Dark Overtones And Their Contrasts In My Antonia :: essays research papers

Dark Overt 1s, and Their Contrasts in My Antonia In My Antonia by Willa Cather, on that point are many dark overtones that pervade the novel. It is through the use of symbolic representation and contrast these overtones are made real. The prairie is the predominant setting of the novel. It may be shaped, and it conforms to the desires of those working it. The prairies loneliness, shown by the wide open spaces, is a lifelike way of revealing internal conflict by using a setting. Also, it brings out the characters true meaning. Cather shows through the character of Lena Lengard that societys close generation would non be as good, or quite as noble as that of Cathers childhood. The primary inscription on the showtime page states that the best days are the first to flee. Cather contrasts these ideas with Antonias personality, which is endlessly bright. This contri butes to the dreariness of the novel.In the novel the prairie is a metaphor for internal conflict. Cather brilliantly demonstrates the prairie as a representation for internal conflict being pictured by a setting (Kelley, Sean). It symbolizes loneliness and depression. When Jim, one of the main characters, was young, the prairie was savage and there were not as many settlers it was a lonely place. macrocosm isolated from society with little or no human hint could drive anyone insane. Despair, bad luck, greed, and self-absorbtion make one lose hope also, but it is mostly the lack, or the underuse of, imagination (Kelley, Sean). The prairie was a desolate strip of come to that continued as far as could be seen. In the get-go of the novel, Jim Burden states about the land There seemed to be nothing to see, no fences, no creek or trees, no hills or fields. I had the picture that the world was left behind, that we had gone over the edge of it.... If we never arrived anywhere, it did not matter. Between that earth, and that sky, I felt erased, blotted out. (3 - 4) It seems that Jim tries to expres s that the prairie is forlorn, and deprived of life, making one aware of being alone. Because Jim has left behind all that is familiar, and started over his life, he has a clean slate, and that is what the prairie is. E. K. Brown, once wrote, The impersonal vastness of the land is the emancipation it represents.