My Antonia
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Two Separate Paths
In life, it is the interaction with the people around us that ultimately defines ourselves. In the novel My Antonia, the author Willa Cather explores this idea and the affects that two characters have on one another. The novel describes a young boy named Jim who meets a vibrant girl named Antonia. Through the experiences of these characters, Willa Cather emphasizes the theme that Antonia serves as Jim's counterpart.
Throughout the novel, Antonia represents an alternative to Jim's regular life. In the beginning, Antonia and Jim become acquainted as they both live on farms. However within the first chapters the two characters come to a crossroad. Antonia takes one path and Jim the other and as the novel progresses the differences between the two become strikingly clear. Although both Jim and Antonia live on a farm, the word means something different for each of them. Antonia's family clearly struggles to make ends meet while Jim and his grandparents always have food on the table...