My Antonia 3/19

Book II covers Jim's move from the country to the town and the the change in scenery is accompanied by a shift from weather to the townspeople as a point of emphasis. By paying more attention to the town, where is an analysis of society and societal norms.

• Gender Roles
• Jim is told he's "too romantic," alluding to the preference of a touch, macho man--typical expectation of men
• "I could fight, tease the little girls, and use forbidden words as well as any boy in may class"--p.128
• Antonia leaves behind her days as a tomboy, imitating Ambrosch, and is shaped into a more feminine ideal over the years
• Immediately praised for her beauty--p.132, 3rd paragraph; she's clearly seen as a woman now as opposed to just help
• "Tony wore gloves now, and high-heeled shoes and feathered bonnets"--p.165
• Antonia becomes infatuated with dancing, having been "discovered" at the tent--p.160

• Societal Norms
• through Jim's clear preference for the "hired girls," you can tell how he condemn the expectations of society. He uses a comparison of town girls and country girls to show how the country seems more free--part IX, pg 157 in particular
• country girls had a "freedom of movement," but the town girls seemed to have muscles that asked "not to be disturbed" when they danced and their "bodies never moved inside their clothes"
• "physical exercise thought rather inelegant for daughters of well-to-do families"
• only saw them as faces in the school room, no vibrant personalities that seemed to stick to memory
• country girls dances were "gayer than the others"
• "country girls were considered a menace to the social order" 
• Other instances of the restraint society put on activities
• When the tent opened up seemed like a huge relief to "at last [have] something to do in those long, empty summer evenings."
• "one could laugh out loud without being reproved by the insuing silence"
• the disapproval of Jim's attraction to the hired girls: "something queer about a boy who showed no interest in girls of his own age, bug who could be lively enough when he was with Tony and Lena or the three Mary's
• Jim also clearly hates the perception the Black Hawk has on foriegners
• Sterotype: All foreigners were ignorant people who could n't speak English
• Jim argues this statement by pointing out how "foreign farmers in our country were the first to become prosperous" (157) and that "their children were better off than the children of the town women they used to serve"(158)
• not having their daughters work seemed to only hurt themselves and Jim clearly mocked their backwards way of thinking
• also shows clear contempt for the way the town boys would admire the country girls but never marry them because "the respect for respectability was stronger than any desire" (158)
• Slyvester Lovett situationg--Jim glaring at him, hoping he was showing his "contempt" for Lovett
• Overall there seems to be a greater amount of freedom in the country (remember scenes where Jim described the open range as something never ending--he wasn't trapped)

• The appeal of Country girls
• I believe this comes from the fact that they have suffered through poverty and hard times in the country and now fully enjoys their opportunities of fun. Like in Rasselas, to know happiness you have to know misery; because these girls have experienced the misery of hard times they can embrace their happiness without restraints.
• "tried to make up for the years of youth they had lost" --p. 157
• "A girl like me has got to take her good times when she can"--p.161