Innocence and Maturity. On the prairie, Jim and Ántonia’s friendship is uncomplicated by the experiences and prejudices of adulthood. Though they come from different backgrounds and social classes and are members of the opposite sex, they are too young for these differences to matter.

He isolates himself from boys his own age, preferring the friendship of the older immigrant girls. He later becomes a successful lawyer in New York City, but can never forget his childhood friend, Ántonia, whom he elevates in his mind to an almost mythical status.

Summary: Chapter VIII Peter finds himself deeply in debt to a Black Hawk moneylender named Wick Cutter, and Pavel seriously injures himself in a fall. When Peter arrives at the Burdens’ to ask the Shimerdas, who are visiting, for help, Jim decides to accompany Ántonia and her father to the Russians’ farm.

For example, young rural women in Boston or New York who moved into town to earn wages to help support their families on the farms were commonly called “servants.” Cather, however, knew that in Nebraska they were called “hired girls,” and that’s what she calls them in MY ANTONIA.

He existed on the periphery of life, in a world in which he was completely out of his element. Jim observes simply that, in the end, Mr. Shimerda killed himself because “he had… been so unhappy that he could not live any longer” (Chapter XIV).

Anton Cuzak

Ántonia Shimerda

When Jim awakens on the morning of January 22, he learns that after dinner the night before, Mr. Shimerda committed suicide in the barn, putting the barrel of his gun into his mouth and pulling the trigger with his big toe.

Devon Arielle Cahill

Book 4 ends with Jim promising to come back and visit Ántonia soon. Then twenty years pass without him doing so. He justifies this by explaining that he was scared: “I did not want to find her aged and broken; I really dreaded it.

ten-year-old

4 hours and 36 minutes

In addition to spending time with Lena at the theater, Jim visits her regularly at her dressmaking shop and takes Sunday breakfasts with her at her apartment.

The novel tells the stories of an orphaned boy from Virginia, Jim Burden, and the elder daughter in a family of Bohemian immigrants, Ántonia Shimerda, who are each brought as children to be pioneers in Nebraska towards the end of the 19th century. This novel is considered Cather’s first masterpiece.

MY ÀNTONIA, by Willa Cather, is a story about friendship, love, and immigration. In this early-20th-century novel, Cather provides a biographical narrative of Antonia Shimerda, a character based upon Annie Pavelka, a real-life childhood friend of Cather’s.

Character Role Analysis There is no clear antagonist in this novel. While the characters certainly face hardships, and some not-so-nice people (think Wick Cutter), there is no single individual that opposes them.

Edith Lewis

major conflict Jim has an extremely close, loving relationship with his childhood friend Ántonia, but their friendship is tested by the different paths their lives take them down, as Jim acquires an education while Ántonia is forced to work to help support her family.

imagery

The narrator of My Antonia is Jim Burden and it is told in the first person. The first person perspective is important because it allows readers…

Historical Fiction

19th century

If you want to think of the novel as a story of romance, you’re going to have to admit that it’s a non-traditional romance at best. There’s no actual physical anything between the hero and his love (Ántonia).

Jim Burden

Peter and Pavel are the two Russian farmers who live close to Jim and Ántonia. They are important characters in that they provide another view of the immigrant life.

During those first months the Shimerdas never went to town. Krajiek encouraged them in the belief that in Black Hawk they would somehow be mysteriously separated from their money.

Shimerda wanted to come to America because she thought that Ambrosch would be able to become rich here. Ambrosch is considered the most important person in the Shimerda family, and even Ántonia is in awe of him.

Shimerda had shot himself. Although Jake suspects Krajiek of killing Mr. Shimerda with an ax that fits the wound in his face, and Krajiek acts suspiciously, Otto insists the evidence all points to suicide. Jim believes “it was homesickness that had killed Mr.

Red Cloud Cemetery

Harvard