Coming Of Age In Willa Cather's My Antonia

1532 Words7 Pages
My Ántonia is a novel written by Willa Cather, about the coming of age, using a style of writing that was popular around the late 18th century. Except for the introduction, the entire novel is written from Jim’s perspective as an adult man looking back on his childhood. Nearly the entire story is Jim relating accounts and memories emphasizing the youthful recollection put loosely together as Jim mentioned in the introduction by stating, “I didn’t take time to arrange it; I simply wrote down pretty much all that her name recalls to me. I suppose it hasn’t any form”. Throughout the novel a reader can sense a slight romantic vibe. Cather’s dedication to Carrie and Irene Miner above the words “In memory of affections old and true”, further defines the romantic intent of the novel. As the narrative begins, My Ántonia comes off as a novel inspired with strong…show more content…
She was sure the descriptions in the novel of the location fit the historical period by introducing the main character and explaining his trip using the train as transportation. In the history textbook: Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! Volume 2: the train was a very important and reliable source of transportation. In My Ántonia, the focus is on landscape and the natural, physical settings in which the characters live and move. Aspects of the landscape come to represent emotions or ideas for Jim which ties in with the historical time period and their way of thinking around that time. Willa Cather wrote this story as her perspective to what was taking place at the time in her community. These descriptions in the novel of the locations fit the historical period because she was born into a farming environment, moved to another farming environment located in Nebraska, and this is the type of environment expressed throughout the entire novel. Her inspiration came from the American Midwest, which she considered her
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    In My Antonia, Willa Cather writes that Mr. Shimerda implores Jim to “Te-e-ach, tee-e-ach my Án-tonia” (book one: chapter three), when in fact it is Jim who learns more through this relationship. In the beginning, Jim is introduced as an orphan having just recently lost his parents, who has not yet discovered who he is yet. Due to this loss, Jim travels to Black Hawk, Nebraska in order to live with his grandparents when he hears news of the Shimerdas, a Bohemian family, arriving. After meeting the

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