My Antonia

A detailed Summary of My Antonia

Gradual expansion of personal and political democracy has occurred throughout the history of the U.S. According to Webster's Dictionary, a democracy is government by the people, or political and social equality in general. In a democracy,such as the United States, individuals vote on laws and issues that will affect them as a whole society. Without the people's say in the government, we would not have the freedom to make the choices we do today. But this does not necessarily mean that we have social equality. In My Antonia, Cather defines true freedom as the ability to obtain your individual goals regardless of your social or cultural background. She uses the characters to explore the nature of American freedom, buy showing that Lena and Jim can accomplish their goals in life, by making something of themselves by not being held back in their rights.

In the book, My Antonia Jim Burden's freedom is a matter of overcoming social and cultural limitations, which, he discovers, is not easily done. Jim wants to be able to date any woman he desires instead of worrying about whether or not they're from another country or cultural background. Antonia is the woman Jim wants the throughout the book. How

ever, he does not feel free to date her because it was socially unacceptable. In the 1880's, people had to stick with their own culture and religious background. It was unacceptable by family and society to go out of the individual's background Jim feels that if America is a free. Jim feels that if America is a free

Throughout My Antonia, both Jim and Lena, for different reasons, passed up the chance to possibly love someone they really cared about. For lena, a chance to love someone was not a personal goal of hers. She was willing to give up relationships with men so she could pursue her goal of being a dress maker. Jim, on the other hand, he didn't fulfill his personal goal because when he came back to visit Antonia, she was already married with five children. H waited too long and didn't take the chance when he had it because he listened to other people. However, they both obtained their life long goals to be successful as adults. Lena worked hard to make sure she owned a dressmaking shop. Jim strived to get his law degree so he could become a successful lawyer.

Using the two characters in the book, we are able to see gradual evolution in social and cultural democracy of America. In the 1930's, Jim would not socially be accepted if he were to date Antonia. But, nowadays, Jim could date Antonia without anyone really giving them a second glance. For Lena, it would work out the same way. In the 1930's, it was almost impossible to be with a man while running a business of her own and without him having some control over her business. However, nowadays, Lena could have a man and run a business on her own without him having any sa

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Approximate Word count = 1117
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History