My Antonia Racial Prejudice

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.

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

By he end of the book she learns to trust a few select people and starts to open up. Antonia also manages to make a friend, which she was without in the beginning. "Don't worry, Antonia. I'll be in touch. You just enjoy being back home with your own family." Page 183 paragraph 7. By reaching out for help, Antonia realizes that her life is finally starting to head in the right direction and that it all started because she was able to drop her guard with Jazz.

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

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 .

The cost of emigration made them live in a budget life. The inequality in wealth between Shimerdas and other families caused their different lifestyle, which isolated them from normal families. Antonia feels that she lived in a much harder life than Jimmy’s, especially after her father’s death (p69). she had to stop her education and started to work. Their family was hard to socialize with others because they could not afford many gifts. Ms. Burden even “threw the package into stove” even though the package was send Ms. Burden as a present in return to their help (p41). In Shimerdas’ family, it is hard to fit into the residents in Black Hawk as they could not afford basic socialize cost.

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.

If Ántonia meant the world to Jim, to the extent where he refers to her as “my Ántonia”, why would he abandon their friendship? Jim socially conformed along with his generation, to flourish in a career, start a family and live the “American Dream”. Ántonia rejected the notion of living that life and returned to the farm and regressed to her native Bohemian state as when she first came to America. When Jim first saw her again, Ántonia told him she “forgot [her] English. Ántonia’s adult self is similar to her childhood self, which Jim finds comforting.

In a world where technological, political and social advancements are constantly being made, people may feel confused or out of place. However, this is precisely how Jim and Ántonia must have felt after moving to Nebraska. Jim, who was from Virginia, had never experienced life in the midwest. Similarly, Ántonia was a Bohemian immigrant and was not aquatinted with life in the western world. Although My Ántonia contains many positive messages, the novel also has many flaws.

Before she even knows Jims name she grabs his hand and explores with him. Though Antonia doesn’t speak English and Jim doesn’t speak Bohemian, they immediately hit it off. The language barrier between the two never stands in the way of them being happy together. Reading these passages, it seems as though they have already known each other for a long time. Jim is fascinated by her and is happy to follow her around, and so far this dynamic never changes.

Jim and Antonia’s friendship is demonstrated to be the greatest at the onset. It grows into a bond that Jim makes romantic advances but to Antonia Jim is like a brother. Jim learns a lot from their relationship as opposed to Antonia who was supposed to be educated. The lessons that Jim gets from their relationship is exhibited in the manner in which both the two of them demonstrate how they value their friendship. “Some memories are realities and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again.” (Cather, 1994) Antonia does not recognize the value of their friendship as it is with the case of John. By the look of things, Jim learns a lot from their

“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

In the beginning Antonia learned much from Jim. Antonia learned to speak English from Jim despite her mother’s disapproval. You can see Mrs. Shimerda’s disapproval when she states, “Mrs. Shimerda grumbled, but realized it was important that one member of the family should learn English.” Jim gave lessons to Antonia, after which they would have adventures, such as going to dog town and eating watermelons. As Antonia began to learn more English, it became clear she was smart and had many opinions. “Antonia had opinions about everything, and she was soon able to make them known.”

As you and Rhymini mentioned, women in Antonia’s Line are very different from the women written in Enloe’s and Shiva’s articles. The readings stressed the power imbalance between men and women which is shaped by development, industrialization, and globalization. In contrast, Antonia’s Line introduces new characters of women and their lives. Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, are totally opposite of the image of women whom we have seen in a patriarchal society. Danielle wants a baby but not a husband, and her mother, Antonia, respects Danielle’s decision and supports her. Also, Antonia herself rejects Bas’s had in marriage, and Bas move into Antonia’s farm and help her in chores and farming. They break patriarchal ideology and socially structured

Cather admired Antonia honesty,responsible and the boldness of Antonia's heart.Antonia as a child was always grateful to Jim's family.Antonia loved her father more than anything.Antonia worked herself as hard as she could on the farm.Always wanting to beat her brother."If I live here, like you, that is different. Things will be easy for you. But they will be hard for us." Antonia was rough like man because it was necessary for her family.Ántonia fascinates Jim.fter Ántonia had said the new words over and over, she wanted to give me a little chased silver ring she wore on her middle finger. Antonia was grateful to Jim. “Ántonia was washing pans and dishes in a dark corner”. “Oh, Jimmy," she sobbed, "what you tink for my lovely papa!" It seemed