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Literary Elements In Willa Cather's My Antonia

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Willa Cather 's My Ántonia is a memoir about the story of two kids named Ántonia and Jim who both end up in a little town called Black Hawk. The story shows the experiences they share and how each of them ends up molding each other in the end. In the story, Willa Cather gives plenty of examples among her characters who are essentially the epitome of the human spirit triumphing over adversity. Specifically, when it comes to the hired girls. Throughout the story Ántonia Shimerda definitely experienced her fair share of challenges; particularly when her father passed away. Lena Lingard was known as the troublemaker growing up. No one around her expected her to make anything of herself. With this mindset how is any child supposed to think that …show more content…

Although it is not stated, the townspeople people probably thought the same thing of her they thought of Lena, when it came to just there to cause trouble and wreak havoc. However, this couldn 't be farther from the truth. Tiny ended up making a fortune in the gold rush in Alaska and even decides to move to San Francisco with Lena. Depending on point of view, she even turns out to be the most successful amongst the hired girls.
Willa Cather writes, "…Tiny Soderball was to lead the most adventurous life and achieve the most solid worldly success" (142). This quote once again expresses the theme of human spirit triumphs over adversity because Tiny was only a young hired girl at first who just wanted to help provide for her family, but later grew successfully despite the poor …show more content…

They proved everyone wrong who thought they knew what would become of the hired girls. They created their own story and are successful in their own ways, no matter what people said or thought about them. The spirit is a strong element in everyone that helps people triumph their personal adversities. It drives people to overcome and develop character through their experiences. Everyone is fighting their own battle just like Ántonia, Lena and Tiny did. It 's a matter of strength and the right mindset in order to defeat them. Ántonia, Lena, and Tiny were all immigrants. Which means that they had to leave the only home they had ever known and start all over in a new country. They didn 't know anyone, know the different customs of how people lived or even knew where to start. All they knew is that they had to survive and provide for their family. My mother and her two sisters moved to Massachusetts when they were all under the age of 10. They left their home to come to a new country and have better opportunities that they couldn 't get back where they lived. They had to learn English through immersion and figure their way around while going through their lives. Once they became teenagers they had to get jobs to help provide for

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