Author Willa Cather embedded literary devices, such as metaphors, similes, and personification, within her writing.

"As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running."

"The grave, with its tall red grass that was never mowed, was like a little island."

"Winter comes down savagely over a little town on the prairie. The wind that sweeps in from the open country strips away all the leafy screens that hide one yard from another in summer, and the houses seem to draw closer together. The roofs, that looked so far away across the green treetops, now stare you in the face, and they are so much uglier than when their angles were softened by vines and shrubs.


Chunk #1: 
The setting of this novel plays a big role.  If the family had not lived in a farming community then Antonia may not have had to learn to farm and help provide for her family. If Antonia  family lived in a larger city, Antonia may have been a proper lady and gotten married to a wealthy man instead of working in the fields as she does.  By living in the setting that they are and not in a larger city, I believe that it made Mr. Shimerda unhappy with his life and led to him killing himself.  The setting of the novel was not negative for all the characters.  For example, if the Shimerda family would have lived in a larger town then Jim may not have been as responsible as he is now.  With Jim living on a farm he was able to be disciplined and learn to follow instructions given to him and developed hard working skills.



Chunk #2: discuss the effect a setting on you, including imagery (lots of adjectives) and a simile or a metaphor as you describe the land.
The farm land is a form of discipline and a learning strategy.  Farming allows a person to have the opportunity to learn to work hard and learn from hands on experiences. Working on a dirty farm doing hard labor each day teaches a person that he/she has to work for what they want instead of being handed everything to them hand and foot.