Antonia represents two things for Jim: first, she represents an alternative to his life as a middle-class boy. She breaks out of the boundaries of class and gender with seeming ease while he is constrained within them. The choices she makes are from the heart. They are not determined by fear of social sanctions. The choices Jim makes in the end are completely determined by his fear of social sanctions. For a time, he plays the "bad boy" neglecting his social duties to his own social class and spending all his time and energy with people who his family and friends think are inappropriate companions. Yet when he realizes his choices are hurting his grandparents, especially their sense of honor in the community, he renounces rebellion and becomes a model student and a model citizen. Jim momentarily turns back toward the world of the country women when he befriends Lena Lingard in Lincoln and neglects his studies (Rosowski, 1989).
It takes only a subtle piece of advice from his mentor Gaston Cleric for Jim to set himself back on the conservative course and forgo the pleasures of Lena's company. This course takes him far from Nebraska and he can never fully return thereafter. At the present fictional writing, Jim is not a happy man personally, though he is satisfied with his professional life. He likely wishes he could have had both, the pleasures of being with what he considers "real women" like Lena and Antonia, and the pleasures of being admired for his upright and successful professional life. In the end, he seems to have found a way to have both. He plans to visit Antonia's family often while continuing in his own New York life (Bloom, 1985).
The second thing Antonia represents for Jim is a close tie to the land. Jim loves the land, but is able to give it up for the successes of the city, while Antonia is happiest when closest to it.
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