Relationships In Willa Cather's My Antonia

Many people can have different views and different relationships with the same person. For example, Lena, a friend of Antonia, would have a different relationship with Antonia than her brother Ambrosch would. Both Lena and Ambrosch have a different relationship with Antonia than her childhood friend Jim whom she grew up with. Willa Cather included book three in her novel My Antonia because Antonia played such an important role in Jim’s childhood, and because book three shows us who Jim has become so we can better understand his relationship with Antonia. The people we spend a lot of time with leave lasting impressions on our lives. When Jim was far away from Antonia, and the farm, and his old friends, he even says “Whenever my consciousness was quickened, all those early friends were quickened within it, and in some strange way they accompanied me through all my new experiences” (Cather 104). Antonia was so intertwined in Jim’s childhood that he can not think on his past without thinking of Antonia. Although Jim and Antonia are not together for book three, the time spent apart makes their strong relationship and love for eachother appear even stronger to the reader.
When he speaks of the story he wrote about his Antonia, he tells the reader, “Of course, I should have to do it in a direct way, and say a great deal about myself. It’s through myself that I knew her and felt her (Cather 4).” A relationship is all about perspective. The story My Antonia is about the relationship between Jim and Antonia. In order to understand their relationship, we must understand their perspective. Book three gives us this insight. It shows who Jim is apart from Antonia so we can better understand how they work