Impressions of My Antonia :: My Antonia Essays

Impressions of My Antonia My Antonia has been called nostalgic and elegiac because it celebrates the past. The inscription on the title page of My Antonia is a quotation from Virgil: "Optima dies... prima fugit." This sentence, meaning "the best days are first to flee", helps incorporate all the elements of the novel I would like to discuss. It not only makes clear that Willa Cather will deal with memories of a glorious past, but also allows suitable basis to show how nature can change and affect a relationship. It also hints at the Hellenic, to a large extent pastoral tone the novel will be set in. A pastoral work retreats to an ideal rural setting. Jim Burden not only goes back to the prairie, but more importantly, he retreats to the innocent days of his very first memories. While this reflects on the focus of the paper, I will use two characters, Jim and Antonia, to illustrate these issues, and show why they make this book such a delightful work of art. My Antonia is told from the point of view of Willa Cather's fictional friend, Jim Burden. He writes in the first person, and his use of the pronoun "I" makes you feel his personal involvement. The point of view is immediate and subjective. Looking back on his memories, he knows what is eventually going to happen to the characters. He persuades you to sympathize with all of them. His perception, being broad and persuasive, sets the tone for the whole book. What is the purpose of having the story told by Jim Burden thirty years later? From that perspective he can present with great clarity and tenderness the highlights of his memories. A man of the world, he is reinvestigating his values. Jim Burden sets down everything the name of Antonia brings back to him. Antonia represents to him the most fundamental, traditional way to lead one's life, including the virtues of hard work, charity, love, optimism, pride, and sympathy with nature. The prairie makes one think of the forces of nature--immense, cyclical, and unpredictable. When Jim Burden arrives on his grandparents' farms, he is awed by the sight of "nothing but land." His parents are both