Antonia and Jim of My Antonia 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. Starting at a young age, the main characters lives are intertwined. They form a special bond, which have both positive and negative affects on their relationship. At the time when Jim and Antonia are growing up, a rigid social structure exists in Nebraska. This social difference contributed to the creation and alteration of their friendship; in part, it is responsible for their behavior toward one another. …show more content…
As Jim attends school with other children of his social stature, Antonia is forced to manually work in the fields. A division between the two characters is immediately created. Antonia develops resentment towards Jim; "I ain't got time to learn. I can work like mans now. My mother can't say no more Ambrosch do all and nobody to help him. I can work as much as him. School is all right for little boys. I help make this land one good farm (996)." Antonia takes out her bitterness by insulting Jim, but later she proves to be upset about not having the privilege to attend school. "Sometime you will tell me all those nice things you learn at the school, won't you, Jimmy? (996)." This quote confirms that Antonia truly does care about Jim; however, she doesn't have a comfortable life like he …show more content…
Jim's first impression of the town is, " ... a curious social situation. All the young men felt the attraction of the fine, well-set-up country girls who had come to town to earn a living (1023)." There was a harsh segregation between the country or "hired" girls and the town girls. The girls of the town were considered to be "refined" whereas the country girls were perceived as "disreputable" (1023). The town's people looked down on these girls; "The country girls were considered a menace to the social order
“Money doesn’t buy happiness.” Most children learn this proverb and immediately try to disprove it, or simply do not believe it. However, age allows one to see the truth in this phrase. In My Antonia, a novel by Willa Cather, the protagonist, Jim Burden, reflects on his childhood in the American frontier. Despite achieving wealth and an elevated social position, benefits most associate with attaining the American Dream, Jim Burden eventually realizes that true success, and happiness, is found in strong emotional connections.
When Willa Cather wrote her novel My Antonia in 1918, there probably was not any doubt that it was the story of a woman's accomplishment. However, today there have been many critics that claim this work to be the legacy of a girl's struggle, not triumph. This perception can easily be argued. This leaves readers with the choice of interpreting the book as enlightening or depressing.
Antonia and Jim became very close friends and went through many childhood experiences together. Their friendship was soon torn apart when Ambrosch and Jake engaged in a quarrel which separated the two families for quite some time. But once again, the families resolve their differences and become close again. (Chapter 1)
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.
The years between 1933-1945 was a horrifying time period. We learn about the Holocaust to know and learn about how bad the past was and what people had to go through. People study the Holocaust to be educate and undertsand the past. The most important reason why we study the Holocaust is so that nothing as bad as the Holocaust was, happens again. According to Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
In the end, the real main question is why. Why do we study the Holocaust? We study it for so many reasons. We study it so we remember all the tragic events, from the murdering of the Jews to the liberation of death camps. Also this defineing moment in history lets us see how rasicim effected everything. Not only in Germany with the Nuremberg Laws, but here as well with the Jim Crow Laws. WWII did help us out of The Great Depression though. But the most important reason as to why we study this is so we know the signs, so it will never happen again. No one should ever want this to repeat. It was tragic all around. Thats why kids world wide will alwats study about the Holocaust.
All these things where really bad for people and everyone one in the Holocaust suffered. In the Holocaust millions of people where murdered and burned or even gased. In Wolrd War 2 teens where forced to fight in war because of the draft thousands didn't make it home. People in World War 2 would ride onto shore in boats and many didn't even make it onto the beach cause they where killed. Anne Frank was missing out of her childhood because of the Holocaust. We learn about these things so we don't do this again and we learn from are mistakes.
In Book I of My Ántonia, Jim is introduced to Ántonia Shimerda and find himself quickly smitten with the bohemian teenager. It would be easy to assume that young Mr. Burden’s acceptance of Ántonia is based solely on the romantic feelings that he is developing for her, but a deeper sense of love is coming about as their relationship grows over the years. Jim connects this girl to so much of his life and how he sees the world, “More than any other person we remembered, this girl seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood” (Cather, 1217). Yet, for Jim it went beyond the recalling memories of years ...
We study history to learn from it. People make mistakes and it is not only our job, but our responsibility to learn from them so no one makes those errors again. What we learn from the Holocaust is what happens when you forget your morals and blindly follow others. We learn the horrible, tragic outcome of racism and discrimination. We learn that when good does nothing, evil takes over. We study the Holocaust because it is not only important, but essential that we do not repeat history.
We study the Holocaust so we can rememeber the people that were discriminated against, tortured, and killed by the Nazi Regime of Germany in the concentration camps. We study the Holocaust so we can recognize the insanity of Adolf Hitler, so we may stop it if it ever rises again. According to Edmund Burk, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". This is exactly how it happened the first time; the Holocaust happened because nobody stopped it. We have to make sure it never happens again.
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.
The Holocaust was a time period in history that is very important to learn about. We learn about it for many reasons, but I think the most important reason is to learn not to discriminate against other people. Not only is it very important to learn about the Holocaust, but it's also important to learn about Hitler's rise to power and how he came to make his decision of the discrimination affiliated with the Holocaust. The events and outcome of World War II and Anne Frank are very important topics, too. These topics are all factors that are associated with the overall events of the Holocaust and all back up the reason as to why we study the Holocaust.
...was a terrible war that nobody wants to ever happen again. It was really important to know the signs of it starting again like a country changing its' law like eliminating goverment postions so somebody has all the power. It is an amazing thing that we learn about the tragic events that took place in Europe. We also learn about the Holocaust because we don't want another world war. It would be tragic if we hand another world war that tore the world up. We also don't need another person doing the same exact thing Hilter did like creating laws discriminating many just because of their race or religon. So the main reason we learn about the Holocaust and all the other tragic event is to know how all the people around the world were effected in some way and if it did happen again it would also effect everybody right now. We also want to make sure it never happens again.
Cather, Willa. “Paul’s Case.” The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Eds. R.V. Cassill and Richard Bausch. Shorter 6th ed. New York: Norton, 2000. 198-207.
Randall III, John H. "Intrepretation of My Antonia." Willa Cather and Her Critics. Ed. James Schroeter. New York: Cornell University Press, 1967. 272-323.