¶ … Antonia, the main character of the novel My Antonia.
My Antonia
The magnum opus, My Antonia is a well-composed masterpiece by the eminent author Willa Cather who is well-known for her scholarly depiction of life in the frontiers (Back cover). The distinguished novelist in her masterwork My Antonia has portrayed the strong personality as well as the persisting qualities of a young Bohemian girl named Antonia who migrated from United States to settle down in Nebraska.
This marvelous account addressing various issues has been narrated by one of the characters named Jim Burden who is portrayed as the childhood playmate of the protagonist of the novel named Antonia. According to Jim Burden, Antonia was the eldest daughter of the Shimerda's and a healthy as well as a happy girl with the most beautiful eyes that were "big and warm and full of light, like the sun shining on brown pools in the wood" (Book 1, Chapter 3, pg. 17). The Shimerda's were the Burden's neighbors, as a result, Jim and Antonia came to know each other and eventually became childhood friends and they remained friends for the rest of their lives. According to Jim, Antonia radiated happiness and portrayed a healthy and a flourishing picture of the plains and the people of Nebraska even though the plains were like a piece of barren land. She always brought out and admired the hidden qualities of others around. She was a cheerful, sympathetic and a loving person who was not only concerned and cared for the inconsiderate members of her family but also showed sorrow for the dying insects.
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One of the examples is the willingness to sacrifice her dreams and to drop the idea of going to school after the death of her father. She gave up on her goals and accepted the bitter reality of life and learned to move on in order to keep her values intact and for the welfare of her family as well as the harmony of the land. She accepted the hard work in the fields and dealt with the hardships and became the embodiment of family bond, hard work, integrity and the love of plains. Antonia accepted her fate whole-heartedly and became "too proud of her own strength" (Book 1, Chapter 17, pg. 80). Even though working in the fields required great strength and energy and brought about the fact that Antonia could no longer fulfill the dream of being educated at school, she happily announced to her friend Jim that "I can work like mans now...I can work as much as Ambrosch. School is all right for little boys. I can help make this land one good farm" (Book 1, Chapter 17, pg. 81).…
Thus, while one character had a targetable aim, the other, Antonia, had a symbolic purpose for Jim's life. Antonia's role in the novel goes beyond that of encompassing the pure nature of childhood. It represents a clear window of strong powerful women. Better said, "This extremely influential character represents a positive compromise with feminist ideals. She is independent and strong while still living as a wife and mother" (Giglio, 2006).
Magic in "The Castle of Otranto" and "The Monk" The 18th century had created one of the most popular genres in Western Literature, which is referred to as Gothic Literature. The Gothic literature genre began with the publication of Horace Walpole's novel entitled, "The Castle of Otranto" in 1765 (Gothic Experience 2003). The term "Gothic" connotes the "medieval style" that Walpole uses in his novel (Guran 1999). Elements of Gothic literature
Antonia: Introduction etc. The landscape of the agrarian lifestyle in Nebraska is such that Mr. Shimerda is the least suited for this type of life. He has the soul of an artist and so longs for a more refined world in which to express himself. He is a man who needs to live among people with ideas who express those concepts in conversation, which is not the world he finds
Peter Lovesey Novels Mystery novels have a habit of portraying murder as a discrete affair for the middle class. Nowhere is this more apparent than in English mystery novels, as novel writers in England, being a literate caste, usually manage to present the world through tweed-colored spectacles. Peter Lovesey exemplifies this, as his characters always seem to evoke images of tea-sipping old women sharing a well-loved table at their favorite local
Willa Cather About the Author The author Willa Cather Sibert born on 1873 is an American writer, and one of the country's leading novelists. Here vigilantly skilled prose express dramatic pictures of the American landscape along with those people who were molded. She was influenced by the writing style of the American regional writer Sarah Orne Jewett. However, she set many of her works in Nebraska and the American Southwest areas with which
Country of the Pointed Firs," by Sarah Orne Jewett, "The Awakening," by Kate Chopin and "My Antonia," by Willa Cather. Specifically, it will show the development of the complexity, or the straightforwardness, of the point-of-view. Point-of-view is often as difficult to pinpoint as the characters of great novels. Sometimes, the point-of-view in a novel can shift and change, but the bottom line is -- point-of-view is a compelling way
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