GRADE tomorrow DX? My Antonia
My Antonia by Willa Cather is meant to be an ‘autobiography’ of Jim Burden, though his accounts of his childhood and growing up mainly revolved around Antonia, a bohemian immigrant that moved to the same Nebraskan town as Jim. Jim, who is supposedly the narrator of the story, is heavily involved and influenced by Antonia.
At the beginning of the novel, Jim’s parents died, and he is traveling to Nebraska with a farmhand to his Grandfather Burden’s farm. On the train, the conductor points out the bohemian family, in which this is the first hint that Jim is going to become involved. When he finally gets settled as his grandparents home, they all travel to offer bread to the bohemian family. Jim is particularly interested in the pretty Antonia. The novel centers on her and her family depending mainly on the Burdens’ and on Krajiek, who sold them their property. They don’t know english and Mr. Shimerda urges Jim’s grandmother to teach Antonia. During the summer, Antonia and Jim spent much time together and he became attached to her. In the winter, however, a blizzard kept them apart, and Mr. Shimerda’s suicide caused the distance between the already culturally different families to grow wider. When spring came, Jim had to go to school with out Antonia, who was working the fields with her brother, Ambrosch. Jealous and frustrated at how much time Antonia didn’t have for him, Jim pushed himself to be friends with other boys and girls.
The beginning of the book, is also when we begin to see how deep of an emotional attachment there is between Antonia and Jim. Even though the older Jim is narrator of the story, he is distantly describing what is happening, and mainly relies on Antonia’s reactions and emotions.
The middle of the novel, is when Jim moves to the city, and begins to go to school, and he spends most of his time hanging out at the dances and with the “hired girls”. Jim becomes involved with Lena, who is a hired girl with a ‘bad’ reputation, and he idolizes her sexually. However, with Antonia, no matter how much he wants to idolize and fantasize about her sexually, he can not and her image stays pure. Antonia is working in town as a nurse and farmhand to the Harling family, where she helps take care of the Harling children. While Jim distances himself with other teens, and prefers to hang out with older woman, such as Mrs. Harling and Antonia, people begin to call him “queer”, which may have a connection to how some people use the term today. Antonia is increasingly becoming an important figure, and he later strives to get out of the town to become successful because of Antonia’s belief that he is smart and too good for the town.
When Jim is in college, Lena visits him and starts a little romance, but it mainly leads back to Antonia. Jim states that he was with Lena because she also was an immigrant and reminded heavily of Antonia, who was left at the alter by her soon-to-be husband and had a child out of wedlock. Jim does not go see her until he is much older, and after she was remarried with many children. When he does go visit her, it was out of character for him to want to play with her sons instead of the girls, since his past was dominated by strong women like Antonia and his grandmother.
The book title in which he went to visit her was named “Cuzak’s Boys”, in which Jim also includes himself as one of the boys. In an earlier chapter, Jim tells Antonia that he wishes she could have been "a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister anything that a woman can be to a man." If Antonia fills all these roles in Jim's life, then in a sense, he is one of her boys too. He is included in the title of "Cuzak's Boys," and in wanting to play only with Antonia’s sons, he is imagining himself as part of that group of children.
The deep involvement of Antonia in Jim’s overview of his childhood was caused by Jim’s need and dream of a nuclear family, in which he never had. Since his parents died and he was sent to live with his grandparents and their two farmhands, he relied on the Shimerda’s arrival and family attachments to create a nuclear family. Though he mainly attached himself to Antonia, he still took in the bohemian culture and customs as his own, in some ways and not in some others. However, even when Jim tried to understand some of the culture, he could not because he did not understand some of the customs and values that the Shimerda’s valued from their homeland in bohemia.
Willa Cather portrays Antonia to be a timeless symbol of feministic strength and how women have no boundaries. Though she means to have the novel be a autobiography of Jim Burden, it is also a biography of the bohemian woman that changed his life as he shares her stories and his memories with her.
@
I am a huge procrastinator and i am aware of that so please just comment on if the thesis and supporting details are there. THANK YOU IN ADVANCe
My Antonia by Willa Cather is meant to be an ‘autobiography’ of Jim Burden, though his accounts of his childhood and growing up mainly revolved around Antonia, a bohemian immigrant that moved to the same Nebraskan town as Jim. Jim, who is supposedly the narrator of the story, is heavily involved and influenced by Antonia.
At the beginning of the novel, Jim’s parents died, and he is traveling to Nebraska with a farmhand to his Grandfather Burden’s farm. On the train, the conductor points out the bohemian family, in which this is the first hint that Jim is going to become involved. When he finally gets settled as his grandparents home, they all travel to offer bread to the bohemian family. Jim is particularly interested in the pretty Antonia. The novel centers on her and her family depending mainly on the Burdens’ and on Krajiek, who sold them their property. They don’t know english and Mr. Shimerda urges Jim’s grandmother to teach Antonia. During the summer, Antonia and Jim spent much time together and he became attached to her. In the winter, however, a blizzard kept them apart, and Mr. Shimerda’s suicide caused the distance between the already culturally different families to grow wider. When spring came, Jim had to go to school with out Antonia, who was working the fields with her brother, Ambrosch. Jealous and frustrated at how much time Antonia didn’t have for him, Jim pushed himself to be friends with other boys and girls.
The beginning of the book, is also when we begin to see how deep of an emotional attachment there is between Antonia and Jim. Even though the older Jim is narrator of the story, he is distantly describing what is happening, and mainly relies on Antonia’s reactions and emotions.
The middle of the novel, is when Jim moves to the city, and begins to go to school, and he spends most of his time hanging out at the dances and with the “hired girls”. Jim becomes involved with Lena, who is a hired girl with a ‘bad’ reputation, and he idolizes her sexually. However, with Antonia, no matter how much he wants to idolize and fantasize about her sexually, he can not and her image stays pure. Antonia is working in town as a nurse and farmhand to the Harling family, where she helps take care of the Harling children. While Jim distances himself with other teens, and prefers to hang out with older woman, such as Mrs. Harling and Antonia, people begin to call him “queer”, which may have a connection to how some people use the term today. Antonia is increasingly becoming an important figure, and he later strives to get out of the town to become successful because of Antonia’s belief that he is smart and too good for the town.
When Jim is in college, Lena visits him and starts a little romance, but it mainly leads back to Antonia. Jim states that he was with Lena because she also was an immigrant and reminded heavily of Antonia, who was left at the alter by her soon-to-be husband and had a child out of wedlock. Jim does not go see her until he is much older, and after she was remarried with many children. When he does go visit her, it was out of character for him to want to play with her sons instead of the girls, since his past was dominated by strong women like Antonia and his grandmother.
The book title in which he went to visit her was named “Cuzak’s Boys”, in which Jim also includes himself as one of the boys. In an earlier chapter, Jim tells Antonia that he wishes she could have been "a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister anything that a woman can be to a man." If Antonia fills all these roles in Jim's life, then in a sense, he is one of her boys too. He is included in the title of "Cuzak's Boys," and in wanting to play only with Antonia’s sons, he is imagining himself as part of that group of children.
The deep involvement of Antonia in Jim’s overview of his childhood was caused by Jim’s need and dream of a nuclear family, in which he never had. Since his parents died and he was sent to live with his grandparents and their two farmhands, he relied on the Shimerda’s arrival and family attachments to create a nuclear family. Though he mainly attached himself to Antonia, he still took in the bohemian culture and customs as his own, in some ways and not in some others. However, even when Jim tried to understand some of the culture, he could not because he did not understand some of the customs and values that the Shimerda’s valued from their homeland in bohemia.
Willa Cather portrays Antonia to be a timeless symbol of feministic strength and how women have no boundaries. Though she means to have the novel be a autobiography of Jim Burden, it is also a biography of the bohemian woman that changed his life as he shares her stories and his memories with her.
@
I am a huge procrastinator and i am aware of that so please just comment on if the thesis and supporting details are there. THANK YOU IN ADVANCe