Willa Cather's My Ántonia is widely regarded as one of the best (and earliest) portrayals of prairie life in America. Published in 1918, the novel tells the story of one Jim Burden who travels by train, accompanied by the narrator. Both live in New York. As they travel by rain across the plains of Iowa, the narrator asks Jim (who is married to a wealthy, energetic, and good-looking political activist) about Ántonia, and the lion's share of the novel is Jim's manuscript. Thus, both the story and the second story within the first story are first-person accounts.
Jim's manuscript begins when ten-year-old Jim travels from Virginia to Nebraska to live with his grandparents and help on their farm. Simultaneous with his trip is the immigration of the Shimerda family, who has moved from Bohemia (where Mr. Shimerda was a successful tradesman; thus, he was reluctant to move) in order to find a better life for their children Ambrose, Marek, Yulka, and Ántonia. The family finds no physical home on the property—they were duped into purchasing it, and they suffer a harrowing winter which leads to Mr. Shimerda's suicide. Ántonia and Jim become friends when Jim teaches Ántonia English at the behest of her mother. Their friendship comes to an end when Jim enters college the University of Lincoln and then (the more distant) Harvard University. Ántonia has one illegitimate daughter before marrying another Bohemian farmer, Anton Cuzak, with whom she has ten children.
There are many places where the author, through Jim's narration, lauds Ántonia's sincerity and zest for life. In Jim's first encounter with Ántonia, he writes:
When we reached the level and could see the gold tree-tops, I pointed toward them, and Ántonia laughed and squeezed my hand as if to tell me how glad she was I had come. (p. 28)
Though Ántonia does not speak English when she first meets Jim, she instantly puts him at ease, making him feel pleasant in her company. Eventually, Jim begins to give her English lessons. Ántonia is portrayed throughout the novel as a dutiful, reliable farm hand. Jim explains,
Ántonia loved to help grandmother in the kitchen and to learn about cooking and housekeeping. She would stand beside her, watching her every movement. We were willing to believe that Mrs. Shimerda was a good housewife in her own country, but she managed poorly under new conditions: the conditions were bad enough, certainly! (p. 35-6)
When Jim goes back and visits Ántonia after a twenty-year absence, he tells her sons,
"Well," I said, "if you weren’t nice to her, I think I’d take a club and go for the whole lot of you. I couldn’t stand it if you boys were inconsiderate, or thought of her as if she were just somebody who looked after you. You see I was very much in love with your mother once, and I know there’s nobody like her." (p. 391)
Ántonia is representative of the hardy nature of prairie woman and also an exemplary of one's first love.
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