My Antonia

Willa Carter in her novel My Antonia offers her view of life during the pioneer time. The book is well written with very well thought out characters, in which all have their own personality and character traits that link to each other and make the novel flow easier to the reader.

 I think that My Antonia would be very different if the book was written in Antonia's point of view.  Mainly, the book would then focus on the struggle of the Shimerdas' as they come to America and start off in a small house, then grow more comfortable as Antonia and her younger daughter learn English and they can start communicating better. Also, instead of being in a masculine form, the book would be written more feminine (maybe) as it would be Antonia's thoughts (although, she is a tomboy).

All in all, I think that Willa Carter is very talented in writing from a man's point of view. She shows emotion in the way that a male would portray it, and the actions and thoughts of Jim are what I would expect in reading a book written by a male author. That earns bonus points in my book, to pass the gender boundary and write a story in the opposite sex's eyes.

I personally think that Jim changed the name from "Antonia" to "My Antonia" because of everything he went through with her. According to the novel, he "wrote down of herself and myself and other people Antonia's name recalls to me". So the book is written on his memories of Antonia, which could be a different person from who Antonia is at that moment, and so that is his personal Antonia.

The novel was a good one, well written and the characters were meticulously thought out. The flow from one thought to the next with the characters evolving as the story goes on makes it more realistic, and the old pioneer times gives an interesting setting as America is just being born.