The novel, My Antonia, begins with Jim Burden, who is a New York City Lawyer. He gives a friend his journal of his Nebraska childhood. It is in the form of memories from a friend, Ántonia Shimerda. Jim starts his story in Nebraska when he was 10 years old. He had arrived to live with his grandparents after his parents die in Virginia. Jim first sees the Shimerdas on his trip towards Nebraska. They are a Bohemian immigrant family who were on the same train. When he arrives, he discovers that the Shimerdas have taken up residence in farm adjoining his grandparents. Jim becomes quick friends Ántonia; the Shimerdas around his age who has a passion to learn English. Jim decides to tutor Ántonia in her English teachings. Most of their time together is spent in the hills enjoying each other’s company. However, the mood shifts with the suicide of Mr. Shimerda. The Burdens find it difficult to connect with the Shimerdas, but try to be helpful as they can. As a result of the suicide, Ántonia and Jim find that they cannot stand each other. Several years after the suicide, the Burdens move to town. By chance, Ántonia becomes a maid to the family next door to the Burden’s, the Harlings. Jim…
My Antonia, a realistic fiction novel written by Willa Cather, tells the story of a boy named Jim, who meets a young lady named Antonia Shimerda whom, though she had many trials, goes through life happy, and eventually becomes a successful mother. Antonia dealt with numerous hardships, as she was becoming an adult. She experienced a trip from Bohemia to America, the death of somebody close to her, was almost rapped, and many more destitutions. But, even though Antonia was faced with multiple challenges, she continued being happy. The troubles that Antonia experienced are similar to that of an immigrant. Immigrants are forced to deal with a multitude of injustices and trials, relatable to Antonia. Antonia strongly relates to the major theme of immigration because she shares many of the same experiences of a stereotypical immigrant.…
Willa Cather’s My Ántonia narrates childhood stories from the perspective of Jim Burden, and focuses on his relationship with his close childhood friend Ántonia. Both of the characters move to Nebraska at the same time, and influence each other's lives greatly. Jim Burden grows up to have a deep connection and longing for his past and repeatedly renews the relationships between close friends and hometown.…
An interpretation such as a gendered reading can be built up through the use of the reading strategy of personal context, which is relating in certain aspects to the characters in the text or the situation of which the characters find themselves in. Personal context can be used to build a gendered reading, because being a female in the 1950’s was difficult enough, never mind being a female immigrant to Australia. Maria was the first of the Bianchi’s to move to Australia, and therefore one the bravest of her family. Using the opinion of a female, one would relate to Maria, if they were to be an immigrant themselves, they could relate with Maria when she says “Not quite the same, is it? I mean, out here, it's a new world..” Richard Beynon uses this comment to relay to the readers the difficulties of having to leave ones home because of terrible circumstances and move to another country where the inhabitants are prejudiced, racist and completely against their heritage, to make a better life for herself and her family. A gendered reading can be built by personal context in this circumstance if one were to be in the same or similar situation.…
Both Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952) and Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne share some common themes. In Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne addresses the suffering that emerges from sin, especially the sin of adultery that leads to isolation of sinners. The plot revolves around two female characters Hester Prynne and her daughter, Pearl. Through the two women, Hawthorne reflects the women’s hardships in the 17th century. On the other hand, Invisible Man is a novel that not only critiques racism but one that makes women invisible. Ellison fails to develop the female characters in an equal manner to the male character to reinforce the idea of gender inequality. This essay seeks to evaluate the representation of gender in American literature in Invisible Man and Scarlett Letter.…
The female characters are dynamic and powerful, while the male narrator Jim is significantly more fickle and sensitive. When Antonia’s father commits suicide, Jim is able to empathize with him, saying " Mr. Shimerda had not been rich and selfish: he had only been so unhappy that he could not live any longer"(52). Jim is able to comprehend the magnitude of this tragedy in a way most adolescent boys would not, showing his remarkable emotional keenness. Although sensitivity is typically viewed as a weak, feminine trait, Jim’s ability to intuit and comprehend feelings is portrayed as an advantage. Cather also accurately shows the struggle between fitting into antiquated gender roles of civilized society and the need for women to overcome this in order to make themselves useful in the vastly uncharted American west. Antonia is glorified by Jim for her psychical and mental strength, as she tells him, "’Oh, better I like to work out-of-doors than in a house!...I not care that your grandmother say it makes me like a man. I like to be like a man.’ She would toss her head and ask me to feel the muscles swell in her brown arm” (68). Antonia is needed to do farmwork in order to help her family survive, regardless of it being a stereotypically masculine role. While most boys would feel emasculated by Antonia, Jim admires her all the more for it. This mirrors Cather’s own desire to subvert gender roles. Cather as an adolescent insisted on being called ‘William’ instead of Willa, and was “described by her classmates as intelligent, outspoken, talented, even mannish in her opinions and dress.” Just like Antonia’s masculine side aided her in making use of the uncharted American west, Cather’s persona made her a naturally adept journalist and writer. Through My Antonia, Cather promotes readers to leave societal norms behind in order to expand their…
Jim earns a law degree from the University of Nebraska and Harvard followed by much exploring of the world. However, at a young age, Ántonia finds herself pregnant and abandoned by her fiance forcing her to rebound to working on her mother's farm. After twenty years, Jim finally returns to Nebraska to visit his long lost friend. Upon arrival, Jim learns Ántonia married a man by the name Anton Cuzak with whom she birthed ten or eleven children. As Jim looked at Ántonia “the changes grew less apparent...her identity stronger...She was there, in full vigour of her personality, battered but not diminished” (Cather 214). Neither forgot about the other and Ántonia even discloses their childhood adventures to her children. The sensation of being a part of her family overwhelms Jim with gratitude and happiness, promising to return and reestablish their friendship. My Ántonia dissolves as Jim leaves Ántonia's farm for Black Hawk where disappointment of the changes sadden him; however, as he walks toward his grandparents’ old farm, the familiar landscape gifts him the “sense of coming home” (Cather 238) (Cather…
The following essay will analyse how gender is represented in the popular romance novels, by Mills and Boon.…
Gender is a social status, a legal designation, and a personal identity and unlike sex, it is not determined biologically but rather it is determined by social constructs. In the novel Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Brontë, binary gender is explored. This novel questions the processes and practices that construct gender identities and gender social statuses. The characters in Jane Eyre clash with rigid feminine and masculine roles that are typically stereotyped but does not ultimately question the status quo. During the Victorian era, your gender determined what you were and were not able to do as well as how you went about achieving what you wanted to do. Jane, being the rebellious character that she is, criticizes the social roles of women…
I have decided to take the approach of Argue that historical and social contexts are reflected in the gender of characters in two or three literary works. The two literature works I have decided to go with are The Yellow Wallpaper by Alice Walker and Trifles by Susan Glaspell. In both of these stories I feel like that historical and social contexts are reflected in the gender of characters. In The Yellow Paper it is about a woman and her husband it takes place in I would say early 1900s.…
Throughout history and in all cultures the roles of males and females vary. Relating to the piece of literature "Girl" written by Jamaica Kincaid for the time, when women's roles were to work in the home. By examining gender roles, then one may better understand how women and men interact and how better to build relationships at home and in the world of business. At the time that this work was written, women mainly stayed at home and did housework while few of the very poorest households required the woman to work in an industrial job. Kincaid wrote of the specific roles and…
In the novel My Antonia by Willa Cather, Antonia Shimerda and Lena Lingard share a few similarities: they are both immigrants to America; they are both in their own way very beautiful women; and they are both very independent and accomplished women. However, they differ in personal appearance, lifestyle, and values.…
Women in the early nineteenth century were viewed as the weaker sex and their only job was to take care of the domestic chores (wic). Women had to be delicate, well behave and well-polished. In Willa Cather’s book, “My Antonia”, Antonia is a bohemian immigrant who comes to America with her family to start a new life.She becomes close friends with a boy name Jim who helps her learn english and together they have adventures out in the prairie. Jim sees Antonia as a lovely girl but soon changes his views when Antonia begins to take on a more masculine role. Antonia’s character is unlike other women of her time, she is independent, strong-willed woman who has a passion for nature.…
In contrast, the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid suggests that women are sentenced to patriarchy as a result of socially constructed gender stereotypes. She criticizes the idealized patriarchal norms and pressures which overshadow the lives of women. Starting early on in their childhood, little girls are explicitly exposed to the pressures and expectations of how they should live. As a result of gender stereotypes, young girls are brainwashed to believe that their role as a woman is a domestic homemaker and that they should always be kempt and maintain a feminine outer appearance. Kincaid ultimately criticizes how women and girls are trapped under a system of patriarchy that can not be erased.…
* Characteristics of masculinity and femininity are naturalised in almost every society, but differ based on diverse environments, values and changing time periods. In literature, these assumptions come to underpin the construction of key characters.…