symbolism in my antonia

Symbolism in My Antonia
The novel My Antonia written by Willa Cather is a drama of American frontier life. This novel hailed her as one of the greatest novelists in the twentieth century. The novel is a memoir of a middle-aged lawyer whose failed marriage leaves him unloved and alone and whose childhood in Nebraska becomes in retrospect the happiest time of his life (Murphey 7). Throughout the novel the main character Jim relates the story of his life to an old friend, and in doing so he depicts his life through a series of symbols. The novel My Antonia explores how we attach symbolic meanings to people, objects and ideas.
Antonia, the novel’s protagonist is a Bohemian immigrant who moved to Nebraska with her family when she was fourteen years old. Antonia as a character symbolizes sever...