Antonia Monologue Essay

The book quotes “The road from the north curved a little to the south; so that the grave, with its tall red grass that was never mowed, was like a little island; and at twilight, under a new moon or the clear evening star, the dusty roads used to look like soft grey rivers flowing past it. I never came upon the place without emotion, and in all that country it was the spot most dear to me." When Mr. Shimerda dies, he was buried in the prairie, which later turns into a crossroad. The gravesite represents Antonia’s and Jim’s yearning for the past. On a more defined note, in the second half, My Antonia looks into the lives of immigrants on the United States frontier. The story constructs a caring portrait of the various difficulties the immigrants encountered, including homesickness, they were unable to speak English properly, and an extreme culture shock. All in all, symbols play an important role when portraying important characteristics.

The central narrative of My Antonia could be a check upon the interests, and tho' in his fib Jim seldom says something directly concerning the concept of the past, the general tone of the novel is very unhappy. Jim’s motive for writing his story is to do to change some association between his gift as a high-powered any professional person and his nonexistent past on the NE grassland ; in re-creating that past, the novel represent each Jim’s retention and his feelings concerning his recollections. in addition, inside the narrative itself, persona usually look rachis yearningly toward the past that they need losing, particularly when Book I. Life in blackness Hawk, Jim and Ántonia recall their Day on the farm Lena appearance back toward her spirit together with her family; the Shimerdas and therefore the Russian mirror on their lives in their several home countries before they immigrated to the United Country .

Willa Cather’s My Antonia is the story of a lifelong friendship that began between Jim and Antonia, two people who became friends when they were young and lived on the Nebraska prairie. Jim and Antonia encountered a large rattlesnake and a startled and, rather than yell out in English, Antonia speaks in her native Bohemian language. Antonia’s father, depressed and sad over missing his homeland, committed suicide and left the family to fend for themselves in a strange country. Jim’s grandparents decide that they are too old to run a ranch daily so they move to the closest town, Black Hawk.

Throughout My Antonia, the difference between immigrants and native lifestyles are shown. While neither Jim not Antonia is rich, Jim is definitely more well off than her. He knows the language and has enough that he can have more opportunities. Antonia realizes that her life is going to be more difficult and that she will have to work more because of her mother’s decision to move to America. She tells Jim that “if I live here, like you, that is different. Things will be easy for you. But they will be hard for us,” (90) and knows that her gentle personality might be at stake. This also foreshadows future events where Antonia struggles as an immigrant farmer. It adds obstacles to her life which might lead to them drifting apart in their friendship, even complete separation. This relates to the world in how immigrants had a harder time getting going in life. Antonia’s mother has already become changed because of poverty. She is grasping, selfish, and believes everyone should help her family. Jim’s grandmother defends her, knowing that, “a body never knows what traits poverty might bring out in them,” (60), though it is socially unacceptable. The pressures of helping her family led Antonia to not be educated and become a farmer. She is happy, but this leads to Jim being away, “twenty years before I kept my promise,” (211) as he is a successful lawyer and travels. They still have old connections, though being from Bohemia did change Antonia’s life and where it could have gone.

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

My Ántonia is a novel that captures the struggles of early European immigrants and settlers. Willa Cather in the story My Ántonia gave an enormous amount of information about the Nebraska prairies and the expansion of the United States. Ántonia faces several struggles as a young child, including poverty, harsh living conditions, language issues, and the death of her father. Jim Burden the narrator, told stories about his childhood with Antonia, the people he met along the way, and the struggles and hardships they faced during these times. While immigration to America opens many doors for immigrants, the path is equally fraught with obstacles.

I. We discover the Great Plains and Ántonia through the eyes of Jim, and he perceives both as strange, exotic, and mysterious when he first experiences them. On a wagon ride during his first night in Nebraska, approaching his new home, Jim notes, "I had the feeling that the world was left behind, that we had got over the edge of it and were outside man's jurisdiction" (Cather 36). That same night, Jim meets Ántonia and her family for the first time and comments, "I pricked up my ears, for it was positive the first time I had ever heard a foreign tongue" (Cather 36). In the Nebraska night, Jim experiences both the land and Ántonia as unfamiliar, unknown, foreign, and exotic.

By the time Jim was a grown adult, tractors were being used for farming and plowing by horses were rarely used. This helped the crops production to dramatically increase. The self-relied individuals were successful in whatever they contributed their money and time in. When Jim Burden decided to move on from farming life to becoming a famous lawyer in Lincoln, Nebraska. The American Dream throughout My Antonia can be expressed as a road map that showed the progress and different achievements American made. Interestingly the story didn’t portray their future nor the present but instead it was merely based on the fast-fading memories from the past.

In this novel, there are multiple themes laced through the text. Some noticeable at first read, while others are quite difficult to comprehend. One of the many themes in My Ántonia is nostalgia. The characters all seem to have a personal connection to the past. It's as if this connection triggers memories and emotions the characters felt while they were in that position. Connection to the environment is also another theme, but it is less nostalgic. These characters not only miss the memories and emotions, but they miss the surroundings. This theme is more symbolic as the environment is reflecting the character’s personality or emotion. For example, Jim, one of the main characters,

After meeting Jim and the grandmother, Antonia is able to start learning some new

Àntonia Shimerda: Àntonia is a Bohemian immigrant and Jim’s closest friend. She comes to the prairie in Nebraska when she was 13 years old. Àntonia feels a deep attachment to the prairie, even working in the fields when her dad died. Even though Jim has

Antonia is a woman who will do anything for her loved ones even if that means puttieng her life is on the line. Throughout the play, Si Mon’ Emmett demonstrates Antonia’s strong character. The best example of this is seen after intermission, when Antonia must faces her “Nino” after breaking the rules for Terra, her deceased brother. In this scene, Si Mon’ Emmet keeps herself grounded and defiant despite the proximity she has with the audience. With the use of her voice, energy, and timing, Emmet acts with strength and presents her character well.

“My Ántonia” portrays the theme of friendship. Jim and Ántonia friendship follows many ups and downs, but they remain loyal to their childhood memories. Also, it shows the traditional frontier life. This book shows how people in the

She works hard not only to survive, but also to make sure that her children have every opportunity to become successful. Antonia talks about how other people are or are not giving their children a good opportunity to succeed. Growing up in a very poor environment with a dead father, she just wanted to provide her kids with a chance to be prosperous. That would be the reason that she chose to marry a successful man that would teach her children to be prosperous. That would be why she chose not to marry Jim and go into a big

My Antonia is a philosophical story, with dream-like ideas left and right. Even so, the book’s main theme was clearly the transition or journey from childhood to adulthood. This theme applied to both the main characters, Jim and Antonia, who were children when the story begins and adults when it ends. At ten years old, Jim Burden moved to the plains of Black Hawk, Nebraska. His parents had died in an epidemic, and Jim was sent to live with his father’s parents on their Nebraska farm. In his new home, he met a Bohemian girl named Antonia, a free-spirited, lively, unique personality. He fell in love with her, and although his feelings were not returned, he and Antonia became great friends. The book has numerous examples of traditional obstacles that people their ages go through, along with additional hardships such as poverty and death of close family members. Antonia developed a sense of independence that became her most prominent trait throughout the book. The characters found activities and places where they felt like they belonged, and they began to discover who they were. As Jim (the narrator) states, “The new country lay open before me: there were no fences in those days, and I could choose my own way over the grass uplands, trusting the pony to get me home again.” Jim was speaking of a place