Literary Analysis: My Antonia

1. My Antonia is the story of a boy who is orphaned and forced to move in with his grandparents. He meets a bohemian family, and becomes close to their daughter, Antonia. They grow up together and become good friends, but they grow apart during high school, the boy, Jim, goes through college, and ends up a successful lawyer in New York. He goes back home to visit and sees Antonia again. They reconcile and the circle of his life is complete.
2. Similar to the Disney story, The Lion King, My Antonia’s theme is the circle of life. Through a persons life, they experience highs as well as lows. Through these challenges though, life always goes on. Whether you are orphaned like Jim, or left by your fiancé like Antonia was, life always continues.
3. The author’s tone played off of the new frontier and immigrants in the United States. Quote one: “Why aren’t you always nice like this, Tony?”
“How nice?”
“Why, just like this; like yourself. Why do you all the time try to be like Ambrosch?”
She put her arms under her head and lay back, looking up at the sky. “If I live here, like you, that is different. Things will be easy for you. But they will be hard for us.”
The second quote: During that burning day when we were crossing Iowa, our talk kept returning to a central figure, a Bohemian girl whom we had both known long ago. More than any other person we remembered, this girl seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood.
The final quote: “I never know you was so brave, Jim,” she went on comfortingly. “You is just like big mans; you wait for him lift his head and then you go for him. Ain’t you feel scared a bit? Now we take that snake home and show everybody. Nobody ain’t seen in this kawn-tree so big snake like you kill.”

4. Five literary terms that helped me better understand the novel motif, symbols, character, plot.
5. A motif is a reoccurring element in the story. An example would be the huge contrast between childhood and adulthood, and also the obvious sign of immigration to the united states. : “Why aren’t you always nice like this, Tony?”
“How nice?”
“Why, just like this; like yourself. Why do you all the time try to be like Ambrosch?”
She put her arms under her head and lay back, looking up at the sky. “If I live here, like you, that is different. Things will be easy for you. But they will be hard for us.”