Preview

Immigrants In Willa Cather's My Antonia

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
282 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Immigrants In Willa Cather's My Antonia
Born Willa Cather on December 7, 1873 she spent the first nine years of her life in Back Creek, Virginia, before moving with her family to Catherton, Nebraska in April of 1883. In 1885 the family moved in Red Cloud, the town that has become synonymous with Cather's name. My Antonia is 1st person. I can say this because, Jim Burden tells the story and the events that happen. All languages change over time and vary according to place and social setting. The way we speak is influenced by many factors the roots of our elders, our social and educational background, our working environment, our friends and our own sense of identity. As we move across the country we experience the changing landscape and architecture. At the same time we notice a gradual change in the sounds we hear the accents and dialects that immediately conjure up a sense of the place to which they belong. The terms accent and dialect are often used interchangeably, although in strict linguistic terms they refer to different aspects of language variation. …show more content…
All of the hired girls in My Antonia were immigrants or their parents were. Language and culture barriers created conditions that were particularly bad for immigrants. Immigrants during WW1 had to deal with similar hardships,they left trying to escape the war, yet are pulled back into the fire in America. Cather, clearly wants to shine a light on the sacrifices which many immigrant families have made.
In My Antonia it is imagery. Willa Cather sets the mood with Jim Burden, by having him tell what happens in the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    a. Local or regional characteristics of a language. While accent refers to the pronunciation differences of a standard language, a dialect, in addition to pronunciation variation, has distinctive grammar and vocabulary.…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Images that are used to create feeling. They help us experience the words with our five senses. Touching, smelling, hearing, tasting, and seeing are used in The Most Dangerous Game to create imagery. This sentence is a perfect example of astounding imagery “It’s so dark,” he thought, “that i could sleep without closing my eyes; the night would be my eyelids--.” The setting of the story is immediately given. When you read this sentence, you can imagine how dark it is by actually closing your eyes like Rainsford and experience how dark the night sky really was. Another example of imagery is, “The hunter shook his head several times, as if he were puzzled. Then he straightened up and took from his case one of his black cigarettes; its pungent incense like smoke floated up to Rainsford’s nostrils.” You can smell the incense like it was right in front of you. You can imagine the smoke rising in the air as Rainsford breathed it in. You can also sense the nervousness and suspense, and suspense is a reader’s favorite…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Antonia Summary

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages

    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…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Dialect – Dialect is words and their pronunciations that are specific to their geographical location . As Tania is from Afghanistan she may not be used to the other professional’s dialect due to them being from a different place of origin.…

    • 142 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chapter 5 Vocabulary

    • 1433 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Dialect - local or regional characteristics of a language. While accent refers to the pronunciation differences of a standard language, a dialect, in addition to pronunciation variation, has distinctive grammar and vocabulary. Example: The word “y’all” is used in the south, almost specifically to that group of people.…

    • 1433 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Richard Lederer’s article “All American Dialects”, he states the ironic truth that “most of us are aware that large numbers of people in the U.S. speak very differently than we do.” (152) How is it that one language can have so many speech communities? It is because of the way our nation was developed. Our language is a mixture of culture and lifestyle that has diverted our English dialect, so that each region’s speech is unique. How I speak can define who I am, determine what I do, and locate exactly where I’m from in the U.S. This is the value of my, and my language’s speech communities.…

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Similes In My Antonia

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Page

    The story My Antonia is by Willa Cather, who was born in Virginia in 1873. I did enjoy the language, which the story was in first person. The chapter that we did receive from the story was very interesting I wanted to keep reading.…

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel, The Barbarian Nurseries by Hector Tobar illustrates how immigrants like Araceli are victimized due to unresolved issues with money and the recession. When Araceli is prosecuted for abusing and kidnapping the Torres-Thompson children, the case eventually transitions into an issue with immigration. As the case gains media attention people like Ian Goller and Janet Bryson express resentment toward Araceli. Within Araceli, Goller and Bryson saw a representation of immigrants, who in their mind were to blame for the issues that had erupted in “their” country, such as the everlasting recession. Janet Bryson exemplifies this anger and bitterness when she boldly states: “To those who want to point out how much these illegal immigrants […] contribute to their society [..] Look at our full prisons, our higher insurance rates, our lowering education standards”(325). Bryson and Goller’s actions symbolize the result of capitalism, the true villain within the novel. Capitalism has never been fully recognized as the true cause for many of the problems the U.S has faced causing immigrants like Araceli to be used as scapegoats for issues they had little influence in causing. As a result, capitalism can be seen as the barbarian in the novel, which in turn leads to barbaric actions on behalf of people like Goller and Bryson,…

    • 1713 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The most common advice given to novice writers is to ‘write what you know’. Although cliche, and sometimes unappealing to authors who want to expand and diversify their writing, this tip holds its credibility. When an author draws from personal experience, it not only makes her writing more genuine and convincing, but also allows gives her an outlet to express her unique struggles, desires, and beliefs. Willa Cather’s My Antonia is a poignant romantic novel about westward expansion, following the story of recently orphaned Jim Burden and his childhood in Nebraska. The parallels between the most impactful events in Jim’s life and that of Cather’s become glaringly obvious when the two are compared. Willa Cather shapes Jim’s story in My Antonia…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The examples of how imagery creates the mood for a story helps creates the theme because of the way the story is seen by the readers. In this…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Willa Cather was born on December 7, 1873, in Gore, Virginia. She was born on her grandmother’s farm, in…

    • 1155 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagery is an important literary device which, when used well, can enable an author to convey powerful and persuasive themes. Imagery can also be used to convey the mood of a book in ways that straightforward, factual descriptions never could. Jewett's use of imagery is incredibly effective. She uses imagery to convey Sylvia's surroundings and emotions to the reader. The following passage is a good example of how Jewett uses imagery: "Sylvia's face was like a pale star, if one had seen it from the ground, when the last thorny bough was past, and she stood trembling and tired...(Line 55-57)." These lengthy and intricate sentences are filled with detail. This allows the reader to create a very detailed image in his/her mind of what is occurring in the excerpt. Nevertheless, Jewett still uses many short telegraphic sentences to focus the reader's attention to what is happening at that moment. In Line 10 and Line 27 Jewett writes, "Sylvia knew it well,"� and "Sylvia felt her way easily."� Both of these sentences are very "to the point"� telegraphic sentences. Even though they are telegraphic it does not detract from their importance "" it adds to it.…

    • 586 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Willa Sibert Cather was born December 7th, 1873 on a small farm in Back Creek Valley near Winchester, Virginia. Her mother and father, Mary and Charles Cather, had seven children, Willa being the oldest. The family moved to the immigrant village of Red Cloud, Nebraska in 1883. Cather grew up around many different cultures from Europe and was, therefore, exposed to the harsh realities of new life on the Great Plains at an early age (Webster 's 69). Cather 's grandmothers educated her because there no schools close enough for her to attend. They taught her many things including Latin and Classic English literature. Her first literary influence was Virgil (Twentieth 257).…

    • 1301 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The novel of My Antonia was written by Willa Cather. In My Antonia Jimmy is talking about how girls had no schooling, the girls came to the town, and earn a living. They also, learn from mothers and grandmothers. The country girls work for living, so they didn’t live in poverty like their mothers and their grandmothers. Today in the 20th century there has been poverty in the state of Michigan and just not in Michigan, all over the United States.…

    • 172 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays