| My Antonia is a book about a Bohemian girl who comes to America for the first time when she was ten years old with her family from Hungary. They settle in Black Hawk, Nebraska and Antonia befriends seven-year-old Jimmy who has been living in Black Hawk with his family his whole life.
Antonia's mother is very haughty and says that Jimmy must teach Antonia English. So every afternoon, they play a lot and Jimmy teaches her English. Farm life became hard for Jimmy's family so they move into town where Jimmy's mother would work in a shop and his sisters would sew for money. Jimmy missed his playmate Antonia and wondered if he was ever going to see her again. One day, Antonia visited Jimmy at the store to tell him that her family moved to town also. Jimmy is overjoyed and they now are able to walk to each other's stores. Antonia is now seventeen and she is rather girly. She has three new friends who are nice but carefree about their futures. Jimmy's mother gets worried about Antonia and warns her to stop going to dances with her friends because they are a bad influence on her. Antonia just laughs it off though. Antonia soon becomes careless and loses her job as a nanny because of it. Antonia just yells at her employer that she doesn't need to be a nanny anyway. Jimmy goes off to college in New York and doesn't see Antonia. He hears that Antonia eloped with a railroad conductor only to be abandoned by him. When Jimmy is near forty, he visits Antonia who married a different person. Antonia has eleven children and one of them is named after him. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of book? - thoughtful Time/era of story - 1600-1899 Poverty, surviving Yes Kind of living: - farm poverty Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book Main Character Gender - Female Profession/status: Age: - 20's-30's Ethnicity/Nationality Main Adversary Identity: - none Setting How much descriptions of surroundings? - 8 () United States Yes The US: - Northeast Farm/Ranch? Yes Farm/Ranch: - farm - ranch - lot of descript of crop raising - lot of descript of animal care Writing Style Weird Victorian/Shakespearean English? Yes Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog |
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