Antonia agrees with the quote from Jim “When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.” Antonia agrees with this because even though she and her family are not happy with the place they live in, she has come to love the land and creatures on this land, which is what Jim was saying when he stated this quote. When Jim stated this quote, he was enjoying life under the sun which made him feel like life was to good at that moment. “I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy.”
Even though things were hard for Antonia she never once complained about going outdoors for her teaching. She enjoyed it.” We knew that things were hard for our Bohemian neighbors,
“Tony was barefooted, and she shivered in her cotton dress and was comfortable only when we were tucked down on the baked earth, in the full blaze of the sun. She could talk to me about almost anything by this time. “
In the story “My Antonia” Cather uses symbols to describe the aspects of the lives of the characters. The first symbols I choose to discuss is the way he used light to describe Antonia. “I remembered what the conductor had said about her eyes. They were big and warm and full of light, like the sun shining on brown pools in the wood.” Throughout the story Cather referred to light to symbolize change. Even at the end of the story he refers to light as Antonia was leaving. ” I sat down and watched the haystacks turn rosy in the slanting sunlight.”
When it came to the character of Krajiek he was not liked by the Shimerdas and Jim because of the way he used his knowledge of the English language to take advantage of the Shirmerdas. He was described as not being liked because of being like a rattlesnake. “He slept with the old man and the two boys in the dugout barn, along with the oxen. They kept him in their hole and fed him for the same reason that the prairie dogs and the brown owls housed the rattlesnakes- because they did not know how to get rid of
The house that I was expected to live in was a sod house with nothing but a dirt floor and trying to keep it clean was almost impossible. I did as much as the man did if not more. Many times, my husband would be off working in the nearest town which would leave me to do all the work including the chores outdoors such as feeding the animals, taking care of the land along with taking care of the children and the household chores, along with having to haul water from a stream down the road so that we would have water to drink. I would also have to be ready in case of a visit from Indians or wild animals. I did all of this without complaining because it took both my husband and I to be able to take care of things during this era. In my free time which I have very little of I would sew clothes for the children and items for the house that we would need. I had very little time for
2. Mr. Shimerda begs Jim to “Te-e-ach, te-e-ach my Antonia” in Book I, Section III (just at the end). Who learns more through their relationship, Jim or Antonia?
Jim was also impacted by the death of Mr. Shimerda. He was not so much impacted emotionally but he was impacted in a way that he felt he had to keep an eye on Antonia and make sure she didn’t lose her way. Jim is in possession of Mr. Shimerdas gun and in a way this hold Jim responsible to keeping the memory of him alive in Antonia. Jim didn’t want Antonia to stray from the gentle teachings of her father. He begins to see this when she starts working with Ambrosch and even worries that she is becoming like her mother. A boastful and insistent
(996). " This quote confirms that Antonia truly does care about Jim; however, she doesn't have a comfortable life like he
The American college dictionary defines success as 1. The favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors, 2. The gaining of wealth, possessions, or the like. This has been the general seances for the past hundred years or more. But in more modern days the prospective of success has changed slightly. It has shifted to having a good education, going to collage, getting a carrier getting married & having children. Having your own home and eventually dying and passing it all on to a child or children. Success is no longer satisfaction or personal goals. It has been supplemented by the goals society has preset for the populous that have been drilled into the minds of the young from the very beginning. To a man named Santiago in The Old Man and The Sea by: Earnest Hemingway, success was to conquer the Marlin Santiago had fought for so long. But as a cruel twist of fate his success is taken away in an instant when the prize he had fought so hard for was eaten by sharks, leaving Santiago with no spoils left to show for his hard fight. He was even so crushed by of the loss of the Marlin that he cried out to the sea "I am beaten.....hear stands a broken man" (234). Santiago still experienced success in the fashion that when he returned to port the little boy named Manolin that he had taught how to fish earlier in the novel was allowed to come back to fish with him. This was the ultimate form of success that was perceived for Santiago by Hemingway. To Jean Valjean in Les Misreables By: Victor Hugo , Valjean's success was represented in the form of going from convict to loving father of a daughter. The little girl named Cosette may not have been his true daughter, but after he had had dinner with a bishop that had seen the possibility of good in he started the transformation of his life. he met Cosettes mother and vowed to save her daughter from the place where she was being kept. The success Valjean experienced was what made his character the man that he was. But to Willa Cather in My
Theme of Sacrifice in My Antonia and The Song of the Lark. A common trait for Willa Cather's characters is that they possess a certain talent or skill. This art usually controls the lives of these characters. According to critic Maxell Geismar, Cather's heroines who possess a skill often either do not marry or marry men whom they dominate; if they do marry the marriage is without excitement because their passion is invested in their art.
My Ántonia brings together the life of a young boy and young Bohemian female in the old prairie. The book details this hardships and memories together as they grow older and their lives change in the ever-different worlds. The one thing that keeps them close through all of the turmoil is their personal memories. Neither Jim or Ántonia ever recall large historical events though but rather only the ir personal memories which keeps them closer than they think if when they are separated for long periods of time through the novel.
He is apprehensive about seeing Antonia, fearing that she will no longer be the idealized person who exists in his memory. Jim is not let down when they meet, as even though she is now a “battered woman … but she still had that something that fires the imagination, could stop one’s breath for a moment” (226). Age has not dampened the spirit that Jim was drawn to throughout his youth and now his adulthood. He speaks about her through a lens of true love and respect, telling her children that he “couldn’t stand it if you boys were inconsiderate [towards Antonia] … I was very much in love with your mother once, and I know there’s nobody like her” (222). Jim refers to Antonia as a “rich mine of life,” and it is clear that Antonia’s type of richness is more valuable in Jim’s eyes. Through her, he is able to realize that tangible fiscal wealth is far less precious than the impalpable beauty of emotional connection and
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.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. ( This description of the scenery is very happy, usually not how one sees the world after hearing devastating news of her husbands death.)
Much of the earliest criticism of My Antonia focuses on the apparent failure of the narrative. Many critics take the title of the story and its introduction at face value. When the story says it is to be about Ántonia, it must be about her! Therefore, many critics see the stunningly crafted pieces of "variation from a theme" -- the stories of Peter & Pavel (the Russians and their wolves) and the sections of the novel dealing with the hired girls Lena Lingard and others-- as divergences which weaken the overall structure of the novel. In other words, these stories distract us from the real story, that of Ántonia and her relationship with Jim. Other critics talk mostly about the landscape of Cather's stories, the way the pioneer story and the struggle with nature is a vital piece of her work. This is partly why, I think, Cather has been viewed as a minor writer of "local color" for so long. Because she sketches her landscapes with such simplicity and yet detail, many critics do not look past the landscape to see the characters and the true drama that they play out.
... what the town saw as amenable. As he says, "Disapprobation hurt me, I found-- even that of people whom I did not admire." (174). Jim hides behind the shadow of his dream, never fearless enough to accomplish his own goals. As Antonia faces the world with a dauntless face, Jim shrinks back at its hand. And as she cherishes her own family, Jim settles for his. He may be accepted by society but he'll never reach his own expectations.
In Antonia’s situation, Jim did not mean much other than friend, teacher, and security. In Antonia’s case, Jim’s definition was ‘friend’. Jim was her first friend in America. Both were coming from an outside area, so they had similarities. Antonia was also four years older than Jim. Still to this day, it is looked down upon if you marry a younger man, so Antonia never really had the thought of Jim as a boyfriend. For Antonia, Jim was also a teacher. When JIm and her family met for the first time at their house, it was clear that Antonia would be the most likely to succeed in English. Her mother asked Jim to teach her daughter English on that first day. Form that day on, Jim ws Antonia’s teacher. Lastly, Jim’s family cared about the Shimerda’s. As practicing Catholics and good people, the Burden’s provided the Shimerda’s with knowledge how to survive in the land. WIthout the Burdens, the Shimerda’s most likely would have died in their cave. When Mr. Shimerda committed suicide, the Burden’s hired Antonia; this allowed for Antonia to receive food and for the Shimerda’s to receive income. In Antonia’s mind, she was grateful to have a friend like Jim Burden, but it was very different for
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.
Symbolism is commonly used by authors that make short stories. Guin is a prime example of how much symbolism is used in short stories such as “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and “Sur.” In both of these stories Guin uses symbolism to show hidden meanings and ideas. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” there is a perfect Utopian city, yet in this perfect city there is a child locked in a broom closet and it is never let out. A few people leave the city when they find out about the child, but most people stay. Furthermore, in “Sur” there is a group of girls that travel to the South Pole and reach it before anyone else, yet they leave no sign or marker at the South Pole. Guin’s stories are very farfetched and use many symbols. Both “Sur” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” have many symbols such as colors, characters, objects, and weather. The four types of symbols that Guin uses help the readers understand the themes in her short stories. Although her stories are farfetched, they need symbolism in them or the reader would not understand the theme; therefore the symbols make Guin’s stories much more enjoyable.
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.