penniless. Her family lived on a small farm in a little dugout house. The first thing that Jim knew about Antonia is that she was a child from a poor bohemian family. Jim is not very rich himself, but throughout the story Jim talks about Antonia always referring to her house, her farm, her family, her job, that she had limited things to do since she was poor. Antonia was always viewed as poor from beginning to end of the story. Towards the beginning of the story after Jim just moved in with his grandparents, Jim's grandmother makes a comment about Antonia's family and their home on the way to meet them for the first time. "If they're nice people, I hate to think of them spending the winter in that cave of Krajiek's," said grandmother. "It's no better than a badger hole; no
Antonia is very close with Nature, and naturality, which is one of the reasons why Jim is so awed and inspired by her. The role of Nature in My Antonia is to illustrate some of the major motifs that Cather presents, including growing up and purity.
The central narrative of My Ántonia by Willa Cather uses tone and narrative to convey the book’s message. The text is a look into the past, even through in his narration
Antonia’s character makes strong decisions, does outside labor, and most importantly — does not conform to her society’s rules. For
In the novel, My Antonia, the author Willa Cather demonstrates how past and memory shapes our lives through Jim's point of view at the end of the book. At the end of the novel, Jim returns to Antonia. Many years have gone by, but the two characters are still connecting by the past they shared together growing up. Antonia will always be apart of Jim's life even if she is no
Jim and Ántonia have a very close relationship, however, they face many trials and hardships as Ántonia works and Jim pursues an education.
After Antonia’s father kills himself, “ She wore the boots her father had so thoughtfully taken off before he shot himself, and his old fur cap”(Book 1, Section XXIV). This served as a representation of his presence in her life, despite the fact he couldn't be there physically, and only as a “spiritual guide”. She shows this same quality later in life when she saves her wedding photos, “Ántonia brought out a big boxful of photographs; she and Anton in their wedding clothes, holding hands” (Book 5, Section I). Regardless of who it is, her husband or her father, she materializes the people she loves in the most precious
Antonia is new to Repose thanks to her sister Brooklyn. She is running from her ex boyfriend a man who abused her, assaulted her and took her for granted and violated her trust and that commitment. She’s scared, scarred, and looking to just stay under the radar and maybe start a new life despite fears that her ex- Ray may one day hunt her down. She meets the chief of police and his brothers who seem instantly interested in learning more about her. She fights the attraction she feels until she realizes that all four men have scars of their own. Fox and Gino are physically scarred just like her and it takes the love and bond they share to overcome all their fears and reservations. Just when Antonia thinks that life is perfect and she is finally
I believe that one of the characteristics Cather admired was Antonia’s invincible spirit. Although many hardships were thrown her way, she always stood strong. She went through the death of her father and had to find a way to live her life without him. She also went through a pregnancy, despite her husband leaving her. Also pertaining to her husband leaving she grew to have abandonment issues, and constantly deals with the scrutiny from the Harlings and their judgements. She never looked at these situations as defeats or impossible things to overcome, but as temporary setbacks. She may have got knocked down, but she always got back up.