My Ántonia

In Willa Cather’s novel entitled My Antonia, she writes about several female characters that, in essence, challenge the stereotypical women’s role in a male-dominated society during the early 1900s. In Trifles, a play written by Susan Glaspell, she depicts her female characters as crafty and bright and not simply inferior intellectually to their male counterparts. Upon closer examination of these two pieces of work, Cather and Glaspell demonstrate that these female characters defy the existing typecast of women as being less capable than men. In My Antonia, Cather conveys, rather convincingly, that she did not adhere to society’s view that women should be restricted solely to the domestic domain. Her writing encompasses* the idea that women…

My Antonia by Willa Cather is a novel that includes bone-chilling tragedy and life affirming uplift. The story centers around a memoir by Jim Burdin, a middle age New York lawyer who decided to write down his reminsces of his dear friend Antonia Shimerda. The story begins with Burdin heading on a train for Nebraska to live with his grandparents. He is ten years old and both of his parents have recently died. On the train he spots a Russian immigrant family and he is intrigued by them; the family…

Santiago says, “ When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there’s no need at all to understand what’s happening, because everything happens within you, and even men can turn themselves into the wind.”(152), By falling in love with Fatima and finding someone to be apart of his family, he feels like anything is possible and he is very happy because of the support and love Fatima gives him which shows when she says “...I want you to continue towards your goal… I want…

child, having rules to follow wasn’t unheard of with my family. There was always a way to behavior with friends/family, at school, at home and out in the street. Often I found myself getting into trouble because I didn 't listen and also the fact that I always found some kind of way to slipping out of having to doing something that I knew I was supposed to do. But out of all the people in my family my mom was the strictest. When expectations set high, not meaning them meant my siblings and I…

Mildred by my side, I walk to the bookshelves, staring, grazing my hands across the leather bounds, moving side to side. All of his beloved books about that country, “The Encyclopedia Britannica, British Flowers, Birds and Beasts various histories,…

In my essay I will first sate the traits of an ideal knight and then discuss the characteristics of an ideal knight as represented in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight while comparing and contrasting them to the characteristics of ideal knights in traditional texts. Quoting examples from the text, I will then discuss, analyze and come to a conclusion if Sir Gawain has been represented as an ideal knight in the 14th century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. During the Middle Ages and in many…

After the storm was over—a full seven days and six nights of being homebound—a group of my friends and I got together outside of the Puttingneg city library after the martial law was lifted and streets cleared. The library sat on three acres of land. It had a garden and beautiful pond with gold fish. The castle shape library had four towers and many windows. The building was made of marble bricks. As you enter the front entrance, the oval double doors was made of solid bronze. James, Cindy,…

wonderous idea to me. So when my parents had told us that we were going to Cancun, Mexico I had very mixed emotions about the vacation. Being in Cancun, and feeling the warmth of the Sun, I was ecstatic for. But the almost 4 hour plane ride there and back was an agonizing thought. Currently, I’m walking through the air-bridge and onto the plane while on the verge of anxiety. While we were looking for a seat I noticed little five year olds sitting down and looking as if they…

fine” elaborated Willa Cather, while discussing her childhood to fellow writer Lewis Carroll. This statement is descriptive of a large element in Cather’s writing, especially in her novel My Antonia, where the protagonists living situation is eerily similar to the authors childhood environment. At age 9, her family moved to Nebraska where her father attempted to farm the land. Willa Cather knowingly or unknowingly inserts her experiences into the novels structure as well as its protagonists in…

stories from the West 1920; Cherlynn Williams My life had ended and begun all in one moment. I remember the day it all happened. Thick hot tears welled up in my eyes and I screamed. My Poppa whispered “Calm down, Cherelynn, you’ll be okay.” and I refused, arching my back in the overseer’s arms. Taking a swift kick to his face, I attempted to escape to no avail. Other slaves that were stuffed in the crowded pen began to grab at the overseer’s arms. A warning shot was fired into the air and…