After the death of her father, Antonia launches the boyish side of herself. For example, the quotation "She had come to us as a child and now she was a tall, strong young girl..." explains to the reader that she is now experiencing a life of hard, strenuous work. Antonia is performing men's duties now and is leading more of a masculine life. One would say that Antonia is " filling her father's boots"; because of the laborious tasks she is performing. In addition, Antonia enlightens the readers that she does not have enough time to do activities that women do when

she states, " I ain't got time to learn. I work like mans now..." Working on the farm is for the better of the family, yet it is not for the better of Antonia. Antonia works on the farm for a rather long period of time until she realizes that she needs to mature.

When working for the Harlings' Antonia develops a social life, which is hard for her to keep up with in her growth towards womanhood. For instance, Jim once says, " The Vannis often said that Antonia was the best dancer of them all." This illustrates that she is dedicated to what she loves to do, and will spend time doing it. Dancing takes up much time and leads Antonia to having a more communal lifestyle. Later, Antonia becomes negligent to her work at the Harling household, causing Mr. Harling to say, " You can quit going to these dances or you can hunt another place." Antonia is not used to living a more eventful life and cannot concentrate on her work. She love

Some common words found in the essay are:
Vannis Antonia, Antonia Antonia, Willa Cather, Harlings' Antonia, Jim Burden, life hard, character antonia, antonia antonia,
Approximate Word count = 630
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)