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Suicide in literature essay
Suicide in literature essay
Suicide in literature essay
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Antonia Shimerda has three very distinct qualities and characteristics that make her who she is and helps capture readers as well as Cather’s attention. One of these qualities that he eventually came to admire was her independence, “There was a basic harmony between Ántonia and her mistress. They had strong, independent natures, both of them.” She captured his admiration simply by having lived life the way she had, and with the suicide of her father and being very independent in life, especially from having to emigrate from Bohemia, she could be a very independent and strong willed character and Cather really admired this in her. Antonia was a very strong willed human who somewhat had a tone of authority because of the things she had gone through.
“I hated a superior tone that she sometimes took with me,” but he began to admire her superiority over time because she learned to use it correctly and not overstep her boundaries. After the incident with the snake, she seemed to settle down this nature a bit and become equals with those around her. She always carried the superior look and tone, but she never used it like she was above anyone else from then on. “The sky was brilliantly blue, and the sunlight on the glittering white stretches of prairie was almost blinding. As Ántonia said, the whole world was changed by the snow;” is one example of the positive and cheerful look that Antonia had on life despite incidents to happen in her life. She always seemed to find the good in things going on around her and kept a smile on faces around her.
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.
Antonia's life is constantly debated. This fictional character is seen as a failure to many. One of these is William J. Stuckey. His essay included in the Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 31, stated, "Cather and her narrator celebrate one of o...
In Willa Cather's novel, My Antonia, Marek Shimerda is starved for attention because he is constantly ignored due to his mental retardation. It is solely because of his handicap and the assumption of his inability to help out with the farming and household chores that his family views him as helpless which results in Marek's strange and awkward actions. He is presented as an ill minded young man throughout the novel, repeatedly excused, and resides in the shadow of his healthy, fully functional older brother, Ambrosh Shimerda.
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.
Cather mends a special relationship between Jim and Antonia that is formed and broken throughout her novel My Antonia. The two characters meet at young age and begin to develop a ------- friendship. Jim teaches Antonia the language and culture of America while Antonia shares her culture and morals. Soon their respective friendship turns into a brother-sister relationship, an ardent love but not intimate.
In My Antonia, Willa Cather emphasizes the importance of the past through Jum Burden's narration. Jim Burden realizes at the conclusion of the novel how much he enjoyed his childhood days and how much his memories mean to him. There are three events that Cather included in the novel which contribute greatly to the overall theme, concerning the importance of the past.
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.
In "Book V" of Willa Cather's My Antonia, Jim Burden's memoirs come full circle and present interesting insights into the underlying tone as it relates to prominent themes from the novel. The revelation of Antonia Shimerda's adulthood as satisfying and fulfilling contrasts significantly with the nostalgic emptiness and longing for reconnection expressed by Jim. Furthermore, the ever-present effects of life's earliest memories and experiences are highlighted repeatedly as the context in which all subsequent experiences will be examined. Throughout "Book V", Cather solidifies the tone of the novel by re-establishing symbolic references, re-connecting characters to each other and their surroundings, and introducing new characters who become a continuation of the established themes of the novel. As My Antonia concludes, the reader is left with the understanding that, to Cather, life is a collection of experiences which ideally should be validated through meaningful relationships with others who value the same, or similar experiences.
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.
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.
Lady Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female characters. As she is Macbeth’s wife, her role is significant in his rise and fall from royalty. She is Macbeth’s other half. During Shakespearean times, women were regarded as weak insignificant beings that were there to give birth and look beautiful. They were not thought to be as intelligent or equal to men. Though in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the highest influence in Macbeth’s life. Her role was so large; in fact, that she uses her position to gain power, stay strong enough to support her unstable Lord, and fails miserably while their relationship falls apart. Everything about Lady Macbeth is enough to create the perfect villain because of her ability to manipulate everyone around her. It appears that even she can’t resist the perfect crime.
This passage, similar to the previous one, employs diction to help embellish the character profile of Ántonia. As it has become evident in the previous pages, Ántonia and her father share a deep, intangible, and intimate relationship. Compared to the perfidious and stern character of Mrs. Shimeda, Mr. Shimerda evokes characteristics of compassion and sensibility. In this section of the novel, sadly, Mr. Shimerda has passed away leaving his family behind in the harsh and tiring conditions of the prairies. In this passage, Mrs. Burden is talking to the family about the death and the ramifications it could inflict on the Shimerdas. Using words and phrases such as, “poor little girls” (67) or “he’s left her alone in a hard world” (67), help to
Randall III, John H. "Intrepretation of My Antonia." Willa Cather and Her Critics. Ed. James Schroeter. New York: Cornell University Press, 1967. 272-323.
The story of Lady Macbeth throughout Macbeth is one unlike those of its time in its unusually forward-thinking portrayal of a woman with thoughts and actions which would have been considered indecent. This is seen through the representation of her relationship with Macbeth and how they interact. It is also illustrated through Lady Macbeth’s morals and their effect on how she acts and reacts in situations which would weigh heavily on most peoples’ conscious. Her power-hungry attitude is one often reserved for men, especially in this era of literature. All of these factors create a character in Lady Macbeth which is dissimilar to the classic portrayal of women in the seventeenth century.
...own heaven upon me then may feed in quiet." (IV ii 208-215) In this her final address, the Duchess reinforces herself as the opposite of Antonio, who wavers and makes several missteps throughout the play. By contrasting these two honest and good hearted lovers only brings further confirmation even honest male characters have faults and weaknesses that lead to the further empowerment of the female character.