Analyzing Willa Cather's Writing

Willa Cather in her novel My Antonia offers her view of life during the pioneer time.

If Antonia had written My Antonia, she would have added more bias than Willa Cather. For example, when Ambrosch fought Jake, she would have made the event sound like Ambrosch was the victim. Also, when Mr. Shimerda died, Antonia might have been able to describe how she felt and what the loss meant for her family's situation. While hearing the story from Jim, Willa might not know all the specifics of both sides, just Jim's take on everything. Since Cather was only told, and never experienced the story, she could leave out crucial details.

Willa did not do a good job at narrating the story from a man's viewpoint. The book often seemed to lack emotion, where if written by Jim, there would be passion emanating from the page. She had no way of completely conveying how Jim would feel during certain events, and Jim, most likely, did not feel inclined to share every intimate detail with her.

Jim obviously grew to love Antonia. Not only as a friend, but more than that at times. While their comradeship started out rough, they learned to appreciate one another and their backgrounds. My Antonia, in a way, was a love story and the title reflects Jim's possessive nature towards Antonia. He was not controlling, but rather wanted what was best for her and looked out for her well-being. Although marriage was not in Jim and Antonia's destiny, they became close and would never forget their history.

Willa's book was full of twists, misadventures, love, and loss. The overall point of the story is not how great she wrote the book, but the obstacles Antonia and Jim went through to become the people they were. They were meant for each other in many ways, but neither wanted to see what was right in front of them. So instead, they parted ways and went on to be uniquely successful.

The Effects of Setting

Chunk #1:
Setting is often an important part of how the story plays out, and it effects the characters in different ways. For Antonia, when she worked on the farm, helping her brother, she was a major tomboy. She got tanned and freckled and didn't like dressing up just to get muddy from the work. Then, after she moved to the city she began to become much more lady-like and learn her place in society. She started to look more polished and refined. Also, her accent and english had a major turn around. In the country she could communicate ok, but you could tell english wasn't her first language. Moving to the city did wonders for her speech. She was around people who were fluent and she picked it up quickly and soon it was hard to tell she was from Bohemia from her dialogue.


Chunk #2:

The mountains, a quiet and chilling setting. With their snow frosted tips and bitter ice filled wind hitting my face it isn't always the most enjoyable place. Setting aside the cold for a minute, the peace and serenity you feel when you're at the top skiing down is unimaginable. All thoughts are blown away from you're head as adrenaline kicks in and you are flying down like a bird. The smell of pine and sweet sap is enough to give you that cheerful feeling of Christmas and joyful times. If you are focusing on the cold sweat pooling on your head and the hypothermic feeling you get in your fingers, you won't be able to enjoy the aromas and peace of it all.

Argument: Global Warming and its Effects

Claim:

Global Warming is diminishing our resources and hurting our environment

Reason 1:

• Animal species will become extinct because of "disappearing habitat, changing ecosystems, and acidifying oceans."
• Commentary 1: The animals we rely on for food will die off and cause food shortages.
• Commentary 2: The animal kingdom's natural food web will be thrown off balance.

Reason 2:

• Ocean ecosystems are "highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature" and the reefs are "dy[ing] off in response to [the] stress" from global warming.
• Commentary 1: Resources we get from coral reefs will no longer exist.
• Commentary 2: Sea life will suffer from lack of vegetation and habitat.

Opposing Claims:

• Global warming is just the world taking its natural course.
• Why does it matter if we ruin the resources, if it will not effect us personally and we'll be long dead?

My Rebuttal:

• Although I beleive that the argument brought up by those who do not care to take care of the earth is legitamate, I cannot accept their overall conclusion that it would be too much a hassle to fix this problem.

My Paragraph:

Animal species will become extinct because of "disappearing habitat, changing ecosystems, and acidifying oceans." The animals we rely on for food will die off and cause food shortages. The animal kingdom's natural food web will be thrown off balance. Ocean ecosystems are "highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature" and the reefs are "dy[ing] off in response to [the] stress" from global warming. Resources we get from coral reefs will no longer exist. Sea life will suffer from lack of vegetation and habitat. Global warming is just the world taking its natural course. Why does it matter if we ruin the resources, if it will not effect us personally and we'll be long deadthe time it is noticed? Although I beleive that the argument brought up by those who do not care to take care of the earth is legitamate, I cannot accept their overall conclusion that it would be too much a hassle to fix this problem. Our previous generations took care of the environment so that we could have a safe and healthy place to live, so we should do the same. The man-made power plants and chemical sare the source of ozone depletion and warming, so if not for us nature would not be harmed.

My thinking:

This paragraph is deductive based because there is not room for opinions, the facts show our environment is swiftyly deteriorating.

My source:

National Geographic News: Global Warming Fast Facts