My Antonia Role Of Women

“There in the shelter draw-bottom the wind did not blow very hard, but I could hear it singing its humming tune up on a level, and I could see the tall grasses wave.”pg. 14 This quote tells readers how even small things such as the soft blow of the wind can cause many things to happen, such as the humming of the wind and the grass’s movements.It also symbolizes how the world is at peace right now. The tone of this quote is in a describing manner by the details they provide in this quote. These all contribute to helping the reader understand the scene in Jim’s point of view.

The book My Antonia is written by Willa Cather. Willa Cather won the Pulitzer Prize for more than fifteen books. Cather was said to be one of the most remarkable writers in America during the early twentieth century. The story of My Antonia is set on the wide open plains of Nebraska. The story takes place in the late 1880s to the 1920s. The setting of how the characters were traveling by train and using horses and wagons to travel around, give the reader a pretty good idea that this was set in the early years. Also, in the book it describes some of the living conditions of some of the families. How they live in sod houses and they struggled to stay warm in the winter. The narrator of the story is Jim Burden.

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 .

Why do many immigrants make the long and usually costly move to America? Is it the largely idolized notion that Americans are wealthier with better opportunities? Moreover, is the price some pay worth the risk? In Willa Cather’s My Ántonia, Ántonia faces struggles as a young child, including language barriers, poverty, harsh living conditions, and her beloved father’s death. However, as Ántonia grows into a woman, she must face struggles of a social nature, such as the division of social and economic classes, as well as social opprobrium. While immigration to America may open many doors for immigrants, it is equally fraught with obstacles. Likewise, Ántonia must face many adversities after her emigration from Bohemia to Nebraska, which

“Women wrote 12 of the 27 best selling novels published between 1850 and 1860. Their stories about heroines who overcame hardships no doubt helped their female readers imagine all kinds of new possibilities.” Their life’s battles they wrote about helped new generation women realize they can overcome anything and new possibilities in life. “Other women found work as launderers, domestic servants, or cooks.”They are doing everything they was told not to do and more. They are taking advantage of their time being. “Others reluctantly found change thrust upon them. Either way, women’s traditional roles and responsibilities were forever changed as many of them adjusted to life during war.” Some just bettered themselves, some

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.

I. We discover the Great Plains and Ántonia through the eyes of Jim, and he perceives both as strange, exotic, and mysterious when he first experiences them. On a wagon ride during his first night in Nebraska, approaching his new home, Jim notes, "I had the feeling that the world was left behind, that we had got over the edge of it and were outside man's jurisdiction" (Cather 36). That same night, Jim meets Ántonia and her family for the first time and comments, "I pricked up my ears, for it was positive the first time I had ever heard a foreign tongue" (Cather 36). In the Nebraska night, Jim experiences both the land and Ántonia as unfamiliar, unknown, foreign, and exotic.

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.

Through using significant images and a fascinating way of telling, My Antonia describes the concept Immigration that hints diverse issues, including the language barriers, the economic problems, and isolation. As a result, immigration is one of the attention-grabbing topics, which should be observed and considered further to understand the life of the strangers in the society and react to them appropriately. In the novel, Antonia left her own nation through no choice of her own to be able to establish a completely new life in a new land. In spite of all the struggling to reach a goal, cultural differences, isolation, and social distinction that Antonia and many other immigrants faced during that time, she was able to choose the life of a particular period of American history when the state was seen as a land of opportunity to create a better life. My Antoine is a work about having the American Dream, and there are specific ideas included such as power, wealth, and freedom, that play a significant role in reaching this goal. The themes that play throughout the Cather’s story also play throughout modern society, with people who look for entering the nation to reach the same American Dream.

 The role of the women in My Antonia as the showcased laborers and workers in the new community does not, certainly, alleviate the questions of patriarchal influence offered in the discussions of gender. Certainly, the fact that Ántonia is deprived of the education she longs for and yet cannot have, because it is she who is responsible for her family's success--"'School is all right for little boys. I help make this land one good farm'" (94)--cannot be seen as entirely good, if we agree that "the value of education is among the greatest of all human values" (Woolf 45); and in spite of her protests to the contrary, the bitter recognition of exclusion brings Ántonia to tears. However, recognizing the

Throughout the nineteenth century men and women roles were characterized by a division of activity into two domains for men and women. While women may have been seen as powerful in the home because they were responsible for the upkeep, that power was limited because the man was known as the head of the home. Unlike women in the same time period as Alexandra, she does not rely on a man or brothers for her success. Alexandra takes over the family land at a young age and was able to successfully transform the struggling farm into a thriving business. Willa Cather’s O Pioneers!

Human minds are filled up with memories and events that have taken place throughout their lifetime. Some memories can be good, while others are not so pleasant. In My Antonia, we get to see the positive and negative events that Jim Burden experiences. This also allows us to see into the author’s life because she bases memories from her own personal life to the book. Paralleling characters and events from her own childhood in the Midwest, Willa Cather gives an insightful look into pioneer life in My Antonia.

O Pioneers by Willa Cather is a different novel from those of its time. It is a novel that stands for women equality represented by the main character Alexandra. O Pioneers reveals a story about Alexandra’s struggle against nature and being a strong woman in a male dominated profession and society. She succeeded in establishing her female identity and achieved a sense of female self-fulfillment by transforming the wild land and struggling for her equal rights with men. This paper focuses on the feminist thoughts and pioneering spirit of the great image of the heroine Alexandra, who was independent, brave, and optimistic. Getting strength and courage from her such spirit, Alexandra would never be defeated by either men or nature.

In "My Antonia", Jim states that happiness means “ . . . to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep” (Book 1, Section 2). Jim, along with Antonia were two kids who traveled to Nebraska at a young age. They came from completely different socioeconomic statuses and despite Antonia's lack of language they eventually befriended each other and grew up together. From the very beginning of the book, we find out Jim's opinion on happiness as he is outstandingly intelligent and can easily express his thoughts. By the end of the book, however, through Antonia's words and actions, we find out that she agrees with Jim's definition of happiness.

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