Theme Of My Antonia

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My Antonia by Willa Cather is a novel about America's expnasion towards the west. The novel focuses on the immagrants journey. When the novel starts Jim Burden is moving to his grandparents farm because his parents are now dead. He is only ten years old. He is traveling by train where he meets a Bohemian family who happens to be going to the same place as him. The Bohemian family can barely speak English. Jim grandparents are very kind people and Jim enjoys being there. He also enjoys natuure. The Burdens soon go to meet their neighbors who are the Bohemians. They are the Shimerdas. The Shimerdas were taken advantage of by the only other Bohemian there. They were forced to pay too much for their farm. Mr. Shimerda is an educated musician. …show more content…
My Antonia is filled with many different themes. One of the main themes is a change and transformation. Throughout the novel there is a numerous amount of change and transformation. The Bohemians and other immagrants coming to America, as well as Jim moving to Nebreska signifies change. Another theme is the immagrant expirence. In 1862 the government wanted people to move to Nebreska. The government created something called the Homestead Act where it said that any person who was a US citizen or had intentions to become a citizen could claim one hundred and sixty acres of government land. The act reeled in many immagrants like the Shimerdas who had high hopes of farming the land. Some immagrants just decided to move west. The immgrants all came in search of a better lfe but instead had to face poverty and other hardships. Another theme is gender roles. In the 19th century gender roles were pretty defined. Everyone knew that men were supposed to be the workers and provide for the family. Women were supposed to be house wives where the cooked, cleaned, and took care of the children. When Jim was a child he looked up to that and looked forward to being a working man. Antonia went against the typical gender role when she decided that she wanted to work on the farm after her father's
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