The American Dream for Jim and Antonia
...terested in hanging out with other boys his age. Because he was so bright he always dreamed of going to college and getting a good job rather than stay at home and work at the farm the rest of his life. Jim graduated from high school as one of the top students in his class and made a speech during the commencement ceremony. “I thought my oration very good. It stated with fervour a great many things I had lately discovered.” (Cather 138) Jim then attended a University in the city of Lincoln where he met a bright young man by the name of Gaston Cleric. While in his sophomore year, Jim starts to court with a girl named Lena and they become very fond of one another. “All this time, of course, I was drifting. Lena had broken up my serious mood. I wasn’t interested in my classes.”(173) But the relationship soon came to an end when Jim took up an offer to attend Harvard College in the fall. “Before the first of June, Gaston Cleric was offered an instructorship at Harvard College, and accepted it. He suggested that I should follow him in the fall, and complete my course at Harvard.”(173) Once he finished his final two years in Harvard, Jim then went to Law school and got his degree. Jim had accomplished part of his “American Dream” by becoming a lawyer, but he had never found a woman to call his wife. The American dream to Antonia is to have a big family of her own. Antonia came to Nebraska from Bohemia with the rest of her family while she was a young girl. She immediately became friends with her neighbor, Jim, who taught her English and they cared very much about each other. “Almost every day she came running across the prairie to have her reading lesson with me.”(Cather 24) After Antonia's father commits suicide, Antonia’s family comes over some rough times and is forced to work in the nearby city called “Black Hawk”. Many of citizens of the town treat Antonia harshly because of her Bohemian roots and her love of dance. I believe that this feeling to belong and be loved are the main reasons that Antonia desires to have a warm loving family. Then Antonia met Larry Donovan. Antonia thought she had found love and started building that dream family that she had always wanted. A...