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Dramatic Irony
Introduction
Explanation and Analysis—A Central Figure:
In the introduction to My Ántonia, the unnamed narrator and Jim Burden (the book's other narrator) discuss a central figure from their childhood, a Bohemian girl whom they both admired and loved. This takes the form of a flashback, in which the two figures in their train carriage are transported back to 1900s Nebraska:
During that burning day when we were crossing Iowa, our talk kept returning to a central figure, a Bohemian girl whom we had known long ago and whom both of us admired. More than any other person we remembered, this girl seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood. To speak her name was to call up pictures of people and places, to set a quiet drama going in one’s brain.
Related Themes:
Book 1, Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Pavel and Peter:
In Book 1, Chapter 8, Cather uses a flashback full of frightening visual and auditory imagery to describe an event from Pavel and Peter's past in Russia. The narrator recounts a dramatic scene (translated for him later by Ántonia) where Pavel describes to Mr. Shimerda how he and his brother were the only survivors of a wedding party eaten by wolves:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The wolves were bad that winter, and everyone knew it [...] The first howls were taken up and echoed and with quickening repetitions. The wolves were coming together. There was no moon, but the starlight was clear on the snow. A black drove came up over the hill behind the wedding party. The wolves ran like streaks of shadow; they looked no bigger than dogs, but there were hundreds of them.
Related Themes:
