The Action Packed Ending of My Antonia... Not to be Continued... ever...

               Willa Cather offers her perspective on how pioneers lived during pioneer time in her novel, My Antonia. She illustrates a time that today's world has since forgotten. A time where life was much more difficult.
               Her novel displays a world through the eyes of a young man, Jim Burden. Although being told by Jim, this book may have been completely different if told through the eyes of Antonia. Through Antonia's perspective, we would be able to share her internal feeling, her thought process and many other internal conflicts. Antonia may have been inspired to learn law or any other type of education. Through her eyes, we may have come to know a completely different Jim Burden, (Mrs. Shimerda, Lena etc.).
               If I did not know that the book was wrote by a woman, I would not be able to tell if Jim sounded feminine or not. Some readers may have assumed that that was how men spoke or thought back in the time of pioneers. If you were to read any literature of Shakespeare, you would notice that his way of writing and speaking is completely different than today's literature. I believe that Cather successfully imitated the mind of a young man of the 1800s.
               The speculations of why Jim may have changed the title of My Antonia from simply Antonia may vary from person to person. Jim may have saw the title of My Antonia as a proper title due to the fact that Jim develops an interest in Antonia midway into the novel. From adding the 'My' into the title, he may be inadvertantly sharing his feelings for Antonia with the reader. He may have just thought the title of Antonia was not long enough or catchy enough and decided to add the 'My'.
                Although many of my fellow classmates may see this book as a simple novel about adolescents in the old days, many others see a deeper meaning within the texts. Willa Cather was able to formulate a narrative with that brought many questions to the reader's mind. This book goes deeper than the words on the page, allowing readers of all ages to speculate many aspects of the story and develop their own personal observations and assumptions.

The Effects of Setting

"As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running."
            In My Anotnia, the setting helps show the place in time where this story took place. In this time, characters may act differently than what many would preceive as normal. The setting of My Antonia is a prarie-like landscape where the inhabitants of the land must grown acustomed to the life of a farmer. The Shimerdas are a farming family and commonly find themselves struggling to maintain a steady supply of vegetation and materials. Without the technology of today, the Shimerdas have grown strong family ties amongst each other. The Shimerdas are not alone. Their neighbors also fued with them and causes turmoil and stress upon the daily lives of the Shimerdas. Antonia develops and strong work ethic and determination. She becomes very mature and learns the responsibilities of growing up on the prarie.
             My bed room brings a sense of peace and tranquility to the clouds of my mind. It allows a safe barrier to be established between me and the chaotic outside world. A shelter where I may lay upon my troubled head and simply sleep away a day's stress. A place where I may rest and rejuvenate my long lost energy. Time in and out, I greet my bedroom with anxiousness. My bedroom becomes my sanctuary like that of a cathedral, where I know that I'm safe in the arms of the lord.