FREE ESSAY ON MY ANTONIA

MY ANTONIA

At the age of ten, Jim Burden travels by cross-country train to live with his grandparents
on the Nebraska frontier. He has just recently lost both his parents, and he is
accompanied by a farmhand named Jake. On the same train is a Bohemian family that barely
speaks English and that is going to the same place. When Jim arrives at the station, he
is greeted by Otto Fuchs, an Austrian desperado cowboy. 
Jim's grandparents are kindly people with simple religious beliefs and very generous
natures. Jim enjoys the wide expanses of the frontier, with all its insects, prairie
dogs, and vegetation. At this point in the year it is still summer. Soon the Burdens go
to meet their Bohemian neighbors, the Shimerdas, who were forced to pay too much for
their farm by the only other Bohemian man in the country, Peter Krajiek. Jim meets Mr.
Shimerda, an educated musician who is very kindly; Mrs. Shimerda, a shrewish woman who is
complaining and demanding; the oldest son Ambrosch, who is a stubborn, stingy brute;
Marek, a mentally challenged boy; and Yulka, a young and pretty girl. The oldest daughter
Antonia also comes running up to him, grabs his hand, and they go sprinting into the
fields. 
Antonia and Jim instantly become friends, and they spend a lot of time together outdoors,
with Jim teaching her English. The Shimerdas are not doing very well in their new
country, but they do become friends with two Russian men, Peter and Pavel. The Burdens
try to help out as much as they can. One day during the end of summer, Jim kills a huge
snake and impresses Antonia, who had been treating him with condescension. 
Soon, winter comes. Jim gets very sick, and Pavel dies, after unburdening his heart with
a horrible story from his past. Mr. Shimerda becomes depressed after Peter moves away.
The Burdens celebrate Christmas at home and make presents for each other since they
cannot get into town to purchase some. Mr. Shimerda comes to thank the Burdens for his
family's gifts and ends up spending the day with them. 
In the middle of the biggest snowstorm in ten years, Mr. Shimerda shoots himself after
arranging himself neatly in the barn. Jake suspects that Krajiek killed Mr. Shimerda, but
nothing is ever proven. The day afterwards, Jim is left in the house by himself, and he
senses Mr. Shimerda's spirit resting on his way back to his homeland. The Shimerdas
insist that Mr. Shimerda be buried at the corner of their property, where eventually a
crossroads will be. The funeral ceremony is very moving though somewhat disorganized. 
Afterwards, the Burdens and other neighbors make a concerted effort to help the
Shimerdas. Antonia begins farming in the fields like a man and gives up going to school.
Jim is resentful that Antonia no longer spends as much time with him, and the Burdens and
the Shimerdas get into a little feud because of Ambrosch's bad behavior. The Shimerdas do
not act very grateful for the help that they receive from their friends. Eventually,
however, everyone is reconciled. 
After three years in the country, Jim's grandparents move to the town of Black Hawk so
that Jim can go to school. Antonia also comes into town to work for the Harlings in their
home. Other immigrant country girls also start working in the town, and they become known
as the hired girls. Jim spends a lot of time with Antonia and the Harling children, who
form a happy household. Dancing becomes the craze in Black Hawk, and Antonia starts going
all the time. When the Harlings ask her to stop going because she is getting a bad
reputation, Antonia quits and starts working for Wick Cutter, a notorious philanderer.
During this time Jim is antisocial and only spends time with Antonia and the other hired
girls. He studies a lot in preparation for college and wants to leave Black Hawk as soon
as possible. 
At college in Lincoln, Jim becomes very close to his Latin instructor and mentor Gaston
Cleric. They spend a lot of time talking intimately, although Jim realizes that he is not
an academic as Gaston is. One day Lena Lingard, one of the hired girls, comes to visit
him, and they start going to plays together. They spend a lot of time together, even
though two other men in Lena's building are in love with her. Gaston Cleric notices that
Jim is being lax in his schoolwork and asks him to follow him to Harvard. Jim agrees and
says goodbye to Lena. 
Two years later, before entering law school, Jim returns to Black Hawk, where he hears
about Antonia. Apparently Antonia had gotten pregnant and was engaged to be married to
Larry Donovan. She followed him to Denver, but he ran off soon after she arrived. She
returned to her family's farm where she had her child, avoided people, and worked the
land. Jim goes to visit her and tells her how much she means to him. She is a little
surprised that Jim is not disappointed in her. Jim promises to return again to visit. 
He doesn't return until twenty years have passed after hearing that Antonia has gotten
married to a man named Anton Cuzak and now has about ten or eleven children. He is a
little nervous about seeing how age has affected her. When he arrives on the Cuzak farm,
he is greeted by many of her children. Antonia doesn't immediately recognize him, but is
very excited when she does. She shows him all around the farm, which is full of life.
There are kids, trees, vegetation, and food everywhere they go, and everyone seems happy
and content. Jim is happy to see Antonia looking so well and sleeps in the barn with two
of the boys. 
The next day he meets Cuzak, who was away on a small vacation. Jim likes Cuzak
immediately and sees that Cuzak and Antonia's marriage is one of equality and mutual
contentment. Cuzak tells Jim how much he loves Antonia, and the next day Jim leaves. He
promises to go hunting with Antonia's sons and returns to Black Hawk for the day. There
he finds the old dirt road that used to go to his grandparents' farm, and he thinks about
how that road was the road of Destiny and how now he has returned full circle back to
where he started. 
Bibliography
classicnote.com