Women In My 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

A man tells a story about a train trip in Iowa. He is traveling with a man named Jim burden. They end up talking about a girl named Antonia and how they used to be friends. They talk about how the narrator had written down memories of this girl Antonia. Later Jim brings a folder of writings about Antonia to the narrator, which was labeled, “Antonia.” Jim changes the title to “My Antonia“.

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

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 .

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

Willa Cather draws a stark contrast between the respectable women of Black Hawk and the “hired girls” in books II and III of My Antonia through Jim’s unavoidable attachment to them.  The “hired girls” are all immigrants who work in Black Hawk as servants to help support their families in the country.  They are hardworking and charming.  They are simple and complicated.  They are sad and joyful.  They work all day and dance all night.  For Jim they are the most interesting people who  reside in Black Hawk.  The respectable women are boring and predictable.  They all go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning.  Their

In the late 19th century, gender roles were strictly enforced. Being a woman did severely affect the possibilities or the chances to succeed. Success depended on how badly the person wanted to succeed. Men were meant to be the main source, and women were meant to get married and care for her family. But Ántonia, does not want to obey to the typical female role. On the prairie, after her father dies, she insists on working in the fields with the men. This disappoints Jim and even agitated him by Antonia's change to a more "masculine" attitude.

Antonia was admired for her great strength and integrity that gave her the determination never to give up. Antonia suffered many hardships in her life but remained free spirited through all her struggles. Most people would have giving up but she made the best of her circumstances.

When Jim Burden initially reaches Nebraska, his descriptions of nature help the reader understand not only his personal experiences, but also the Romanticism prevalent in the book, My Antonia. This sets the reader up for the struggle and conflict between Modernism and Romanticism in the book, which is a major theme that Willa Cather utilizes in her novel. However, there is more to this Romantic description that meets the eye. On pages 12 and 13, Jim describes looking at the land while he travels to his grandparents, a passage which evokes beauty and hints towards philosophical meaning. Through this passage in the first chapter, it becomes clear that Jim’s narration of the nature around him works to highlight the idea that the land is a heaven that is untouched. Like young Jim, the land is in a “blank slate,” which intertwines the land and Jim together. This is furthered through the progression of the land and Jim, as they progress into godlike beings. Through this progression and balance, the balance between Modernism and Romanticism is achieved, and the reader better understands the intentions of Cather, thus leading to a better understanding of the text as a whole.

In my Antonia a bohemian girl named Antonia and her family has just moved to the prairie land of Black Hawk, Nebraska. At the same time a boy named Jim Burden, whose parents had both died, was moving to Black Hawk, Nebraska to live with his grandparents. None of Antonia’s family could speak English, so the father, Mr. Shimerda, asks Jim Burden to teach Antonia how to speak English. Jim begins to give Antonia reading lessons, and eventually Jim and Antonia start to spend a lot of their time together.

“My” demonstrates Jim’s admiration for Antonia, which also relates to one quote from the book “ I’d have liked to have you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister -- anything that a woman can be to a man.” His love for Antonia is neither pure romantic or friendly, it is all mixed together and makes Antonia even more special for him.

Willa Cather’s My Ántonia has been considered by some to be a transitional work for Cather in that, beginning with this novel, she stops creating strong female characters and moves more into a masculine realm. Deborah Lambert expresses this opinion in her article “The Defeat of a Hero: Autonomy and Sexuality in My Ántonia.” Lambert claims that Cather abandons women in her later novels and focuses exclusively on “patriarchal institutions and predominantly male characters” (680). This transition is demonstrated in My Ántonia by the fact that Ántonia is not portrayed through a woman’s eyes, but rather through Jim, a male narrator. Another factor is that she is all but absent from the latter half of the novel as an active character. Also,

He learns how to live and love life despite what others think, what they say or what happens. In Book 2 Chapter 12 he states “When you spun out into the floor with Tony, you didn’t return anything. You set out every time upon a new adventure.” He relies on his relationship with Antonia and her family to help him with things. He uses what he knows about her father and his family to help him write his graduation speech. “I thought about your papa when I wrote my speech, Tony. I dedicated it to him.” Antonia teaches Jim the meaning of life and perseverance. She shows him that it does not matter how much or little you have, happiness and fulfillment comes from within. Throughout the years, she always remained an influence on Jim. He states “… I think of you more often than of any one else in this part of the world…The idea of you is part of my mind; you influence my likes and dislikes, all my tastes, hundreds of times when I don’t realize it. You really are a part of me.” Antonia and her spirit, ways, and thoughts about life were always with Jim. Even when he is in a relationship, going to school, or working, what he has learned from Antonia has a direct effect on these

Willa Cather is an American Author who wrote “My Antonia” in 1918. This novel is a short fictional introduction about Jim meeting this little girl named Antonia.When Jim was 10 he was orphaned and he moved from Virginia to Nebraska to live on his grandparents farm. The Shimerda family suffers through tough winters, as they don’t have a lot of money. Jim’s grandparents try to do whatever they can but Mr. Shimada ends up making suicide. By the time Jim was ready for high school his grandparents moved out to Black Hawk, Nebraska, but Antonia’s family remained on the farm. Antonia ends up moving out with a family in town named Harling. When Jim finishes college he returns back to Black Hawk for the summer before law school. When he gets back he wants to visit Antonia. But Jim is afraid of what he may find.