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Summary: A Small Gift from Willa Cather
Review: This is a beautiful story of life on the great plains near the opening of the twentieth century. The story's narrator, Jim, and a European immigrant, Antonia, are both uprooted in early childhood and find themselves in Nebraska. While life there is not easy, they find many excellent examples among their friends, family members, and acquaintances to model themselves after, and Jim and Antonia grow to become people of great character and perception. They work hard, accomplish a great deal, and form deep and lasting friendships. This is a quiet and pleasant book to spend time with, but it is not inconsequential. Highly recommended.
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Summary: My Antonia: A Gem Among Western Novels
Review: My Antonia is a profound novel that deserves merit on its own accord. The novel is masterfully written by Willa Cather, an author who creates real, believable characters and places them in a setting that she vividly and colorfully illustrates. The novel's simple yet emotionally rendering plot, coupled with skillful descriptions of places and wonderful imagery make My Antonia a gem among books written about life on the Western prairies. Cather's novel is strong in that she beautifully manages to capture the every-day lives of pioneer men and women living on harsh terrain. She specifically tells of the stories of Jim Burden and Antonia Shimerda. The novel is composed of Jim's reminisces from childhood through adulthood and the personal voice makes the novel come alive. The journey of both characters through life and the strength of their friendship are brilliantly etched out through Cather's distinctive style of writing. Being a girl, I found the novel personally appealing as I enjoy reading books with strong female heroines. I could identify with the issues Antonia and her friends went through growing up, and it was interesting to read about the life of a young girl in such a different setting, time, and place to that of my own life. I was hooked to her story: I laughed and enjoyed reading the good experiences she shared with Jim, agonized over mistakes she made that caused sorrow in her life, and nearly cried during the touching scene where Jim finds the courage to see her again after years of being away from Nebraska.
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Summary: The power characters
Review: This is not a novel to astound readers, but it offers an intelligent look at the strength and vision of a pioneer women and the friendship of two, culturally and socially opposites. The characters in the novel are described in great detail; their personalities were fashioned such a way that the reader receives a true sense of each character. The book was published at a time when women characters were expected to find happiness only in love or marriage. 'My Antonia' gives us a forceful heroine who is independent and strong of mind and body. The use of plot, characters, setting, and perspective open readers' eyes to a period in time that most people today can't imagine. The novel invites readers to feel the pain, hardships, joy, and satisfaction of the frontier characters. In My 'Antonia', Cather successfully develops believable characters and an intriguing story of prairie life. 'My Antonia' can be enjoyed on many levels.
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Summary: An Impressive Work!
Review: From all outward appearances, the book My Antonia is about two children of different socioeconomic backgrounds growing up as friends on the plains of the Midwestern U.S. in the late 1800's. In reality, the book is about so much more! My Antonia draws the reader deeply into the lives of child immigrant Antonia Shimerda, and her orphaned friend Jim Burden, the main characters. Beginning with their childhood, Cather shows how different Jim and Antonia's morals and values are because of their socioeconomic backgrounds, but also how similar the two are in terms of their desire for success and prosperity. Both dream of future happiness, but Antonia is driven by a "hard work pays off" attitude while Jim believes that success is best achieved through education. As the children grow into adulthood they develop a silent but powerful love for one another and learn to respect each other's differences, yet these very differences, as well as societal ideals drive them apart and propel their lives in different directions.
My Antonia is a moving and powerful book about love denied, success without happiness, and happiness without success.
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Summary: Story of true friendship and the human heart
Review: My Antonia, by Willa Cather is one of the most intriguing and enchanting stories written about a young man and woman as they grow up and experience life. Young Jim Burden comes to his grandparents as a newly orphaned child who is inexperienced with the country life and foreigners. Antonia is part of a Bohemian family that is trying to find a better life in the wild plains of Nebraska. As these two people cross paths in life, they become life long friends.
Jim, being a young man in the farm country, faces different struggles than the hopeful adolescent Antonia. While Jim struggles to find himself through education and his grandparents guidance, Antonia learns how difficult it can be to get ahead in a new world. Each new experience these two go through separately pulls them a little bit farther apart until one day, when they are grown up, Jim finds himself wondering what actually happened to Antonia.
The quest to find happiness and compassion is a long journey for Antonia as well as Jim. The final image of these two childhood friend leaves a sense of longing due to the undecided nature of true happiness in both of their lives. This book gives such incredible descriptions and details of different scenes. Each character seems to float off the page into the heart of the reader. While waiting to discover how far friendship, compassion, hope, and happiness can bring a person, Antonia and Jim give us their compelling story to make for a wonderful breakthrough to the mystery of the human heart.
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Summary: My Antonia¿An American Tale?
Review: Picture it: Two children on the same train, not knowing one another, about to experience a lifetime of memories together. The train turned out to be a train of destiny. Little did Jim Burden, a child from Virginia, and Antonia Shimerda, a child from Bohemia, realize the future they would have together.My Antonia, a novel of friendship and rite of passage, is about life. It is about growing up. Neither of these children would have made it through life without each other. They weren't so much rescued by each other in the sense of life and death, but from endless days on the prairie. Their frontier life was not always easy. Their fates brought both of them to "town"; this was a completely new experience for the both of them. One couldn't get enough of the new life away from the country, while the other returned to the farm. Their departure from each other was not everlasting. It was no surprise that their paths crossed again. Cather does a superb job at creating the landscape of the true frontier. Her words flow on the page like the crystal clear water in the streams of Nebraska. No one captures the essence of the American Frontier like Willa Cather.
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Summary: A childhood romantic(Little House on the Praire, for adults)
Review: I still remember sitting down as a child and reading the Little House On the Prarie, series by Laura Ingals-Wilder. Life on the frontier was captured in the memory of a child. Since I read that book so long ago I have always had an interest about life on the frontier and have continued to read literiture about this, but never have I come across a book that captivated me as much as Willa Cather's, My Antonia. Jim, who grew up on the Nebraska plain, tells the story of My Antonia. The Jim in the story may be a young man but he tells the story in retrospect as a much older and world wise man who is simply remembering the joyous days of his childhood. The book is almost an elegy for a childhood and a life on the frontier that the narrator can only remember but not go back to. The vivid descriptions of places and Jim's feelings in this book brought back memories of my own childhood. You didn't have to grow up on the frontier to identify with Jim. I would reccomend this book to any one who a little inner-child locked in them.
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Summary: My Antonia, My Motto
Review: Antonia is strong and full of willpower. She is an inspirational character despite the obvious problems she has faced in life. Willa Cather masterfully makes each of us fall for Antonia with her smooth narration through Jim Burden. There is a love between them that is not a "trashy romance" but a simple connection that never fades. Although they have traveled separate paths, and not always easy ones, we find in the end that same simple connection. This novel shows that the definition of happiness is dependent on an individual. The life of Antonia, which many other characters refer to as sad, is described by herself as happy. It is important that people realize that what makes them happy may not be what makes others happy. This book is a wonderful and relaxing read which will help you think about what would make your life happy in a new way.
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Summary: My Review on My Ántonia
Review: My Ántonia was a wonderful book about how things change when one gets older, how some things seem to happen without reason, and how tough growing up can be. I personally found this book helpful to overcome my fears of change a bit, for even after the worst happens to Ántonia, she still finds a way to be happy and stick it through until her life changed for the better. Not everything was happy in the story, but nothing bad lasted throughout the entire book; in fact, it made the story seem real, and that is why I enjoyed My Ántonia.
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Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I sometimes forget how wonderful literature cna be when it is done right. This book was a gentle passage of a boys recollection of his first love. It is a beautiful story, and filled me with laughter and tears. I rarely read a book these days that touches my emotions, so this was a revelation. I can't wait until my daughter is older, so that I can pass this on to her.
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