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My Antonia Character Development

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In the book My Antonia, the characters developed a lot throughout the story, but one character development that stood out to me was Antonia Shimerda. Antonia's character developed so much in this novel, she becomes a more independent character, but that's only because of the challenges she faced when she moved from Bohemia, her dad committed suicide, she had to work as a servant girl and when her fiancé left her.

In the beginning of the novel, Antonia and her family are welcomed into Nebraska. They stay next to Jim Burden and his grandparents, they are the ones who welcomed them. Antonia was around the same age as Jim so she gravitated toward him. Jim was Antonia's first friend when they moved to Nebraska. Jim taught Antonia how to speak English …show more content…

When Antonia arrives in town to work for the Harling's, she and the Harling's have a major dispute over her promiscuous dancing. Mr. Harling forbids Antonia to attend the dances and threatens to fire her. Antonia being the strong independent your lady she was, choose her freedom over the job and quit. In this part of the book, it kind of made the reader think of Antonia when she was a younger kid who was just learned English who had an opinion about everything. Larry Donovan was young train conductor who fancied Antonia. He and Antonia were engaged to be married. He asks her to come to Denver so that they could get married there. However, he deserts her, leaving her unmarried and pregnant. In Antonia time period having a child without a father was a disgrace and humiliating, but Antonia bears the disgrace and humiliation proudly.

In conclusion, in the book My Antonia by Willa Carter, Antonina changed a lot, and all these changes helped her be a more independent woman. The challenges she faced where she moved from Bohemia, her dad committed suicide, and she had to work as a servant girl and when her fiancé left

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