Character Reflection:
Lena Lingard intrigues me. She’s gentle even though she’s lived on the farm her entire life and she manages to make the littlest things exciting with her charisma. In ways, her adventurousness and excitement make her similar to Tony. However, they differ in that Antonia possesses a quiet beauty and inner strength that contrasts with Lena’s liveliness. It’s strange– I dream the same dream “a great many times, and it [is] always the same. I [am] in a harvest-field full of shocks, and I [am] lying against one of them. Lena Lingard [comes] across the stubble barefoot, in a short skirt, with a curved reaping-hook in her hand, and she [is] flushed like the dawn, with a kind of luminous rosiness all about her. She [sits] down beside me, [turns] to me with a soft sigh and said, ‘Now they are all gone, and I can kiss you as much as I like.’ I…wish I could have this flattering dream about Antonia, but I never [do].” (109) I love Antonia and her steady independence but I cannot see her in my dreams in…
Described as being pretty, lively, and extremely kind, Antonia fascinates both characters in the novel and readers alike. Cather develops Antonia’s brave character in the face of unimaginable difficulties and shows how she is able to maintain her compassion and independence despite her harsh circumstances. After Mr. Harling gives her the final choice to either stop going to the dances or to find another place for work, Antonia chooses to leave the Harling house and says “‘A girl like me has got to take her good times when she can. Maybe there won’t be any tent next year. I guess I want to have my fling, like the other girls.’” (101). Antonia is not willing to give up on her own desires and independence for the sake of other people’s inclinations. She develops from a sweet, gentle girl to a independent woman who is unwilling to allow others dictate her…
