Pride In Borden Deal's Antaeus

”Pride is defined as a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements…” (www.google.com). Antaeus by Borden Deal presents a strong theme of pride within its main character T.J.. He is a boy from the South who is forced to move North with his family to find work. Moving from the rolling hills and forests of the countryside to the city of cement and steel was a huge change for T.J.. He very quickly misses his acres of farmland back home. T.J. soon becomes close friends with the other boys in his apartment building. They were a great gang of friends that spent their days fooling around town. They devise a scheme to plant a rooftop garden on the neighboring building. They have great success with their garden before …show more content…
displays his sense of pride from the moment he met the gang. He spoke with confidence in his voice. He was confident in himself and made sure everyone could tell. When questioned about his funny name he did not question himself. The narrator described, “His voice was resolute with the knowledge of his rightness...” (101). T.J. stood sure of himself. He had broad shoulders and a stocky stature. Even when confronted by owners of the building, he stood proud and confident. As the narrator of the story put, “...nothing sissy about him…” (101). He was very proud of himself and didn’t let anyone bring him down. T.J. knew his stuff and nobody tried to challenge him. While choosing seeds the gang let him take over and pick out what to get. He chose the watermelon seeds and the grass seed for the rooftop garden. He taught the gang how to plant the grass and helped them to grow it. He was proud of himself without …show more content…
had a lot of passion and pride for his new land. He put more time and effort into the rooftop garden than anyone else. He tended to the soil and carried it up at all hours of the day. He even pushed hard for the other boys in the neighborhood to carry up the dirt. He continued to keep them on task and focused the best he could. Once the roof was covered in the soil, T.J. then focused on the planting ahead. He put his time into finding seeds for grass and his precious watermelons. At one point in the story, T.J. smelled the air and knew, it was time to plant. This action caused the others to join in, “We were all sniffing at the air too, trying to smell it the way that T.J. did…” (104). He was then immediately excited to get started and grow things. He didn’t really care what they grew, he just wanted something to be his own again, something to have pride in. He loved his new land and would not allow anyone to take it from him. As the owner of the building tried to clear the rooftop, T.J. said, “‘It’s our earth…’” (107). He was not about to let someone take his land away from him again. The gang then joined T.J. as he threw the precious grass and soil off of the roof. The kept clearing it all away until there was nothing left. If T.J. was going to have to lose his land, he wanted to do it himself. He was not going to let anyone else have his