In "My Antonia," the friendship between Jim and Antonia is a lifelong
bond that cannot be broken, and this is a constant theme throughout the
novel. Jim and Antonia love each other, but they love each other more than
romantically, they have the true bond of friendship, and it does not
shatter even though their lives become drastically different as the grow
older. Jim wants to remember his friend as she was in his youth, and in
that, he wants to hang on to his own youth. He muses, "In the course of
twenty crowded years one parts with many illusions. I did not wish to lose
the early ones. Some memories are realities, and are better than anything
that can ever happen to one again" (Cather 328). Theirs is an easy
friendship that comes back to them whenever they see each other, and
although Antonia does not really appear that often in the novel, it is
quite clear she is vital to Jim, and an important part of his memories, and
of his future. When he sees her again, after twenty years, he thinks,
"All the strong things of her heart came out in her body, that had been so
tireless in serving generous emotions. It was no wonder that her sons
stood tall and straight. She was a rich mine of life, like the founders of
early races" (Cather 353). In the end, Jim equates his friendship with
Antonia throughout the years as his destiny, and this destiny has made all
the difference for both of them, creating a lasting bond stronger than
family or love. True friends last a lifetime, and Jim and Antonia are an
example of the truest and purest type of friendship, unselfish and caring
"Citizen Kane," on the other hand, illustrates a far different view of
friendship, for it illustrates what can happen when a friendship turns
ugly. Charles Foster Kane, the main character of Citizen Kane is a wealthy
and ruthless businessman who becomes a newspaper tycoon and loses the only
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