My Antonia

4 Pages 1025 Words

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...