How Does The Impact The Hired Girls Have On Jim In My Antonia
In her novel “My Antonia,” Willa Cather shows the impact the Hired Girls have on Jim is the way they offer him a nostalgic connection to his past by using the works of Virgil, and from this connection Jim is able to reach deep intellectual and personal understanding. After being away from his childhood home for many years, and in the midst of pursuing his studies, Jim is reunited with Lena Lingard. The effect she has on him is immediate and lasting, and after seeing her for the first time Jim finds himself thinking of the past. “When I closed my eyes I could hear them all laughing - the Danish laundry girls and the three Bohemian Marys. Lena 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 …show more content…
It floated before me on the page like a picture, and underneath it stood the mournful line: Optima dies...prima fugit” (174). The best days are the first to flee - Cather’s comparison of the girls to the line of Virgil shows us that the memories are a strand of thread that connects Jim to his childhood, invoking deeply nostalgic feelings. His time on the prairie is unrecoverable and inescapable, a time he sees as his ‘best’ before his inevitable aging and moving and changing. Jim decides, with the memories of his past fresh in his mind, that, “If there were no girls like them in the world, there would be no poetry.” The way the Hired Girls are so easily able to bring up memories and feelings of such intensity for Jim, even many years and many miles away, is a source of deep intellectual understanding for him. It makes clear to him both why poets exist and why he cares about the poetry - the deeply personal nature of Virgil’s works are
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).
Poem Review: Class Picture, 1954 By Billy Collins
482 Words | 2 PagesClass Picture, 1954 by Billy Collins is about a man who reflects on his class picture and memories of childhood. I see the speaker as someone that stumbled upon this relic of a photograph when ravaging through old boxes in the attic. The speaker then has all the memories of childhood flood his mind and he giddily tells the reader who the other students are. In the way the poem is written, it seems like the reader is a spouse or the speaker’s children. The speaker begins the poem reflecting on memories in stanza’s one through four; his/her “normal” school, with his “normal” crush, his “normal” friends, and his “normal” family in the distance of this “normal” memory.
Racial Attitudes In John Cather's My Antonia
484 Words | 2 PagesQuestion: How does Cather use Jim's description to reflect the town's racial attitudes towards the new settlers. In the novel “My Antonia”, Cather uses Jim's character descriptions in order to show racial attitudes towards the new settlers. She also compares his description of russians with Antonia’s in order to show the town's racial attitude can be contrasted depending on how well they know each other. First and foremost, the author of “My Antonia” presents positive racial attitudes of Jim through his description of bohemian families.
Language And Tone In Elizabeth Alexander's 'Nineteen'
1190 Words | 5 Pages“Nineteen”, by Elizabeth Alexander uses language and tone to form a multi-sensory poem about remembering her youth and desire to connect to her past Vietnam vet lover. These aspects of language and tone are embedded in the outer form of the poem, as the author forms an imaginative recreation of her young adult life, which directly impacts the reader to allow for an enjoyable simple read. The elements of language and tone formation ensure the translation of Alexander’s emotions or feelings of her youth for the audience to relate and understand. In the first place, the language within “Nineteen” is casual and not really poetic.
Brief Summary And Analysis Of Maggie By Alice Walker
147 Words | 1 PagesMaggie on the other hand, is characterized by her unattractiveness and timidity. Her skin is scarred from the fire that had happened ten or twelve years ago. Those scars she has on her body in the same way have scarred her soul leaving her ashamed. She “stumbles” in her reading, but Mrs. Johnson loves her saying she is sweet and is the daughter she can sing songs at church with, but more so that Maggie is like an image of her. She honors her family’s heritage and culture, by learning how to quilt and do things in the household, like her mother views their heritage.
Companionhip In John Cather's My Antonia
756 Words | 4 PagesJim says he is in love with Antonia but really he is in love with the idea of her. Companionship is the only thing Jim has been lacking for most of his adult life. He has had
Loss Of Innocence In My Antonia
667 Words | 3 PagesAfter having been mistreated by a boy from the dance hall, Mr. Harling gives Antonia an ultimatum, she either ceases attending the dances or her job with the Harling family would be terminated. Blinded by selfishness and pride, Antonia tenaciously gives up a life of generosity and virtue in exchange for a sad and miserable life of self-centeredness, choosing instead to work for Cutter. However, after living unhappily in an empty relationship with Larry Donovan who promptly abandons her, Antonia’s life focus changes dramatically. She learns the emptiness of self-seeking behavior. It is only after meeting her Bohemian husband Cuzak that Antonia rediscovers her true self again and finds self-fulfillment as a wife and mother.
Nostalgia Billy Collins Analysis
691 Words | 3 PagesBorn in 1941 in New York, Billy Collins has grown to become an excellent writer. He currently appointed as the Poet Laureate of the United States. Billy Collins poems discuss human experiences with in life to relate to the reader. The experiences discussed or remembrance, questioning, and love.
Roles Of Women In Unbroken And The Book Thief
1064 Words | 5 PagesDuring times of crisis, women have been marginalized continuously, and although many would like to think so, conditions for women have not changed much over time. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak both reflect that. Women in literature and in real life who deserve lead roles are often forced into supporting roles. Most people understand this but few acknowledge it. Strong female characters such as Liesel in The Book Thief, Penelope in The Odyssey, and Antigone in Antigone need to be honored the same way strong male characters are.
Summary Of Natasha Trethewey History Lesson
1215 Words | 5 PagesIn order to change history, people must learn from their mistakes. Segregation in North America has been a big issue in North America that unfortunately still happens in the world today, however, it is not as bad as it once was. In the poem “History Lesson” by Natasha Trethewey, the author uses mood, symbolism and imagery to describe the racial segregation coloured people faced in the past compared to more recent times, where equality is improved and celebrated. The author uses language and setting to influence the mood and meaning of the poem.
Life Lessons In My Antonia
798 Words | 4 PagesIn the formative years of children’s lives, they acquire the knowledge of the most important life lessons. Antonia’s experiences were shaped in her early years of life as a young woman. Willa Cather’s piece, “My Antonia,” depicts an immigrant girl learning what it is to be a pioneer on the central plains. She matures into a strong mother who knows how to sustain her family on the land. Throughout the novel, Antonia learns many valuable life lessons that develop her into a loving mother and wife.
My Antonia Analysis Essay
687 Words | 3 PagesThough he is away from Nebraska he does not consider his best days far behind him. Jim repeatedly mentions how the people and the moments of Black hawk have become integrated into his daily thoughts. In regards to these friends and experiences he stated, “whenever my consciousness was quickened, all those early friends were quickened within it, and in some strange way they accompanied me through all my new experiences. They were so much alive in me”. In this third book where Jim is attending college Lena decides to visit him.
Varying Critical Response To Muriel Rukeyser's Work
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Beachy Head Poem Analysis
739 Words | 3 PagesFissured perception in Beachy Head Beachy Head, Charlotte Smith’s swan song of a poem, was published in 1807. Differing opinions on the poem’s seeming incompleteness betray an underlying fissured element- an element at once tangible and intangible, parting its way through the substratum of 19th century notions on gender, poetics, aesthetics, history and science. Smith intended Beachy Head to be the “local subject” (Fry 31) on which she would rivet her Fancy and her theme. However, like an unrestrained coil spiraling outwards, the poem is anything but fixed. There is liquidity, apropos to the setting by the Sussex shoreline, which creates a flux between temporal, spatial and factual elements, thereby strengthening the schismatic politics
Similarities Between Emily Dickinson And Walt Whitman
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