What Does Symbolism Mean In My Antonia

Yes, I believe Antonia would agree with Jim’s definition of happiness. In the following chapter we see Antonia, Yulka, and Jim running around and we are told, “Antonia laughed and squeezed my hand as if to tell me how glad she was I had come.” Then later in the chapter Antonia is eager to learn more English words and the names of everything around her. These along with other instances throughout the story show how even though she was in a new place and in a position where most people would be terrified she was happy and excited. In the third chapter of book two we are told, “She gave me a playful shake by the shoulders. ‘You ain’t forget about me, Jim?’” and then goes on to tell us how she was happy to see them and hope she gets to see them

The entire story of My Antonia is filled with symbolism helping to represent the feelings of the characters and show how things change. In the beginning of the novel we see Jim in a wagon going to his grandparent’s house. We are told, “I did not believe that my dead father and mother were watching me… Between that earth and that sky I felt erased, blotted out. I did not say my prayers that night: here, I felt, what would be would be.” This description of the desolate emptiness that is the Nebraskan prairie helps to show how Jim feels lonely and all by himself in the world. Later in the novel we read, “Presently we saw a curious thing: There were no clouds, the sun was going down in a limpid, gold-washed sky… Even while we whispered about it, our vision disappeared; the ball dropped and dropped until the red tip went beneath the earth. The fields below us were dark, the sky was growing pale, and that forgotten plough had sunk back to its own littleness somewhere on the prairie.” While giving us an amazing image of the sunset Cather is also representing the bittersweet moment between Antonia and Jim symbolizing how they will be going their separate ways and it also represents the connection between humans and the environment around them, the plow representing humankind and the sun representing nature. As the sun sets the plow eventually disappears showing that between the two nature will continue long after humans. Another instance where Cather uses nature to portray something is when Jim kills the rattlesnake and afterward we hear Antonia say, “I never knew you was so brave, Jim,’ she went on comfortingly. ‘You is just like big mans; you wait for him lift his head and then you go for him. Ain’t you feel scared a bit? Now we take that snake home and show everybody. Nobody ain’t seen in this kawn-tree so big snake like you kill.’” In this moment we see that Jim killing the snake is like a symbol of him being more than just a boy and in turn we see Antonia start