Impressions of My Antonia

Impressions of My Antonia

My Antonia has been called nostalgic and elegiac because it

celebrates the past. The inscription on the title page of My Antonia is a

quotation from Virgil: "Optima dies... prima fugit." This sentence, meaning

"the best days are first to flee", helps incorporate all the elements of

the novel I would like to discuss. It not only makes clear that Willa

Cather will deal with memories of a glorious past, but also allows suitable

basis to show how nature can change and affect a relationship. It also

hints at the Hellenic, to a large extent pastoral tone the novel will be

set in. A pastoral work retreats to an ideal rural setting. Jim Burden

not only goes back to the prairie, but more importantly, he retreats to the

innocent days of his very first memories. While this reflects on the focus

of the paper, I will use two characters, Jim and Antonia, to illustrate

these issues, and show why they make this book such a delightful work of

art.

My Antonia is told from the point of view of Willa Cather's

fictional friend, Jim Burden. He writes in the first person, and his use

of the pronoun "I" makes you feel his personal involvement. The point of

view is immediate and subjective. Looking back on his memories, he knows

what is eventually going to happen to the characters. He persuades you to

sympathize with all of them. His perception, being broad and persuasive,

sets the tone for the whole book. What is the purpose of having the story

told by Jim Burden thirty years later? From that perspective he can

present with great clarity and tenderness the highlights of his memories.

A man of the world, he is reinvestigating his values. Jim Burden sets down

everything the name of Antonia brings back to him. Antonia represents to

him the most fundamental, traditional way to lead one's life, including the

virtues of hard work, charity, love, optimism, pride, and sympathy with

nature.

The prairie makes one think of the forces of nature--immense,

cyclical, and unpredictable. When Jim Burden arrives on his grandparents'

farms, he is awed by the sight of "nothing but land." His parents are both