ever read. The book is a reflection of Jim Burden's happy childhood growing up in the

open country of Nebraska. Although Jim grew up, and became a successful legal counsel

in New York, and married, I got the impression from the introduction that his life as an

adult felt incomplete, thus unhappy. Giving him the motive to go on a spiritual and

emotional journey to capture what he lost. Willa Cather's My Antonia is a novel about

Jim Burden, and his miraculous journey back to a time/place known as "Antonia:" where

life felt complete, and all was thought possible.

To Jim Burden, Antonia Shimerda isn't just the pretty little Bohemian girl

neighbor. She represents the brilliant essence of his youth, and the magical memories of

the countryside in Nebraska that he cherishes ever so dearly in his heart. Jim says, "The

Shimerdas were the first Bohemian family to come to this part of the country" (15). And

this is what Cather's writes in the introduction, "... when we were crossing Iowa, our talk

kept returning to a central figure, a Bohemian girl whom we had both known long ago.

endless distance of land. And her hair, brown like the prairie-dogs, and wild like the

across the country. But in a time when just laying in a garden surrounded by nature can

days are first to flee." "Optima dies...prima fugit" (169). This is the sad truth in Jim

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1058
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)