The Significance of Friendship in "My Antonia"
The Significance of Friendship in "My Antonia"
Friendship is a very important subject in the book, My Antonia, by Willa Cather. This is shown continually throughout the book. For example, when Jim and Antonia first meet, when Jim visits her in Black Hawk, and last when Jim talks with Antonia and her children at the end of the novel.
When Jim and Antonia first meet, they are almost instantly friends. They do numerous things together. Such as, when Jim is teaching Antonia English, he takes his time to make sure that she understands what he is teaching her. Also, he is teaching her out of his own free will. Not because his grandmother or grandfather are forcing him too. He is tutoring her because he wants too, and he wants to get to know her. Only a true friend could ever do this. So, what are we supposed to get out of this segment of the book? Well, it truly depends on how you see life. In my perspective this section in the book is telling us to get out of our comfort zone, and do things just to be nice, instead of being unwilling, and forced to do it.
Jim is an all-around pretty good guy. When Jim would go and visit Antonia while she was working I thought was so nice of him. I hope one day someone does that for me. Yes, he partly went over to the Harling's to visit and play with the children, yet he still deep down was there to help and see Antonia. I feel that this portion of the book is to tell us that Jim really likes being around Antonia, and that when we are in a similar situation we shouldn't hide from our feelings. We shouldn't be afraid of just being really good friends. And that even if the world should come to an end, we could still talk to our friends, we should be there for one another.
This last segment in My Antonia really stuck out to me. This just made me realize that no matter what happens between two people, they can still be very good friends, no matter how many years are put between them. This is the part of the book where Jim goes back after...