Willa Sibert Cather's My Antonia

My Antonia, by Willa Cather, is a novel about Jim Burden and his relationship and experiences growing up with Antonia Shimerda in Nebraska. Throughout the book Jim reflects on his memories of Nebraska and the Shimerda family, often times in a sad and depressing tone. One of the main ways Cather is able to provoke these sad emotions within the reader is through the suicide of Antonia’s father, Mr. Shimerda. His death was unexpected by everyone and it is thought that homesickness is what drove him to take his own life. Homesickness was surely felt by Mr. Shimerda, as it was by many, but it was the failure to adequately find a way to provide for his family that sent Mr. Shimerda into a

When Jim returns for a visit, the two reminisce and he feels that it may be the last time he returns and he attempts to memorize the prairie, fields and tall grass and recall what it felt like to run free through it with Ántonia beside him.

The visual and tactile imagery in Cather’s My Antonia highlight the novel’s theme of nostalgia. In the first paragraph of the passage, Jim writes about an afternoon out with Antonia. He describes the plains of Nebraska, his surroundings, using words of warmth and peace. Jim talks about the “warm, grassy bank,” the “amber sunlight,” and the “tall asparagus…lying on the ground.” The visual imagery, displayed in these descriptions, contributes to the theme of nostalgia as Jim reminisces about a more peaceful and loving part of his adolescence. Through this visual imagery, Jim’s descriptions of his surroundings immerse themselves into the novel and become a character of their own. The sun, the sky, the animals- Jim’s surroundings- aid in Jim’s

In the novel, My Antonia, the author Willa Cather demonstrates how past and memory shapes our lives through Jim's point of view at the end of the book. At the end of the novel, Jim returns to Antonia. Many years have gone by, but the two characters are still connecting by the past they shared together growing up. Antonia will always be apart of Jim's life even if she is no

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 .

Willa Cather’s My Antonia is the story of a lifelong friendship that began between Jim and Antonia, two people who became friends when they were young and lived on the Nebraska prairie. Jim and Antonia encountered a large rattlesnake and a startled and, rather than yell out in English, Antonia speaks in her native Bohemian language. Antonia’s father, depressed and sad over missing his homeland, committed suicide and left the family to fend for themselves in a strange country. Jim’s grandparents decide that they are too old to run a ranch daily so they move to the closest town, Black Hawk.

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.

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

With the intent of creating a structural detachment that reflects her own emotional detachment, Jameson, as author, puts together an orientation and complicating action that don’t appear to go together. On a September train ride, distant memories and thoughts blur past the grown Jameson’s eyes, such as “the journeys made feverish by unmanageable longings and ambitions, night journeys in wartime” (15) and continue to make their way to the forefront of her mind with a picture of “the darkened corridor crammed with young men in clumsy khaki, smoking, falling asleep, [and] journeys with a heavy baby in one arm” (Jameson 15). Before Jameson as adult can make her way back to her memory as a child, she must travel through many other memories of departures and journeys. This roundabout way in which Jameson brings her reader into her memories structurally reflects the detached feelings she has for herself as a child. It suggests a physiological separation between Jameson and herself because she cannot easily think about her past. These detached feelings are enforced textually when she uses the third person to refer to herself as “the child” (15) and to those presumably close to her like her mother, whom she calls “the captain’s wife” (16). By creating this structural and textual detachment, Jameson emphasizes her emotional isolation from herself as a child. Before speaking about herself as a child, she must search through her memories “like a knot of adders uncoiling themselves,” (15)  which suggests that it is painful for Jameson to reach back to her childhood

My Antonia is a philosophical story, with dream-like ideas left and right. Even so, the book’s main theme was clearly the transition or journey from childhood to adulthood. This theme applied to both the main characters, Jim and Antonia, who were children when the story begins and adults when it ends. At ten years old, Jim Burden moved to the plains of Black Hawk, Nebraska. His parents had died in an epidemic, and Jim was sent to live with his father’s parents on their Nebraska farm. In his new home, he met a Bohemian girl named Antonia, a free-spirited, lively, unique personality. He fell in love with her, and although his feelings were not returned, he and Antonia became great friends. The book has numerous examples of traditional obstacles that people their ages go through, along with additional hardships such as poverty and death of close family members. Antonia developed a sense of independence that became her most prominent trait throughout the book. The characters found activities and places where they felt like they belonged, and they began to discover who they were. As Jim (the narrator) states, “The new country lay open before me: there were no fences in those days, and I could choose my own way over the grass uplands, trusting the pony to get me home again.” Jim was speaking of a place

In the novel My Antonia by Willa Cather is a book based upon the main characters memories. Many critics have criticized this novel, and have focused on such literary elements as setting,theme, tone and etc. However the strongest argument is the one that states that the foundation of every element in the book is based on the personal memories of Willa Cather. After researching Willa Cather you can discover many biographies that talk about her life. In many instances I found stories about her life that I found similar to Jim and Antonias. Since she used personal experiences and turned them into a story it adds a special touch to her writing.

Humankind’s Relationship to the Past The focal account of Ántonia is an investigate the past. And however in his portrayal Jim once in a while says anything specifically in regards to the possibility of the past, the general tone of the novel is profoundly nostalgic. Jim's intention in composing his story is to attempt to restore some association between his present as a powerful New York legal advisor. And his vanished past on the Nebraska prairie; in re-making that past, the novel speaks to both Jim's recollections and his emotions about his recollections. Also, inside the account itself, characters regularly think back longingly toward a past that they have lost, particularly after Book I. Living in Black Hawk, Jim and Ántonia review their days on the ranches; Lena thinks back toward

The setting of the story has tremendous impact on the characters and themes in the novel "My Antonia" by Willa Cather. Cather's delicately crafted naturalistic style is evident not only in her colorfully detailed depictions of the Nebraska frontier, but also in her characters’ relationship with the land on which they live. The common naturalist theme of man being controlled by nature appears many times throughout the novel, particularly in the chapters containing the first winter.

“Big Two Hearted River”, a semi-autobiographical short story by Ernest Hemingway, is a story about the main character, Nick, returning to Big Two Hearted River in order to recover from his inner wounds. Nick Adams goes on a journey alone in nature for a therapeutic purpose as he suffers from PTSD. However, Hemingway purposely avoided any direct discussion regarding to Nick’s mental wounds. The absence of the discussion is contributed by Hemingway’s writing style, the Iceberg principle. Hemingway focuses explicitly on what occurs on the surface without mentioning actual theme. This indicates that the theme of self-healing cannot be uncovered by simply looking at the text itself. In order to comprehend the actual theme of the story, the character development of Nick must be examined. This is possible since Nick Adams is a recurring character of Hemingway’s stories. The two preceding stories of “Big Two Hearted River”, “Now I lay me” and “A Way you’ll Never Be”, directly discusses Nick’s suffering from shell-shock and how he comforts himself by returning to Big Two Hearted river in his mind. The two short stories will be analyzed and connected to “Big Two Hearted River” in the essay first. This will provide a strong understanding of Nick’s psyche and the reason behind his return to nature. Then, “Big Two Hearted River” the short story itself will be carefully analyzed.

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