Since the novel is an entire flashback of Jim reminiscing on his life with Antonia, the relationship with his past is a commonly discussed theme. Whether or not he regretted leaving Antonia was never clearly stated in the novel, but the reader can assume otherwise. Although happy for her, the tone of the novel changes to sadness when he talks about Antonia's new life and family. What you don't start to realize until the end of the novel it that My Antonia isn't just a novel about Antonia growing up, but it's also Jim's change into adulthood. Looking back, he had just as many trials and tribulations to get through than Antonia. He was involved in the dangerous attack with Mr. Cutter which left him not only physically changed, but also emotionally. Losing his parents at a young age and being raised by his grandparents was another event that shaped Jim into the person that he is.
My Antonia included several main characters of foreign descent including Norwegian and Russian. The way these outsiders were treated was a major conflict and theme in the novel. One quote from the story sums up how many of the locals felt about the immigrants. "All foreigners were ignorant people who couldn't speak English (Cather 122)." A couple chapters in, Jimmy asked Antonia about the sudden change in her attitude. "If I live here, like you, that is different. Things will be easy for you. But they will be hard for us (Cather 86)," she answered. Sadly, that was the truth. Immigrants were looked at as being of low class and blue collar people. When really they are the bravest of the brave to pick up everything and move to a different setting all so that their family can live a happy life.
I will go ahead and touch briefly on the subject of male and female roles because, although it was a very important theme in this novel, I will be writing a blog on it later. At this time in America, roles were expected to be given to the household. Amongst these included housework and cooking for the females and outdoor manual labor for the men. My Antonia broke this rule, which you will learn about if you continue reading my blogs.
[Bibliography]
Cather, Willa. My Antonia. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment