My Antonia
At the end of “Hired Girls,” Jim joins Ántonia and her friends for a picnic. While looking out across the country and watching the sun set, they see what Jim describes as a “curious thing”: the sun begins setting behind a plow that has been left alone in
- At the end of “Hired Girls,” Jim joins Ántonia and her friends for a picnic. While looking out across the country and watching the sun set, they see what Jim describes as a “curious thing”: the sun begins setting behind a plow that has been left alone in a field. Its dark image stands out against the redness of the sun. Jim calls it “heroic in size, a picture writing on the sun.” Write an analysis of why Cather included this image in the novel. How might this symbol relate to a theme in the novel or to Ántonia’s state of mind at the end of this section?