My �ntonia In My Antonia By Willa Cather

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

A4. There are a few characteristics that Antonia exhibits that lead to Cather's admiration of her. One of them is Antonia's ability to be a hard worker. For example, after Antonia's father died, she helped her mother and brother work in the fields. One quote that proves this is "If I rode over to see her where she was ploughing, she stopped at the end of the row to chat for a moment, then gripped her plough handles, clicked to her team, and waded on down the furrow, making me feel like she was now grown up and had no time for me". This quote shows that Antonia was growing up and becoming a hard worker in the aftermath of her father's death because she only talked to Jim for a moment before going back to work. Another characteristic that Antonia exhibits that led to Cather's admiration of her is her

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.

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

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

Antonia is seen as a cheerful and ecstatic girl who loves to be around people, as she is also a reason that the landscape relates to the characters in the novel. “As Antonia said, the whole world was changed by the snow. (33)” When Jim leaves for New York, Antonia changes and becomes a different person, reflecting herself as the changes in season and how people

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 .

Cather’s work, My Antonia, is a memoir told from Jim Burden’s perspective, as he recollects his youth moving from Virginia to life on the plains of Black Hawk, Nebraska. Upon moving in with his grandparents, Jim begins to admire Antonia Shimerda, a Bohemian immigrant who moved to Black Hawk alongside the rest of her family, the Shimerdas. As Jim spends more time in Black Hawk, he bears witness to the many hardships which the Shimerdas faced, such as their limited proficiency with English, their horrible financial situation, and the death of the father, Mr. Shimerda. Later in the novel, Jim moves into town to further his education, while Antonia moves into town to find work. In town, Jim finds more hard-working immigrants, known as the “Hired

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.

Cather brings out Antonia as a loyal woman. Antonia shows her loyalty even to people who does don’t deserve it like her mother. Antonia also proves her loyalty to her brothers although they didn’t treat her well. She is loyal to Larry, a worthless man who doesn’t deserve her loyalty. Larry abandons her when she gets pregnant. She also shows her loyalty to the Harling’s although they denied her the choices she had made. Antonia remains loyal to a man she marries. Jim depicts the Willa Cather’s admiration when he visits her after twenty years later. He tells her, “You influence all my tastes, my likes and

To Jim, Antonia represent the freedom to be one’s self. Whilst not agreeing with every decision Antonia makes, Jim still compares all women to Antonia. Her impact is so great that it allows him to become more progressive in regards to women. Through the narration of Jim, we are able to see that he is a passive character and in contrast to Antonia. Even in early childhood, Jim was impressed by the labor done by the male workers, but had no interest in doing the labor himself.

In the beginning of the book My Antonia, Antonia had a best friend named Jim. Jim was a character that always seems to pick school over every fun activity out there. While Jim never really likes school, Antonia always dreamed of going to school. She will always ask Jim to read for her or to go over the lesson that he learned. Antonia didn't receive any chance because she is a woman and she's expected

As Cather portrays it, one’s environment illustrates one’s mindset, and may even shape emotions by giving thoughts and feelings a physical form. For Example: the river give Jim a sense of freedom, the setting sun allows him to reflect on his loneliness, if it does not create Jim’s personality, it then comes to symbolize it physically. Thus, characters in My Antonia usually develop an intense harmony with their surroundings. Throughout the course of the story the metaphors change and evolve but they have a tendency to gravitate towards their metaphorical origin. One of my beliefs is that the book is based off of different phases of her life, making the characters and the setting descriptions extra vivid.

Willa Cather’s My Ántonia begins with the protagonist, ten year old Jim Burden, on his way from Virginia to a farm outside of Black Hawk, Nebraska, to live with his grandparents. Black Hawk is a small prairie town sometime during the end of the 19th century. Jim’s arrival at Black Hawk coincides with the arrival of a Czech family, the Shimerdas. The Shimerdas hardly speak any English at all, so Jim teaches one of their daughters, Ántonia. The Burdens and Shimerdas live out life on the prairie along with their neighbors from across the world, all coming to the United States in search of a better life. Mr. Shimerda, never really coming to terms with leaving his old life and homeland, eventually commits suicide, leaving his impoverished family

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