Relationship Between Jim And Antonia

Jim and Antonia are both extremely different characters from the beginning to the end of the book. Antonia at the beginning was a young girl filled with dreams, ambition, and having big plans for the future. She starts learning the language, going to a good school, however, when her father dies this is put on hold. She just would not imagine for how long. After this happens she needed to help her family. She did just this and then fell head over heals with a man who would not lead her to her best potential. Antonia was with child and her husband ran off. This really put things into perspective for her. She was not living the life she thought, but loved being a mother very much. When she saw Jim again after years of being apart she remembered
Things will be easy for you. But they will be hard for us." This makes Jim realize his life at this point is headed upward and she remains helping and raising a family. He is still naive and she being a few years older is more realistic and unselfish. He stays very stuck in the past at moments and starts to evoke even more memories from their childhood in Nebraska. The quote Antonia is a "rich mine of life." that expresses how Jim is still fascinated with Antonia. In addition, he states, "She was a battered woman, not a lovely girl, but she still had that something which fires the imagination, could still stop one's breath for a moment by a look or a gesture. All strong things come out of her body that had been so tireless in serving generous emotions. It was no wonder her sons stood tall and straight." This shows Jim and how Antonia was teaching him that maybe he to could move away like she did even though a time before were not the best circumstances for her. These quotes really demonstrate how Jim has really learned a ton of life lessons and may start to grow stronger like Antonia