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
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)
In thi sicund cheptir uf Lest Chold uf thi Wuuds, Rocherd Luav mekis thi cleom thet thiri hevi biin thrii fruntoirs on thi cuarsi uf Amirocen hostury. Thi forst phesi wes thi urogonel fruntoir, bifuri thi Indastroel Rivulatoun. Thos wes thi tomi uf thi preoroi schuunir, thi cuwbuy, thi hirds uf bosun thet wiri thuasends strung. Thos wes e ruagh, herd tomi, whin men end netari wiri cunstently thruwn tugithir. Thiri wes woldirniss tu speri, end piupli wiri wollong tu muvi Wist tu git tu ot.
Antonia's mom smokes and she has been really sick lately. Her mom is the antagonist in this story because she can't even get out of bed unless she feels good. Since her mom has been sick, Antonia has to take care of everything around the house, including her brother. So one day Antonia was at a friend's house and her mom and brother decided to go on a picnic and when they were done she took her son to a motel, and then left to go to a bar down the road.
Dreams are nothing but our innermost desires. We are made to pursue these dreams and have them be the driving force in all we do. Jim Burden is no different; like everyone, he has dreams, and he does his best to pursue them and fulfill them. Or does he? Jim writes the story of Antonia through his own life. He is plagued with the disease of romanticism. He cannot move on; though time will move, Jim's thoughts and emotions are rooted in the past. Frances Harling said it right when she said, "the trouble with you, Jim, is that you're romantic." Jim is a romantic, a dreamer who never acts. Many things contribute to Jim's romanticism, his experiences, his emotions, and his actions; however as no one could suspect, it helped him mature and appreciate loves lost.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Jim tries to model himself after a man who is crushed by the yoke of caring for his family. Since he has no paternal figure in his life, Jim is unable to decipher the emotional pain of Mr. Shimerda. At this point, Jim first starts to contemplate his romanticized view on life. The irony of this is when Mr. Shimerda promises to give Jim his gun after he becomes a real man. Antonia translates it into, “My tatinek say when you are big boy, he give you his gun” (Cather 32). Mr. Shimerda defines being a real man as being able to provide for your family, which he has been unable to do since they migrated to Nebraska. This causes a chain reaction in Jim and Antonia. Mr. Shimerda's death causes Jim and Antonia to sort of diverge paths with their decision making, and as Antonia begins to age. She takes on the parental role, or catalyst, that Jim needs to develop as a character.
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.
Learning about the Holocaust helps us see how we changed over the years because of those events and helps us understand how fortunate we are to be living in this time. As we studied the Holocaust, we learned how people were impacted by the Nazis and Germany's new laws. This event in history helped us to realize that forming wrong ideas about a group can lead to major problems in the end. It also teaches us that power can be abused and people will suffer if the problem isn't recognized durring its early stages. Studying about the Holocaust helps us learn that everyone is different and we must learn to accept each other's differences so that hate towards certian people will not cause the same event to happen again. Learning about the events in history helps us to take measures to prevent the worst things from happening again.
Abrams 1604 - 1606. Peterson, Linda H. "What Is Feminist Criticism?" Wuthering Heights. Ed. Linda H. Peterson, Ph.D. Boston: Bedford Books, 1992.