My Antonia Essay, Research Paper

William Cather showed a great amount of information about the "old wild

west" and the expansion of the United States. In My Antonia, Jim Burden

told a story of his childhood, the people in his life, and the struggles he and

his surroundings faced during this time. At age ten, Jim Burden was sent by his

relatives to be raised by his grandparents in the Nebraska prairie after his

parents died. When he arrived at his new home, he was introduced to a Bohemian

family that just immigrated to America; the Shimerdas. Jim and Antonia, the

Shimerda’s daughter, quickly become friends. They traveled a great distance to

meet each other. As immigrants, the Shimerdas were not very wealthy and getting

on their feet was difficult. They were cheated into buying their home for more

than it should have cost. The family got by on what they had, but ended up

needing help from outside families. Mrs. Shimerda ended up getting many useful

tools for their home from Mrs. Burden. The first major hardship the Shimerdas

faced was the death of Mr. Shimerda. He shot himself in the mouth and committed

suicide. This hurt the family tremendously. Antonia was given the

responsibilities that her father had and growing up for her changed in a matter

of seconds. She could not join her fellow classmates in school because she had

to tend to the work around the house. She became the head of the house. After

time, the Shimerdas had a new log home built for them by the neighbors. The

family continued to get their necessary items from outside sources and started

to build a new life. Later, the Burdens moved to a town called Black Hawk. They

now lived further away from the Shimerdas. Mrs. Burden gets Antonia a temporary

job helping their neighbors around the house. Antonia learned English much

faster and Jim met many new people. This is where we meet Lena. Lena was a

Norwegian girl who later becomes a dressmaker, but distracted men with her

flirtatious act and planned never to marry. As Jim met new people and attended

the dances put together in the city, he noticed the segregation and the

generalizations made about specific people. He didn’t like it one bit. The hired

girls were the girls that worked for their large families after they immigrated

to America from foreign countries. The boys didn’t have the courage to marry

these girls. These girls were taken advantage of as well by their employers and

the men in the town. Women were not treated as equals. With age, Jim and Antonia

became closer and Jim begins to like Antonia more. But the feelings were not

mutual. Then, Jim and Antonia started to go their separate ways. Jim started

working extremely hard in his studies at school and ended up going to Harvard to

finish his pre-law studies. Much time has passed, and when Jim returned to Black

Hawk, he learned that Antonia had become pregnant and returned home from Denver

where the father lives. When she returned to the father, she cared for him when

he was ill and then he deserted her leaving her broke and with nothing. Many

things have changed through time as they have matured into adults. Jim wanted to

see Antonia and tried really hard to find her and find out what has happened

since he saw her last. When they finally reunited, they recognized a bond they

had that nothing could break. They had their childhood that always brought them

together. They went off on their separate ways, but in the end found each other

and they never lost sight of what they had been through together. They will

always remain best friends. I really enjoyed this book. It really gave me a

taste of what life back then was like. I highly recommend reading My Antonia.

This book displays many aspects that makes living in this period of time

difficult. In order to communicate with other families or travel from one place

to another was very difficult and time consuming. The people would have to

travel great distances in all types of harsh weather. Jim and his family often

traveled by horse in blizzards to reach their destinations. Also, at the

beginning of the expansion, there were no roads. This made travel even more

difficult. Also, immigration to America was occurring rapidly and many diverse

people started to form the new country. There was a lot of segregation and

poverty. The immigrants were not wealthy and struggled to survive on what they

had. They were tricked into buying expensive items and land and were treated as

minors. The different amount of languages spoken also made it extremely

difficult to communicate with others. Women were treated disrespectfully as

well. The men took advantage of them and they were put to work that was very

hard to handle. Life for people at this time was not as easy as it is today.

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