How Does Jim Teach Antonia

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

Like many immigrants, Ántonia faces difficulty with the language barrier. Upon their arrival, the Shimerdas only speak a few sentences of broken English. According to Jim, “They could not speak enough English to ask for advice, or even to make their most pressing wants known” (Cather 46). In the beginning of their friendship, Antonia is unable to communicate efficiently with Jim. For example, during one of Antonia and Jim’s adventures, they come across a snake that sneaks up behind Jim. Antonia, who only speaks little English, is only able to scream at Jim in Bohemian. Although Jim is able to kill the snake, he lashes out at Antonia for speaking Bohemian gibberish. While Ántonia’s ability to effectively communicate with Jim frustrates her, it also makes her more determined to learn English. It is this desire that pushes her to travel, by barefoot, to the Burden’s home daily to acquire new English phrases (Gerber 11). It is through her perseverance that she is soon able to speak English better than any of the other children in Black Hawk.

When Jim returns for a visit, the two reminisce and he feels that it may be the last time he returns and he attempts to memorize the prairie, fields and tall grass and recall what it felt like to run free through it with Ántonia beside him.

Jim’s memories and feelings of Ántonia make up a majority of the novel. He admires her in such a way that his memories of her have been burned

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 .

Jim Burden and Antonia Shimerda form a special connection/friendship and they both learn from one another as they are essentially opposites. Jim Burden is very materialistic in how he views the world. An example of this is how he thinks that the women of Black Hawk are not deserving of marriage, but instead just intimate relations. His views seemingly changed as he was previously condemning this attitude. He changes because he was very easily discouraged, when learning that the world works differently than he had imagined. Antonia Shimerda is a free spirited person who believes that are many ways to go about bringing success into one’s life, whereas Jim and others, believe there is one rigid path that must be followed. A quote that captures Antonia’s beliefs is; “That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.” However, her base convictions stay consistent throughout the entirety of the story.

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.

This dialogue Ántonia says to Jim brings upon a huge change in his character. Until now, Ántonia has always treated Jim in a patronizing manner, which is based purely on age. He tries not to acknowledge or believe that he is inferior, and tirelessly tries to prove to her and consequently himself that he is her equal. However, now that he has demonstrated his strength and valor in a time of peril, she thinks of him highly rather than looking down upon him condescendingly. Jim “longed for this opportunity”, and now that he receives it, he feels pleased about this incident with the snake and “hails it with joy”, instead of feeling quite the contrary which is typical in such situations (Cather 35). Therefore, this leads him to gain some of the past self-esteem he has lost in the previous months, leading him to his development in such character. From this point on in the novel, Jim has more confidence and carries himself with pride, all due to how he overcomes one of his deepest internal struggles with himself. Although this incident is a time of great danger to his life, it further develops him into a mature young man and “a big fellow” (Cather 37).

My Antonia is written in a style sympathetic to the immigrants, which humanizes them and thereby counters the negative stereotypes of immigrants that persisted. One of the first events in the book is the death of Mr. Shimerda, and during this section the emotions and wishes of the family are treated respectfully. Although Jim had never been close to Ambrosch, one of the Shimerda’s sons, he states, “He was deeply, even slavishly, devout. He did not say a word all morning, but sat with his rosary in his hands, praying, now silently, now aloud. He never looked away from his beads, nor lifted his hands except to cross himself. Several times the poor boy fell asleep where he sat, wakened with a start, and began to pray again,” (Cather 40). This

A person’s life is not their doing, but rather the multiple doings and influences of other’s lives. Jim Burden would never understand the life and will of immigrants had he not met Antonia, Russian Peter, or Lena. In the beginning he was ignorant and inexperienced. “‘People who don’t like this country ought to stay at home,” I said severely. “We don’t make them come here’”(59). In the end he loves Antonia, treats them all with respect, and awe. This understanding that Jim gained was of their making. Innocence to experience is a motif based off this theme. Friendship and childhood love caused Jim to grow as a man. When he killed the snake Antonia bragged about him and treated him with respect. That was a monumental moment in Jim’s childhood.

It symbolises progress and an evanescent past; the prairie is developed under it’s old windy roads replaced by straight ones; the tall planes of grass burned down to make room for farmland. As Jim gets older, the prairies he once knew symbolises his friendship with Ántonia as well as the nostalgia manifested upon his life as orphaned boy in Nebraska. Lena looks back on her life with her family; the Russians and the Shimerdas reflect back on their lives in their home countries before immigrating to America. Jim’s motive for writing his story is to try to recreate some connection between his present life as a New York lawyer and his childhood in the prairies of Nebraska. Characters of My Ántonia are seen to be yearning for the past that they’ve

Mr. Shimerda asked Jim to teach Antonia English. Jim gave Antonia and Yulka classes. Soon Antonia and Jim became close friends. Jim seemed to admire how strong willed and determined Antonia was. The Shimerda family suffered through a tough

Jim’s relationship with Antonia shapes him as a character and provides him with the tools to grow from a child to a young adult.

First of all, Jim is the narrator, so we are privy to his innermost thoughts. The story of Antonia is only told through Jim's narrative, and Jim's perspective, so we truly don't know what she learns, just what Jim thinks she may have learned. Also, from the beginning, Jim is a brooding, alienated, cerbral character. He learns a lot about who he is and who he is not from observing the way, Antonia lives, the way she interacts with her family and others not always to her better man, and by weighing his own philosophies and way of life against hers, he learns more about himself. We don't have any evidence in the novel that Antonia does this in return. In fact, she mostly rejects the way Jim chooses to do things and when he gives her advice about

QUESTION 2: Throughout their relationship, both Jim and Antonia learn many things. While they both learned a lot of things, I think that Jim learned the most important things. Jim taught Antonia some obvious things like how to speak English, which he does even before he is asked. For example, when he and Antonia first real interaction together this happened, “She pointed up to the sky, then to my eyes, then back to the sky, with movements so quick and impulsive that she distracted me, and I had no idea what she wanted. She got up on her knees and wrung her hands. She pointed to her own eyes and shook her head, then to mine and to the sky, nodding violently. "Oh," I exclaimed, "blue; blue sky."”. He also taught her about his culture and how