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The Trials and Tribulations of Ántonia
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 make her a stronger person.
My Ántonia is a novel that captures the struggles of early European immigrants and settlers. Antonia, a young Bohemian immigrant, moves to Nebraska with her family in search for better opportunities. Mrs. Shimerda moves her family, against her husbands will, as she believes there is more land and money for her sons and better husbands for her girls (Cather 96). It is here she meets Jim Burden, a neighboring orphan who arrives on the same train as she. Antonia and Jim quickly form a strong bond and become best friends. However, as they get older, their lives take different paths that cause them to drift apart. While Jim goes to school, he furthers his education and becomes a lawyer; Antonia must stay behind and work to help support her family. Before long, Antonia falls in love with a man who abandons her unwed and pregnant. Consequently, the town turns its back on her, and she must return to her family’s farm to work. Eventually, ...
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...nia. New York: Penguin Books, 1994. Print.
Dykema-VanderArk, Anthony M. "An overview of My Ántonia." Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 2011. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.
Gerber, Philip. "Chapter 3: The Bright Challenge." Willa Cather. Philip L. Gerber. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1975. Twayne's United States Authors Series 258. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.
Miller, JR. E, James. My Antonia: A Frontier Drama of time. American Quarterly. X.4. (Winter, 1958): 476-84. Rpt. In Twentieth- Century Literary Criticism: Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of Novelists, Poets, Playwrights, Short Story Writers, and other Creative Writers Who Died between 1900 and 1960, from the First Published Critical Appraisals to Current Evaluations. Eds. Paula Kepos and Dennis Poupard. Vol. 31. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1989. 33-33. Print.
She is very close to her father so this impacts her deeply. She feels the need to step up and care for her family. This turns Antonia into a very hard worker. She begins working with Ambrosch, her brother, by plowing the fields. She takes on the responsibilities of a man. This makes her stop going to school. This worries Jim until he finds out that Antonia is actually very hurt by the event of her father dying. Antonia cries in secret and longs to go to school.
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.
Randall III, John H. "Intrepretation of My Antonia." Willa Cather and Her Critics. Ed. James Schroeter. New York: Cornell University Press, 1967. 272-323.
In the book, "My Antonia", nostalgic views can be compared to those from narratives of Indians personal experiences. The experience that can be compared is the relation that they had regarding the westward movement and the plans the Americans had for the different races. The hardships they had experienced had been uncomfortable and unfair. The Indians had it harder than the immigrants, because they were moved from their own homes and sent to reservations and their kids were taken to the east to learn to become white. The immigrants came to the west expected great opportunities. They experienced hardships which involved new culture, religion, and the racist ways of the white men. Although these images can be compared to hardships they had the Indians had a more difficult outcome to experience.
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.
Kempe, Margery. "From The Book of Margery Kempe." The Norton Anthology of Literature By Women. 2nd ed. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. 18-24.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
The landscape and the environment in Willa Cather's, My Ántonia, plays several roles. It creates both a character and protagonist, while it also reflects Cather's main characters, Jim and Ántonia, as well as forming the structure of the novel. Additionally, it evokes several themes that existed on the prairie during the time in which the story takes place. Some of these themes that directly relate to the novel, which are worth exploring, are endurance, hardship, and spirituality. Additionally, the symbolism of the "hot and cold" climate will be examined, revealing the significance it has on the novel in an overall manner. The analyses will further explain Cather's construction of the novel, which is based on three cycles: the cycle of the seasons, the cycle of life and physical development and lastly, the cultural cycle.
2nd ed. of the book. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Literature Resource Center -. Web.
Willa Cather’s 1918 novel My Ántonia is often celebrated for its complimentary depiction of the immigrants that flocked to America at the turn of the twentieth century and hailed for its progressive approach to the ever-relevant immigrant debate. Despite the novel’s superficial benevolence towards foreigners, Janis Stout questions the authenticity of the book’s (and, by extension, Cather’s) kindnesses in her critical article “Coming to America/Escaping to Europe.” Stout argues that Cather’s ethnic characters (or lack thereof) reflect the popular, discriminatory views of her time, and extracts evidence from both the novel and the author’s personal life to buttress this claim. Stout’s criticism inspired my own interpretation-- that Cather’s treatment
My Antonia, Jim's nostalgia for the past is represented by nature, symbolic elements, and above all Antonia. The Nebraskan prairies are beautiful and picturesque and set the scene for a memorable story. Big farm houses and windmills placed throughout the graceful flowing golden yellow grass become a nostalgic aspect of Jim as he leaves his childhood life behind. The frontier includes destructive and depressing winters and luscious summers that
Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski. Vol.
Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Jay Parini. Vol. 14. Detroit: Gale Research, 1987. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "Essay date 1935." Twentieth-Century Litirary Criticism 9. Ed. Dennis Poupond. Detroit: Gale Research, 1983. 316-317
Twentieth Century Literary Criticism 115 (1929): 121-126. JSTOR. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. "Dictionary.com."