My Latest Masterpiece for AmCon
Through the novel My Ántonia, our friendly narrator, Jim Burden, is given a special status by his idol, Ántonia Shimerda. That status is the free and happy land known as the friendzone. He is described by the author as “[writing] on the pinkish face of the portfolio the word, Ántonia. He frowned at this a moment, then prefixed another word, making it My Ántonia. That seemed to satisfy him.”
The word “my” holds several meanings for several people, and the novel appears to explore as many of them as possible without needing to stretch the plot until it warps out of shape. It begins with Mr. Shimerda, Ántonia’s father, telling Jim “please teach MY Ántonia!”. It goes on with Ántonia friendzoning Jim as he idolizes his childhood friend whilst dealing with “a chemical imbalance in his brain”, and continues on with the wonderful chivalric gentleman named Larry Donovan.
In the beginning, the Shimerdas were next-door neighbors to the Burdens, living in a veritable cave of distilled horribleness. As time goes by, the Burdens decide upon paying a visit to the Shimerdas and surprising them with much-needed supplies. During their visit, Jim meets Ántonia and Yulka and they become fast friends. As the time drags by, Ántonia demands English lessons from Jim, and English lessons Jim certainly provides. When the visit draws to a conclusion, Mr. Shimerda approaches Jim with a book and a burden to go with his name of burden, Burden. He asks Jim if he would please “TEE-eech my Ántonia!” Of course, Jim Burden lives up to his name so beautifully crafted for him by Willa Cather, and commences teaching Ántonia some English, an experiment that was exactly as successful and glorious as a brick’s attempt to sink in water.
In this passage, the word “my” represents Ántonia as the eldest daughter of the Shimerdas, as she is referred to as her father as “My Ántonia”. Ántonia is viewed as such for a plurality of the book (no section is large enough to warrant the heading “majority”) and as such becomes “my best friend” to Jim. As a childhood friend, she becomes an integral part of Jim’s day to day life, and his every thought, word, and deed becomes directly influenced by Ántonia.
As joyful as the innocence of childhood friendships are to work with, there is a lot more novel that needs to be covered, and I do not have a limitless supply of words at my disposal. In The Hired Girls, as Jim and Ántonia begin to experience the joy and splendor of the hormonal changes brought on by puberty, the word “my” takes on new and more fantastical meanings with hidden potential for the inducement of delicious awkward silences as well as wonderfully uncomfortable sensuous undertones as soon as Jim discovers the joy and freedom of dance, as well as the mind, body, and soul of Lena Lingard.
As many have done before with childhood friends, myself included, a person would often fall in love with their childhood friend of the opposite gender, mostly due to the high levels of interaction which makes this sort of feeling inevitable. Of course, this will result in high levels of UST (unresolved sexual tension). Of course, this can go two ways: the Kim Possible route or the NTR route. The Kim Possible route is the “good end”, while the NTR route is the “true end”. Kim Possible was as cartoon on Cartoon Network a while back which, to save the reader from having to sacrifice several days worth of cartoon watching, ends with the guy getting the girl who was his childhood friend....after thirteen years of trying. The NTR is a subgenre of the dating sim genre of Japanese video games in which, for all purposes, the main romantic interest of the main character does not end up with the main character, despite all of the protests of the fandom. Suffice it to say, My Ántonia is both an archetypal NTR and an inversion of an NTR, in the case of Ántonia and Larry Donovan.
When Jim walked Ántonia home from the dance one night, all of a sudden he asked Ántonia to kiss him, and uses the smoothest pickup line I have ever read in a historical novel: “Lena Lingard let me kiss her, and I’m not half as fond of her as I am as you.” Yeah, smooth move, Jim. Smooth. I may be bad at talking to girls, but even I know not to say that. So, of course, Ántonia does what any high school crush worth her looks does, which is to say “...you’re a kid I’m awful fond of...”. FRIENDZONED. It is at this point that we get to the next major “MY” moment.
“Her warm, sweet face, her kind arms, and the true heart in her; she was, oh, she was still my Ántonia.....I used to have pleasant dreams: sometimes Tony and I were out in the country, sliding down straw-stacks as we used to do; climbing up the yellow mountains over and over, and slipping down the smooth sides into soft piles of chaff.” I shall spare the reader his personal favorite dream, the one he wishes was of Ántonia, but instead was of Lena Lingard, his kiss-buddy. Ignoring all of the joyously Freudian undertones present in this passage, I would like to refocus your attention upon the word “my”. Here, “my” has a considerably less solid definition than “my childhood friend”. In this case, as best as I could put it into word, “my” means “my childhood friend of whom I personally lust after while not being completely in control or knowledgeable of these feelings as I idolize this person of my desire to the point of bestowing upon her personal Sainthood of sex, power, beauty, knowledge, and all things good in the world.” I know of these feelings, as I myself have been in more or less a similar situation to which Jim had been in in that point of the novel. I will spare most of the painful details, as that would involve repeating what has already been typed.
Later on, Ántonia’s status as the eldest daughter of the Shimerdas is once again invoked as Jim gives his graduation speech, and states to Ántonia that he was thinking of her father when he spoke. There is considerable debate as to whether he was saying that because it was true, if he was saying that in order to impress Ántonia, or if is was some combination of the above two. As he had said “I have had no other success that pulled at my heartstrings like that one,” I personally say it was a combination. Who wouldn’t say that to “the childhood friend of whom one personally...”?
Finally (for me), in the Pioneer Woman’s Story, Jim finds out about Ántonia’s wonderful train ride of dreams with the chaste gentleman Larry Donovan, Jim walks to the Shimerda Farm and meets with Ántonia to give another attempt at relationship upgrades.
“Do you know, Ántonia, since I’ve been away, I think of you more than any one else in this part of the world. I’d have liked to have you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister – anything that a woman can be to a man. The idea of you is a part of my mind; you influence my likes and dislikes, all my tastes, hundreds of times when I don’t realize it. You really are a part of me.” With this paragraph, Jim describes a new facet of the word “my”. No longer is she the childhood friend of lust and passion, but now she is his most dearly beloved precious person. He has accepted the friendzone (much as I have), and is willing to work with it, and is now proud to be friends with Ántonia. My thoughts, My likes, My dislikes, My tastes; all things Jim does in thought, word, and deed, are directly and indirectly influenced by His Ántonia, his childhood friend, his best friend, his mentor and his student. All things are good in the world, as he, Jim, his Ántonia is with him forever!
“As I went back alone over that familiar road, I could almost believe that a boy and girl ran along beside me, as our shadows used to do, laughing and whispering to each other in the grass.” Here, Jim waxes nostalgic about his time growing up with Ántonia, as he remembers all of the time they had gone through together, and looks forward towards the future.
Special Thanks to my Childhood Friend Juliana for allowing me to extensively reference her in this paper. Good luck at BU!
Through the novel My Ántonia, our friendly narrator, Jim Burden, is given a special status by his idol, Ántonia Shimerda. That status is the free and happy land known as the friendzone. He is described by the author as “[writing] on the pinkish face of the portfolio the word, Ántonia. He frowned at this a moment, then prefixed another word, making it My Ántonia. That seemed to satisfy him.”
The word “my” holds several meanings for several people, and the novel appears to explore as many of them as possible without needing to stretch the plot until it warps out of shape. It begins with Mr. Shimerda, Ántonia’s father, telling Jim “please teach MY Ántonia!”. It goes on with Ántonia friendzoning Jim as he idolizes his childhood friend whilst dealing with “a chemical imbalance in his brain”, and continues on with the wonderful chivalric gentleman named Larry Donovan.
In the beginning, the Shimerdas were next-door neighbors to the Burdens, living in a veritable cave of distilled horribleness. As time goes by, the Burdens decide upon paying a visit to the Shimerdas and surprising them with much-needed supplies. During their visit, Jim meets Ántonia and Yulka and they become fast friends. As the time drags by, Ántonia demands English lessons from Jim, and English lessons Jim certainly provides. When the visit draws to a conclusion, Mr. Shimerda approaches Jim with a book and a burden to go with his name of burden, Burden. He asks Jim if he would please “TEE-eech my Ántonia!” Of course, Jim Burden lives up to his name so beautifully crafted for him by Willa Cather, and commences teaching Ántonia some English, an experiment that was exactly as successful and glorious as a brick’s attempt to sink in water.
In this passage, the word “my” represents Ántonia as the eldest daughter of the Shimerdas, as she is referred to as her father as “My Ántonia”. Ántonia is viewed as such for a plurality of the book (no section is large enough to warrant the heading “majority”) and as such becomes “my best friend” to Jim. As a childhood friend, she becomes an integral part of Jim’s day to day life, and his every thought, word, and deed becomes directly influenced by Ántonia.
As joyful as the innocence of childhood friendships are to work with, there is a lot more novel that needs to be covered, and I do not have a limitless supply of words at my disposal. In The Hired Girls, as Jim and Ántonia begin to experience the joy and splendor of the hormonal changes brought on by puberty, the word “my” takes on new and more fantastical meanings with hidden potential for the inducement of delicious awkward silences as well as wonderfully uncomfortable sensuous undertones as soon as Jim discovers the joy and freedom of dance, as well as the mind, body, and soul of Lena Lingard.
As many have done before with childhood friends, myself included, a person would often fall in love with their childhood friend of the opposite gender, mostly due to the high levels of interaction which makes this sort of feeling inevitable. Of course, this will result in high levels of UST (unresolved sexual tension). Of course, this can go two ways: the Kim Possible route or the NTR route. The Kim Possible route is the “good end”, while the NTR route is the “true end”. Kim Possible was as cartoon on Cartoon Network a while back which, to save the reader from having to sacrifice several days worth of cartoon watching, ends with the guy getting the girl who was his childhood friend....after thirteen years of trying. The NTR is a subgenre of the dating sim genre of Japanese video games in which, for all purposes, the main romantic interest of the main character does not end up with the main character, despite all of the protests of the fandom. Suffice it to say, My Ántonia is both an archetypal NTR and an inversion of an NTR, in the case of Ántonia and Larry Donovan.
When Jim walked Ántonia home from the dance one night, all of a sudden he asked Ántonia to kiss him, and uses the smoothest pickup line I have ever read in a historical novel: “Lena Lingard let me kiss her, and I’m not half as fond of her as I am as you.” Yeah, smooth move, Jim. Smooth. I may be bad at talking to girls, but even I know not to say that. So, of course, Ántonia does what any high school crush worth her looks does, which is to say “...you’re a kid I’m awful fond of...”. FRIENDZONED. It is at this point that we get to the next major “MY” moment.
“Her warm, sweet face, her kind arms, and the true heart in her; she was, oh, she was still my Ántonia.....I used to have pleasant dreams: sometimes Tony and I were out in the country, sliding down straw-stacks as we used to do; climbing up the yellow mountains over and over, and slipping down the smooth sides into soft piles of chaff.” I shall spare the reader his personal favorite dream, the one he wishes was of Ántonia, but instead was of Lena Lingard, his kiss-buddy. Ignoring all of the joyously Freudian undertones present in this passage, I would like to refocus your attention upon the word “my”. Here, “my” has a considerably less solid definition than “my childhood friend”. In this case, as best as I could put it into word, “my” means “my childhood friend of whom I personally lust after while not being completely in control or knowledgeable of these feelings as I idolize this person of my desire to the point of bestowing upon her personal Sainthood of sex, power, beauty, knowledge, and all things good in the world.” I know of these feelings, as I myself have been in more or less a similar situation to which Jim had been in in that point of the novel. I will spare most of the painful details, as that would involve repeating what has already been typed.
Later on, Ántonia’s status as the eldest daughter of the Shimerdas is once again invoked as Jim gives his graduation speech, and states to Ántonia that he was thinking of her father when he spoke. There is considerable debate as to whether he was saying that because it was true, if he was saying that in order to impress Ántonia, or if is was some combination of the above two. As he had said “I have had no other success that pulled at my heartstrings like that one,” I personally say it was a combination. Who wouldn’t say that to “the childhood friend of whom one personally...”?
Finally (for me), in the Pioneer Woman’s Story, Jim finds out about Ántonia’s wonderful train ride of dreams with the chaste gentleman Larry Donovan, Jim walks to the Shimerda Farm and meets with Ántonia to give another attempt at relationship upgrades.
“Do you know, Ántonia, since I’ve been away, I think of you more than any one else in this part of the world. I’d have liked to have you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister – anything that a woman can be to a man. The idea of you is a part of my mind; you influence my likes and dislikes, all my tastes, hundreds of times when I don’t realize it. You really are a part of me.” With this paragraph, Jim describes a new facet of the word “my”. No longer is she the childhood friend of lust and passion, but now she is his most dearly beloved precious person. He has accepted the friendzone (much as I have), and is willing to work with it, and is now proud to be friends with Ántonia. My thoughts, My likes, My dislikes, My tastes; all things Jim does in thought, word, and deed, are directly and indirectly influenced by His Ántonia, his childhood friend, his best friend, his mentor and his student. All things are good in the world, as he, Jim, his Ántonia is with him forever!
“As I went back alone over that familiar road, I could almost believe that a boy and girl ran along beside me, as our shadows used to do, laughing and whispering to each other in the grass.” Here, Jim waxes nostalgic about his time growing up with Ántonia, as he remembers all of the time they had gone through together, and looks forward towards the future.
Special Thanks to my Childhood Friend Juliana for allowing me to extensively reference her in this paper. Good luck at BU!
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