Deep down in each of them there was a kind of hearty joviality, a relish of life, not over-delicate, but very invigorating. They ridiculed conceited people and were quick to help unfortunate ones. They liked to prepare rich, hearty food and to see people eat it to make up soft white beds and to see youngsters asleep in them. They loved children and animals and music, and rough play and digging in the earth. They knew what they liked, and were not always trying to imitate other people. They had strong, independent natures, both of them. There was a basic harmony between Antonia and her mistress. I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins and I did not want to be anything more. Others may see her as a failure, but Antonia herself is content with her lot. Big-city-success is not everything money isn't everything. Moreover, I get the sense that she is LOVED by her family. But she is married to a man she loves she has children that she loves. Antonia may not have left the country she may still be "trapped" on the farm, trapped in poverty. Perhaps readers are supposed to feel nothing but pity for Antonia and see her life as a complete waste, see her as a poor, unfortunate soul. Though I'm not sure he truly 'gets' it how lucky he is. Jim's relationship with Antonia and the other country 'hired' girls (immigrants all) leave an impact long after he moves away to the big city-New York. The novel does a good job in contrasting experiences: new world, old world men, women country, town. But it's a solid narrative well worth reading. The novel concludes with Jim reconnecting with Antonia several decades later. But while the future looks bright and practically limitless to Jim, Antonia's future is less certain. Antonia comes to town as well as a hired girl. There is no time for education, no time for fun, no time for anything but surviving. After her father dies, she takes to the fields full-time even hiring out to other farms as needed. (I believe she is five years older.) But while Jim works on the family farm, Antonia WORKS on farm. The two become friends and sometime playmates despite the age difference. On the same train is an immigrant family, the Shimerdas there is a teen girl, Antonia, who speaks a little English. The novel begins with his journey west to Nebraska. Premise/plot: Jim Burden recollects his youth in Willa Cather's My Antonia. I was ten years old then I had lost both my father and mother within a year, and my Virginia relatives were sending me out ot my grandparents, who lived in Nebraska. įirst sentence: I first heard of Antonia on what seemed to me an interminable journey across the great midland plain of North America.
0 kommentar(er)
