The Immigrant In John Steinbeck's The Adventures Of Antonia

From the story, Jim learns more. He is the narrator, his open mindedness enables him to portray himself and how he views other s with sympathy and consistency. Jim is a well qualified narrator therefore; the reader is exposed to his innermost thoughts. Antonia’s story is only told through Jim’s perspective and narrative. Therefore the reader does not get to know of Antonia’s thoughts and Jim does not tell what he thinks Antonia learnt.

Jim begins the story with a fairly naïve perception of immigrants. This is influenced by observing the hardship faced by Antonia’s family. He tells her, “People who do not like this country ought to stay home… we do not make them come here.” However Jim learns a lot in the narrative and by the end of the novel he come to appreciate the will and the spirit that makes immigrants like Antonia succeed. ‘The girls I knew were always helping to pay for ploughs and reapers, brood sows or steers to fatten.” Jim explains. “One result of this family solidarity was that the foreign farmers in our country were the first to become prosperous.” Jim recognizes the value of a foreign system.

He learns a lot about himself after observing how Antonia lives. The knowledge about him is also acquired by observing Antonia’s habits, observing how she interacts with her family and other people and by comparing his philosophies against Antonia’s. However, the book does not stage Antonia doing this. On the contrary Antonia rejects Jim’s way of doing things and when Jim corrects and advices her, she ignores. From this it is evident that Jim learns a lot in the journey to discovering himself, and he uses the knowledge acquired to change Antonia who does not