Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Common themes in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
My Antonia by Willa Cather is an American novel that narrates the story of a few immigrant families who move to rustic Nebraska. My Antonia is situated in pioneer-period Nebraska and is the story of most perceptibly the complexity of Antonia Shimerda, the deprived child of Bohemian immigrants and Jim Burden, an intuitive Virginian who was orphaned at the age of ten, is sent to live with his grandparents in Nebraska. Jim Burden is the protagonist that narrates his memoir in his own point of view.
The setting of the story has an immense effect on the plot and characters in the novel My Antonia. My Antonia takes place in Black Hawk, Nebraska. Black Hawk is a city that is comprised of blend between the town and the cultivating. Due to its productive
…show more content…
The drop of temperature and snow affected families that make a living on farming. They couldn't cultivate because of the fact that the crops would freeze and since the Shimerda's had scarcely anything to aid them they had to eat little and live in a small house. After all the harsh times the Shimerda's experienced, they still needed to cope the passing of their father.
Within the novel, we witnessed that Jim has a devoted love for Antonia but their relationship is tested when they take different paths in their lives. Jim Burden moved into town and started going to a university in Lincoln while Antonia took a job as a housekeeper to support her family.
The story is narrated by Jim Burden’s point of view. Jim Burden is said to be modeled on Willa Cather herself. He goes back at the occasions of his childhood from the viewpoint of an adult.
Tone plays an important role in the book “My Antonia” by Willa Cather. The point of view is of Jim Burden recalling at his life and his companionships as a grown-up so the tone is narrative. Overall, the tone of the story is sad because of the dismaying events that arose. One was the passing of Antonia's dad Mr.Shimerda. Antonia and her family have a difficult time adapting to the new environment. He got so unfortunate to the point that he took his own particular
The warm blackness of summer nights, settling over your lawn and drifting down familiar street signs, over coffee shops closed for the night and broken down asphalt. Dust, collecting on creaking wooden floorboards and swirling through age-old sunlight. A song forgotten, notes away from your ears. Nostalgia is an emotion that all human beings experience and know well. Willa Cather expands on this fact, infusing her award-winning novel, My Ántonia, with sentimentalism and melancholy. Cather tells a tale of home, drawing from the idealistic “American dream” that all Americans know well. Jim Burden, a young orphan, moves to the countryside, spending his days watching men work in the dusty fields and find community amongst themselves. He adores
Willa Cather used her own experiences to start the plot and give the story background. Both she and Jim Burden were born in Virginia, and moved to Nebraska. In the beginning of the novel, Antonia is the crutch that supports Jim through his slow early development. Later, she just becoms a catalyst that continues jim's development as a character. My Antonia is about the character development and struggle for Jim to overcome his sense of Nostalgia after modeling himself after a Bohemian immigrant who was unable to bear the pressures of emigrating to America.
He is apprehensive about seeing Antonia, fearing that she will no longer be the idealized person who exists in his memory. Jim is not let down when they meet, as even though she is now a “battered woman … but she still had that something that fires the imagination, could stop one’s breath for a moment” (226). Age has not dampened the spirit that Jim was drawn to throughout his youth and now his adulthood. He speaks about her through a lens of true love and respect, telling her children that he “couldn’t stand it if you boys were inconsiderate [towards Antonia] … I was very much in love with your mother once, and I know there’s nobody like her” (222). Jim refers to Antonia as a “rich mine of life,” and it is clear that Antonia’s type of richness is more valuable in Jim’s eyes. Through her, he is able to realize that tangible fiscal wealth is far less precious than the impalpable beauty of emotional connection and
When she was done at the bar, she went back to the motel and passed out on the floor. So when Antonia got home, nobody was there. About half an hour later, her brother called and said that their mom had passed out and that they were at a motel. Her brother didn't know the name of the motel, so he looked around and remembered the bar. He told his sister the name of the bar that their mom had gone to, and then she knew right where they were.
The American college dictionary defines success as 1. The favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors, 2. The gaining of wealth, possessions, or the like. This has been the general seances for the past hundred years or more. But in more modern days the prospective of success has changed slightly. It has shifted to having a good education, going to collage, getting a carrier getting married & having children. Having your own home and eventually dying and passing it all on to a child or children. Success is no longer satisfaction or personal goals. It has been supplemented by the goals society has preset for the populous that have been drilled into the minds of the young from the very beginning. To a man named Santiago in The Old Man and The Sea by: Earnest Hemingway, success was to conquer the Marlin Santiago had fought for so long. But as a cruel twist of fate his success is taken away in an instant when the prize he had fought so hard for was eaten by sharks, leaving Santiago with no spoils left to show for his hard fight. He was even so crushed by of the loss of the Marlin that he cried out to the sea "I am beaten.....hear stands a broken man" (234). Santiago still experienced success in the fashion that when he returned to port the little boy named Manolin that he had taught how to fish earlier in the novel was allowed to come back to fish with him. This was the ultimate form of success that was perceived for Santiago by Hemingway. To Jean Valjean in Les Misreables By: Victor Hugo , Valjean's success was represented in the form of going from convict to loving father of a daughter. The little girl named Cosette may not have been his true daughter, but after he had had dinner with a bishop that had seen the possibility of good in he started the transformation of his life. he met Cosettes mother and vowed to save her daughter from the place where she was being kept. The success Valjean experienced was what made his character the man that he was. But to Willa Cather in My
In Antonia’s situation, Jim did not mean much other than friend, teacher, and security. In Antonia’s case, Jim’s definition was ‘friend’. Jim was her first friend in America. Both were coming from an outside area, so they had similarities. Antonia was also four years older than Jim. Still to this day, it is looked down upon if you marry a younger man, so Antonia never really had the thought of Jim as a boyfriend. For Antonia, Jim was also a teacher. When JIm and her family met for the first time at their house, it was clear that Antonia would be the most likely to succeed in English. Her mother asked Jim to teach her daughter English on that first day. Form that day on, Jim ws Antonia’s teacher. Lastly, Jim’s family cared about the Shimerda’s. As practicing Catholics and good people, the Burden’s provided the Shimerda’s with knowledge how to survive in the land. WIthout the Burdens, the Shimerda’s most likely would have died in their cave. When Mr. Shimerda committed suicide, the Burden’s hired Antonia; this allowed for Antonia to receive food and for the Shimerda’s to receive income. In Antonia’s mind, she was grateful to have a friend like Jim Burden, but it was very different for
To conclude, My Antonia is an American Tale because it couldn’t take place anywhere else. Only America holds the abstraction of diverse ethnicity more commonly called “the melting pot.” America is customarily called the “land of opportunity,” and this is the reason the immigrants in the novel moved to America. Ultimately, the Shimerdas wouldn’t have the tale of their demise and struggle if they had remained in their own country where they were on stable grounds. r
My Antonia, by Willa Cather, is a book tracing the story of a young man, Jim Burden, and his relationship with a young woman, Antonia Shimerda. Jim narrates the entire story in first person, relating accounts and memories of his childhood with Antonia. He traces his journey to the Nebraska where he and Antonia meet and grow up. Jim looks back on all of his childhood scenes with Antonia with nearly heartbreaking nostalgia. My Antonia, is a book that makes many parallels to the sadness and frailty, but also the quiet beauty in life, and leaves the reader with a sense of profound sorrow. One of the main ways Cather is able to invoke these emotions in the reader is through the ongoing theme of separation. Willa Cather develops her theme of separation through death, the changing seasons, characters leaving and the process of growing apart.
My Antonia, Jim's nostalgia for the past is represented by nature, symbolic elements, and above all Antonia. The Nebraskan prairies are beautiful and picturesque and set the scene for a memorable story. Big farm houses and windmills placed throughout the graceful flowing golden yellow grass become a nostalgic aspect of Jim as he leaves his childhood life behind. The frontier includes destructive and depressing winters and luscious summers that
The landscape and the environment in Willa Cather's, My Ántonia, plays several roles. It creates both a character and protagonist, while it also reflects Cather's main characters, Jim and Ántonia, as well as forming the structure of the novel. Additionally, it evokes several themes that existed on the prairie during the time in which the story takes place. Some of these themes that directly relate to the novel, which are worth exploring, are endurance, hardship, and spirituality. Additionally, the symbolism of the "hot and cold" climate will be examined, revealing the significance it has on the novel in an overall manner. The analyses will further explain Cather's construction of the novel, which is based on three cycles: the cycle of the seasons, the cycle of life and physical development and lastly, the cultural cycle.
The natural landscape and climate both play a significant role in depicting the actions of the characters in Willa Cather’s My Antonia. Many of the characters introduced throughout My Antonia are dependent on the vast Nebraskan landscape for livelihood and happiness. The landscape in My Antonia creates the perfect setting for Jim and Antonia’s new beginning while also serving as a symbol of their youth. Throughout the novel, Jim Burden and Antonia Shimerda form a remarkable relationship with the natural world through their admirations toward the Nebraskan prairie. The characters of Jim and Antonia share a profound connection between nature and their childhood memories. The literal journey into the great prairie of North America serves as a symbolic quest to obtain desired childhood memories that connect Jim and Antonia through images of nature and landscape.
Antonia and Jim of My Antonia In Willa Cather's My Antonia a special bond is formed, shattered, mended, and eventually secured between the main characters, Antonia Shimerda and Jim Burden. Jim and Antonia seem to be destined to affect each other's lives dramatically, from the beginning of the novel. Starting at a young age, the main characters lives are intertwined. They form a special bond, which have both positive and negative affects on their relationship.
In her novel, My Antonia, Cather represents the frontier as a new nation. Blanche Gelfant notes that Cather "creat[ed] images of strong and resourceful women upon whom the fate of a new country depended" . This responsibility, along with the "economic productivity" Gilbert and Gubar cite (173), reinforces the sense that women hold a different place in this frontier community than they would in the more settled areas of America.
Dreams are nothing but our innermost desires. We are made to pursue these dreams and have them be the driving force in all we do. Jim Burden is no different; like everyone, he has dreams, and he does his best to pursue them and fulfill them. Or does he? Jim writes the story of Antonia through his own life. He is plagued with the disease of romanticism. He cannot move on; though time will move, Jim's thoughts and emotions are rooted in the past. Frances Harling said it right when she said, "the trouble with you, Jim, is that you're romantic." Jim is a romantic, a dreamer who never acts. Many things contribute to Jim's romanticism, his experiences, his emotions, and his actions; however as no one could suspect, it helped him mature and appreciate loves lost.
The images that stuck out to my most in this story were when Jim killed the rattlesnake, Jim visiting Antonia after many years, and Jim's reaction when Antonia introduced all of her children.