Analysis Of My Antonia By Willa Cather
Imagine huddling with your family, trapped under feet of snow and with dwindling supplies of food in the winter. Imagine working for hours on end in the 120 degree weather in the summer. Imagine watching you and your family wither away in inhuman conditions. These were some of the many perils the early American settlers faced. Winter and summer formed a doubled-edged sword. In addition, periods of drought, rainstorms, tornadoes, swarms of grasshoppers could destroy fields of crops. For experienced farmers it was a Herculian task to build a home and establish a farm, but the free land, abundant wildlife, and the rich soil was so enticing, the opportunity hard to resist. My Antonia by Willa Cather embodies not just the physical hardships, …show more content…
Jim’s motive for writing his story is to try to reestablish some connection between his present as a New York lawyer and his vanished past on the Nebraska prairie. Additionally, within the narrative itself, other characters often look back longingly toward a past that they have lost. When Mr. Shimerda survey the squalor his family lived in, Mr. Shimerda believed ‘that peace and order had vanished from the earth,” or existed only “in the old world he had left so far behind.”() Living in Black Hawk, Jim and Ántonia recall their days on the farms; Lena looks back toward her life with her family; the Shimerdas and the Russians reflect on their lives in their respective home countries before they immigrated to the United States.The two principal qualities that the past seems to possess for most of the characters in the novel are that it is unrecoverable and that it is, in some way, preferable to the present. Antonia misses life in Bohemia just as Jim the lawyer misses life in Nebraska, but neither can possibly return. This impossibility may have been autobiographical as well, informed by Cather’s own longing for her Nebraska childhood. Since if the past can never be recovered, it can never be escaped, either, and Jim is fated to go on thinking about Black Hawk long after he has left
My Antonia Analysis
937 Words | 4 PagesIn My Antonia, Willa Cather pens a nostalgic story focused on a two people with a unique connection. Jim Burden narrates the story of Antonia Shimerda, the girl next door who happens to be a Bohemian emigrant. Jim moves to his grandparents’ house after his parents die; Antonia arrives in the United States with her family and little else. The two are vastly different, but bond quickly on the Nebraska prairie. Most people who study the novel acknowledge the obvious impact that Antonia has on Jim and see Antonia as “in one way or another, the center of the novel” (Lucenti).
How Did Jamestown Occur In Jamestown?
381 Words | 2 PagesDuring the first period of time many got sick from disease, since many weren't use to the new colony. 40 men died that period during the winter. Droughts were also a concern, many berries and natural resources were scarce, causing them look more. Water also affected them, they had to drink salt water, which many could have
Summary Of Early Jamestown
486 Words | 2 PagesThe earliest colonists who came to Americas in search for better land, opportunities would have to struggle before finding what they came in search for. They face many circumstances one of them being they didn’t speak the language and where new to the land. Throughout time they learn to cultivate crops exchange items for food etc. Life for the earliest colonists was harsh. According to chapter 3 where we learn about the settlement in Jamestown.
How Does The Impact The Hired Girls Have On Jim In My Antonia
764 Words | 4 PagesLena had brought them all back to me” (173). All it takes is a single visit from Lena to send Jim deep into contemplation, reminiscing about the times he had on the prairie. In particular, Jim thinks of a
Early Pioneers In Nebraska
380 Words | 2 PagesSometimes droughts in Nebraska made it very difficult to feed their families and still have some left over to sell. Which was difficult because this is how they earned a living. Most pioneers lived in sod houses. These were insulated which was very convenient for Pioneer families during the different seasons. Almost every family member played a role in the pioneer life.
Effects Of Jamestown Settlement
224 Words | 1 PagesThe Jamestown settlement was one of the harshest experiences for many of the people on that voyage and it was led by Bartholomew Gosnold. If one family member owned a big section of land the family would often fight over the claim on the land. The settlers lost all of their clean water supply and that caused them to have to drink salt water that carried diseases and illness. Many settlers could not handle the harsh weather. They did not know how to dress for the weather and could not find food.
Jamestown Dbq Research Paper
846 Words | 4 PagesThe fail to properly plan for their voyage shows the unpreparedness and unsafe circumstances the settlers were living with. Captain John Smith, who had brought much-needed authority to the colonists, returned to England due to a gunshot wound he received. His departure happened to fall just months before winter came, leaving the unprofessional settlers wallowing in their inadequacy. With no structure the settlers were ill-fated in becoming the first permanent of the new
Difference Between Early American Settlers
983 Words | 4 PagesJourney on the Western Expansion was long and gruesome. Compared to what society has today, American Settlers had to face many challenges that were often hard to face in the first place. As people of today, we get the means of transportation to save the time of difficult journeys and medicine to heal us from illness, but after seeing Martha’s life on the trail through the interview, her and her family’s life led to a difficult path to just getting to Oregon. Overall, being a pioneer in the 1800’s was an exhausting trip, and it’s nothing at all like
My Antonia Passage Analysis
513 Words | 3 PagesIn My Antonia, young Jim Burden moves to the Midwest prairie to live with his grandparents after his parents’ death. Whilst meeting the Shimerdas, a Bohemian immigrant family, Jim quickly befriends their daughter Antonia. The two remain friends all the way through their childhood. In adolescence, Jim and his grandparents move to Black Hawk, a nearby small town. Later, Antonia moves to the town as a “hired girl”, keeping house for Jim’s neighbors.
Theme Of Immigration In Willa Cather's My Antonia
855 Words | 4 PagesChallenges of Immigration: The Shimerda’s Struggle Willa Cather’s novel, My Ántonia sheds light on the topic of immigration. Immigrants have many different reasons for why they might migrate to the United States. Some were trying to escape something from their old country such as avoiding a war, trouble with the law, or shame as is the case of the Russians Pavel and Peter. Reasons for immigrating could also relate to chasing the American dream as is the case with the Shimerdas.
Did The Realities Of The New World Affect The Plans Of Coloniizers
411 Words | 2 PagesThe men among these settlers were not equipped to handle the manual labor in creating a colony. Not even the servants of these gentlemen were able to endure the labor. This was quite the setback in the colonizers plans in the New World. In result of the failing crops and the unskillfulness of the men among the settlers, half of the settlers died that first winter.
Essay About Drought In Jamestown
782 Words | 4 PagesBecause of these three things, starvation, lack of people to fill occupations, and drought, the colonists suffered a great deal.
Theme Of Childhood In My Antonia
548 Words | 3 PagesThese topic of adolescence through Jim shapes the meaning behind Cather’s story to be about life and
Theme Of Friendship In My Antonia
841 Words | 4 PagesMy Antonia: Jim and Tony’s Unrequited Relationship “I’d like you to have you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister, anything that a woman can be to a man (206).” Jim Burden, a young man, narrated his memories and friendship with a young immigrant named Antonia Shimerda. My Antonia was a novel that showed incapable relationship between two characters, but displayed the real beauty and love in life. Willa Cather’s book illustrated how the main characters created a strong friendship, but, were separated from a relationship by societal norms and expectations.
My Antonia Analysis Essay
687 Words | 3 PagesThis visitation had intensified the already vivid memories of his childhood. Lena’s visit had brought along an aura of warm and friendship with her. Lena’s visit had brought along a surge of flashbacks as Jim had stated he could plainly hear the laughs of the Danish and Bohemian girls. However, Lena eventually has to leave and Jim’s best days fled with her. Though everyone goes through a cycle of some sort throughout their life the one I have witnessed while reading My Antonia is to an extent is very different.
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