Jim's Idea Of Antonia Happiness Analysis

Money, riches, power, and fame are not true happiness. In life I learned that true happiness cannot be bought with those things. True happiness is what truly makes you happy. I have learned these things from celebrities, also from viewing people that I know. By viewing the lives of these people you can tell that they are not happy with their lives. Because they are not happy they feel a great load of depression in their lives, which can sometimes lead to suicide.

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

My Antonia, by Willa Cather, is a novel about Jim Burden and his relationship and experiences growing up with Antonia Shimerda in Nebraska. Throughout the book Jim reflects on his memories of Nebraska and the Shimerda family, often times in a sad and depressing tone. One of the main ways Cather is able to provoke these sad emotions within the reader is through the suicide of Antonia’s father, Mr. Shimerda. His death was unexpected by everyone and it is thought that homesickness is what drove him to take his own life. Homesickness was surely felt by Mr. Shimerda, as it was by many, but it was the failure to adequately find a way to provide for his family that sent Mr. Shimerda into a

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

Although Antonia faces severe hardship, she remains strong and responding to her simple life that focuses on kid raising and family comforts. When Jim visits her after so many years, he realizes that she established a very happy life, a good marriage, and has a large family. Antonia bravery has qualified her to develop self-esteem and become a complete female of pride.Although Antonia faces severe hardship, she remains strong and responding to her simple life that focuses on kid raising and family comforts. When Jim visits her after so many years, he realizes that she established a very happy life, a good marriage, and has a large family. Antonia bravery has qualified her to develop self-esteem and become a complete female of

Jim appears to be a very contemplative and thoughtful boy. In the first section of the book, Jim seems to like Antonia and seems interested in her and her old life. I noticed a weakness of Jim in this section. He can be a little shallow. One day when Antonia and her mother came over to visit the Burden's house, and Mrs. Shimerda was very envious of all the things they had in their house. Jim's grandmother then gave an iron pot to the Shimerdas. Jim was then very angry with the Shimerdas and after that, there was some friction between the two families. I think I would like to be Jim's friend if he could be less shallow. Antonia seems to be a very enthusiastic, happy, and friendly person. Antonia and Jim become friends in the first section of the book. I find Antonia's friendliness to be a strength for her. Everybody was very fond of Antonia in the first section of the book. I also found a weakness of Antonia. She can be very hostile and defensive when it comes to her family. For example, she got very hostile when Jim said her mother likes to take other people's things. The friction that came after this was a result of both Jim and Antonia's weaknesses. I think I would be Antonia's friend because she is very kind and friendly. Her weaknesses are not as much of a bad thing compared to Jim's because they only show when you accuse her family of something, whereas Jim's weaknesses would be apparent more often. I

. In Jim and Antonia’s relationship, Jim learned more because the book is from Nick’s point of view. When Jim moves to Nebraska, he starts over beginning a whole new stage of his life. He also meets a group of immigrants and begins to fall into the negative stereotypes people have about immigrants. One of the immigrants is Antonia, and she helps him learn that immigrants are people too. Throughout the story, Jim comes to appreciate the will and spirit that make immigrants like Ántonia so successful. In the book, it says “ The girls I knew were always helping to pay for plows and reapers, brood-sows, or steers to fatten," This quote shows how Jim changed his point of view and learned to understand and appreciates immigrants hard work. Another

The book ends with Jim reflecting on his life, realizing that many of the people he loved are now dead or have moved away from his small Nebraska home, but that he still longs for the prairie. He remembers the first time he saw Ántonia and her family, the scared, brave immigrants on the train with him trying to make a better life for themselves. He feels that Ántonia has fulfilled her goals and reached happiness, but that all he has tried to accomplish in life has left him feeling empyt and unhappy. Jim vows to return to the place he was his happiest, the place Ántonia and he grew up, the place where Ántonia

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 visual and tactile imagery in Cather’s My Antonia highlight the novel’s theme of nostalgia. In the first paragraph of the passage, Jim writes about an afternoon out with Antonia. He describes the plains of Nebraska, his surroundings, using words of warmth and peace. Jim talks about the “warm, grassy bank,” the “amber sunlight,” and the “tall asparagus…lying on the ground.” The visual imagery, displayed in these descriptions, contributes to the theme of nostalgia as Jim reminisces about a more peaceful and loving part of his adolescence. Through this visual imagery, Jim’s descriptions of his surroundings immerse themselves into the novel and become a character of their own. The sun, the sky, the animals- Jim’s surroundings- aid in Jim’s

At the beggining of the book Jim lost his parents and was sent to live in Nebraska with his grandparents. The day that Jim met the Shimerdas, the girl who they called Antonia caught his eye and he thought that she was pretty. Soon after Mr.Shimerda begged Jim to teach his daughter Antonia, she started speaking english a lot better. Jim and Antonia became best friends, they would see each other as much as possible. Although Jim and Antonia were best friends they had different ideas on life. The Shimerdas lived a very different life than Jims family, the Shimerdas had to live off of the very little they had. During winter the Shimerdas have to go with very little food and shelter from the harsh weather while Jims family didnt't have to worry

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.

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

“Te-e-ach, te-e-ach my Antonia” was a responsibility that Jim took upon himself after receiving the request from Antonia’s father, Mr. Shimerda. He does teach her but it is what he learns from Antonia that enriches his knowledge and his outlook on life. An orphan, he comes to his grandparent’s home with little knowledge of the world outside of the mountains of Virginia. At the train station in Black Hawk he first sets eyes on the immigrant family mumbling sounds of a different language and huddling together. On page 37, Antonia tells Jim the story of the old country; “He’s is scared of the wolves…In his country there are very many, and they eat men and women. We slid closed together along the bench.” That first cold winter he learned about

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