Willa Cather s My Antonia - 1432 Words

In Willa Cather’s novel My à ntonia, Cather uses the theme of the natural world to further expand on the persona of the character, Jim Burden, and his romantic outlook on life. Jim shows a strong bond to nature because it brings back his idyllic childhood memories and the feelings he had of absolute bliss. By connecting the theme of nature to his childhood, Jim presents the idea that he feels dissatisfied as an adult in the city and misses his life on the farm where he was in union with nature. Moreover, Jim links à ntonia, the most important person from his childhood, to the idea of nature. He recognizes that the familiar feeling of utter happiness brought to him by nature is also brought to him by à ntonia; therefore, his memories of à ntonia coincide with the natural world around him. Jim’s ability to make the most minute occurrences in the natural world hold a deeper, more profound meaning, such as his elaborate depiction of a sunset from his childhood, asse rts him as a romantic character. Furthermore, Cather correlates the changes of the seasons and the development of the farmland to further illustrate Jim’s growth as a character. In particular, she uses the transition from winter to spring to highlight Jim’s character growth as a result of the impact the tragic events of winter had on him. Additionally, Cather connects the beginning of Jim’s life in Nebraska to the new, empty lands of the Nebraskan plains and ties his progression as a character with the development of theShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Willa Cather s My Antonia 1874 Words   |  8 PagesJuly 2016 Gender Roles Reexamined In Willa Cather’s novel entitled My Antonia, she writes about several female characters that challenge the stereotypical role of women in a male-dominated society during the early 1900s. In Trifles, a play written by Susan Glaspell, her female characters are represented as crafty and bright and not mere intellectual inferiors to their male counterparts. Upon closer examination of these two separate and distinct stories, Cather and Glaspell establish that these femaleRead MoreWilla Cather s My Antonia And O1655 Words   |  7 PagesBoth Willa Cather’s My à ntonia and O. E. Rà ¶lvaag’s Giants in the Earth portray the difficulties of everyday life in unexplored territory, with similar themes and context. Although the overarching themes of both novels are similar, the manner in which characters behave with each other, the dependency families have on each other, and the ability of individuals to mitigate conflict is different. Both My à ntonia and Giants in the Earth portray an array of sources causing conflict in relationships. HoweverRead MoreWilla Cather s My Antonia1932 Words   |  8 Pages In her novel My Antonia, Willa Cather, while writing in a sexist time, calls attention to the power of the female in life and society through Antonia, Lena Lingard, Tiny Soderball and Frances Harling and accentuates and celebrates the significance of the matriarchal world by use of Jim Burden as the narrator. Jim holds an enlightened consciousness of the female because, after spending most of his life with these women, he sees how they started with nothing ended with a successful life. In a timeRead MoreWilla Cather s My Antonia864 Words   |  4 PagesMy Antonia is a novel published in 1918 by Willa Cather. This novel tells the story of Antonia Shimerda, a Bohemian immigrant in Nebraska in the late 1800s. Although My Antonia is fictional, it is based on Willa Cather’s youth in Nebraska. Jim Burden reflects Willa Cather is this novel. Jim Burden moved from Virginia to Nebraska to live with his grandparents after his parents died. He traveled with Jake Marpole, one of the farm hands that worked for Jim’s dad. Jake was now going west to work forRead MoreWilla Cather s My Antonia And O Pioneers !1919 Words   |  8 Pagespioneers were expecting the land to work with them, but it was actually working against them. Winters were hard, and many pioneers gave up and left. The few who remained were proven to be strong and determined to force the land to cooperate. In Willa Cather’s My à ntonia and O Pioneers!, her purpose was to show readers that women could be strong pioneers, overcoming the adversity caused by the land, as seen through similes, personification, juxtaposition, and arrangement. Alexandra’s brothers compare themselvesRead MoreWilla Cather s My Antonia And O Pioneers !1464 Words   |  6 Pagespioneers were expecting the land to work with them, but it was actually working against them. Winters were hard, and many pioneers gave up and left. The few who remained were proven to be strong and determined to force the land to cooperate. In Willa Cather’s My à ntonia and O Pioneers!, her purpose was to show readers that women could be strong pioneers, overcoming the adversity caused by the land, as seen through similes, personification, juxtaposition, and arrangement. First, Alexandra’s brothers compareRead MoreWilla Cather s Lost Lady And My Antonia1761 Words   |  8 Pagesher stories Lost Lady and My Antonia, Willa Cather explores the ‘woman problem’. She does this by exploring the lives of women through the lens of men who grew up around them. Doing this allows her to highlight how society treats women and men differently, and subtly show this distinction to readers in order to call out the patriarchal double standard that existed in her time, and continues to exist today. In the stories of Marian Forrester and Antonia Shimerida, Willa Cather highlights struggles womenRead MoreEssay about The Beauty of the Lack of Structure in My Antonia1587 Words   |  7 Pagesto James E. Miller Jr.s, My Antonia; A Frontier Drama of Time, Willa Cathers novel, one of her most important and perhaps most popular works, is defective in structure (Bloom, 21).   He quotes E. K. Brown, who defends that: Everything in the book is there to co nvey a feeling, not to tell a story, not to establish a social philosophy, not even to animate a group of characters (21).   The reader undoubtedly feels the impact of the story of Antonia and Jim as Cather intended, but critics blindRead More My Antonia Essay: Independence and Belonging670 Words   |  3 Pages Independence and Belonging in My Antonianbsp;nbsp; In My Antonia there are two types of women, those who want to have a man and those who donsup1;t. The key word is want, at no point does a woman need a man in the entire course of the novel. From the Hired Girls to Tiny Soderball and Lena Lingard women are capable of self sufficiency and happiness. The majority of the truly contented people are either alone or living without the opposite sex. Antonia and Cuzak are the only example of a sup3;normalsup2;Read MoreNaturalism and My Antonia959 Words   |  4 Pagesis an ongoing literary movement that has been apparent since the 1900’s. It depicts how the environment, social conditions, and even hereditary characteristics influence and shape the way a human character will develop. It is believed that there is no escaping this realism, and each situation one experiences is what will establish the route of life that they will partake. A short story called â€Å"My Antonia†, written by Willa Cather is merely categorized with R ealism and Naturalism, though it is evident