Choices Affect More than Just the Choice Maker in Willa Cather’s My Antonia

In the novel My Antonia by Willa Cather is a book based upon the main characters memories. Many critics have criticized this novel, and have focused on such literary elements as setting,theme, tone and etc. However the strongest argument is the one that states that the foundation of every element in the book is based on the personal memories of Willa Cather. After researching Willa Cather you can discover many biographies that talk about her life. In many instances I found stories about her life that I found similar to Jim and Antonias. Since she used personal experiences and turned them into a story it adds a special touch to her writing.

The setting of the story has tremendous impact on the characters and themes in the novel "My Antonia" by Willa Cather. Cather's delicately crafted naturalistic style is evident not only in her colorfully detailed depictions of the Nebraska frontier, but also in her characters’ relationship with the land on which they live. The common naturalist theme of man being controlled by nature appears many times throughout the novel, particularly in the chapters containing the first winter.

In "My Antonia", Jim states that happiness means “ . . . to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep” (Book 1, Section 2). Jim, along with Antonia were two kids who traveled to Nebraska at a young age. They came from completely different socioeconomic statuses and despite Antonia's lack of language they eventually befriended each other and grew up together. From the very beginning of the book, we find out Jim's opinion on happiness as he is outstandingly intelligent and can easily express his thoughts. By the end of the book, however, through Antonia's words and actions, we find out that she agrees with Jim's definition of happiness.

Willa Cather has a great understanding of diction and thoroughly displays it in My Antonia. Anton Jelinek, a newly arrived immigrant from Bohemia, still calls Italians, “Eytalian … kawn-tree … we was showed in” (69) and mispronounces country and does not yet understand English grammar. He comments that, “I make my first communion very young,” (71). Jelinek’s informal dialogue fits his character because he is an immigrant and has just barely started to learn English. Therefore, his bad grammar, his accent, and mispronunciations make sense for who he is and where he came from, especially when taken into account where he is in his life. In contrast, Jim, who grew up in America and is native to the land, has a highly developed vocabulary and comments on how things are, “taciturn … [or] queer,” (72) and notes that Krajiek, “shrunk along behind them,” (75). He describes the, “bluish air, full of fine eddying snow, like long veils flying,” (76) and uses the words, “propitiatory intent” (77). Jim has a more formal language and is more educated that the immigrants of the towns. It is logical because it is written from the view of Jim as an adult looking back. As he looks back, he finds more complete words to describe situations that when he was actually in them. Jim’s vocabulary enlarged over time, so changes in how he describes his memories or reasonable.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the United States gained many new citizens – immigrants from other countries in search of the American Dream. However, the immigrants, who came from countries like faced a large obstacle in the form of prejudice. The belief that foreigners were less than native-born Americans was prevalent, and this nativism was present in both society and the laws. Sometimes foreigners were the subject of a museum display in which Americans viewed them as spectacles, not people, and laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 limited or even banned immigration from certain countries. Social Darwinism was a popular theory used to support these nativist views; the fact that many immigrants lived in poverty was used as evidence that they were inferior and failed because natural selection, so to improve American society immigrants should be removed or banned. However, some citizens viewed these policies and beliefs with distaste, including Willa Cather.

A Life or Death Situation, by Robin Marantz Henig, New York Times, July, 2013, is a review of the debate surrounding the right to a dignified death. It examines the purely philosophical view of the issue; as well as the heart wrenching reality of being faced with that question in one 's personal life. Does a person have a right to choose how he or she dies? How does that choice impact the people who care about about him or her? Should a person who cares about someone be required to cause or aide in his or her death? These questions weigh heavy on the minds of many people, who live

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 .

Friendship is a gift that is given at life, but what we make of it and how we take care of it is all up to us. Friends are like flashlights in dark rooms and, bandaids on a bad bruise, they make the hard times in life easier to handle and get through. The novel My Antonia shows a prominent theme of friendship between a young country boy named Jim, and a shy Bohemian immigrant named Antonia. Jim and his family provide care and friendship to Antonia's family in order to make survival easier for them through hard times. The survival and wellbeing of an immigrant family in the mid to late 1800’s depended on the connection with neighbors and this can explicitly be seen through the intimacy between Antonia, and Jim and both their families. Despite

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.

Life is always full of choices and some happen to be wrong and some happen to be right. All these choices that one takes in their lifetime in some way will influence their life. For example, a simple action such as walking one's dog can change their life in so many ways. In Book II of My Antonia there are many examples of good and bad decisions that the characters make. And these decisions affect their outcome for the better or for the worse.

Why do many immigrants make the long and usually costly move to America? Is it the largely idolized notion that Americans are wealthier with better opportunities? Moreover, is the price some pay worth the risk? In Willa Cather’s My Ántonia, Ántonia faces struggles as a young child, including language barriers, poverty, harsh living conditions, and her beloved father’s death. However, as Ántonia grows into a woman, she must face struggles of a social nature, such as the division of social and economic classes, as well as social opprobrium. While immigration to America may open many doors for immigrants, it is equally fraught with obstacles. Likewise, Ántonia must face many adversities after her emigration from Bohemia to Nebraska, which

In the Poem “Certain Choices” by Richard Shelton, the cause and effect text structure develops the theme that some decisions can make way to subsequent choices. Mr. Shelton states “He died, of course, because of the way he lived”(Richard shelton). His friend made the choice to

“Willa Cather really didn't want me to read her letters. And she was hoping you would mind your own business”. This comment stuck out to me so much because it was able to open many different points of view on My Antonia . We have been briefly discussing what this letter from which this story was pulled from meant to us. With much of the newly found knowledge this book just got more interesting. In the upcoming paragraphs I will explain more of what I interpreted.

My Antonia was published in 1918, two years before all American women were granted the right to vote in 1920. Willa Cather lived in a bustling time where women were heavily vouching for fundamental rights and breaking free from what had been considered societal norms. While Cather mentions the conventional duties and housewives of the time the book was written, her story’s focus differs. “My Antonia’s,” narrative centers around women, many of whom are immigrants, who transcend the gender norms of their time on their journeys to create successful lives, much to Jim’s admiration.

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