My Antonia LitChart

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My Antonia
• Genre: Fiction
INTR
INTRO
O • Setting: Black Hawk, Nebraska in the 1880s
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF WILLA CATHER • Climax: When Ántonia starts attending the town dances, she
asserts her independence by quitting her job with the Harlings
Willa Cather was born into a large farming family in rural and isolates herself from the Harlings and the Burdens.
Virginia. In 1883, when Cather was ten years old, her family
• Antagonist: Ántonia. Although not a typical antagonist, her
relocated to Red Cloud, Nebraska. She attended the University
separation from Jim influences the course of his life. Minor
of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she paid her way by working for antagonists: Wick Cutter; the winter.
the Nebraska State Journal, and later moved to Pittsburgh to
• Point of View: First person
teach high school English. In 1906 she moved to New York City
to work for McClure's Magazine, but began to write full-time in
1912. In her lifetime, Cather published 12 novels and many EXTRA CREDIT
short stories, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1922 for Prairie Life: My Ántonia, the last of Cather's "prairie trilogy" of
her novel One of Ours. A fiercely private person, Cather never novels, is heavily autobiographical. Like Cather, Jim moves from
married. Her most significant relationships were with women, Virginia to Nebraska at the age of ten, to a place heavily
most notably the editor Edith Lewis, with whom she lived in populated by Eastern European immigrants. The fictional Black
New York City from 1912 until her death in 1947. Hawk, with its sod houses and bee bush, is largely based on Red
Cloud, the Nebraska town where Cather lived. Throughout her
HISTORICAL CONTEXT life, Cather felt a great homesickness for her childhood years in
Nebraska. Memories of the West fueled her writing
When My Ántonia was published, its story of American prairie
throughout her career.
life captured the imagination of an American public that was
exhausted by Word War I. Cather's readers looked to literature
Willa the Tomboy: As a college student, Cather dressed as a
as an escape from wartime politics and were proud of the
tomboy and sometimes used the name "William." Most of her
United States' new post-war position as a global power. My
novels are written from the point of view of a male character.
Ántonia also appealed to progressives who were interested in
Though she never declared her sexual orientation, it has been a
social and economic issues because the novel explored
topic of debate among scholars.
women's strength and adaptability, and also brought attention
to the hardships of immigrant life in the United States.
PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY
RELATED LITERARY WORKS
In the late 1880s, recently orphaned Jim Burden leaves his
In the early 20th century, writers were concerned about the
growing industrialization of American society. They felt a sense home in Virginia to live with his grandparents in rural
of disillusionment and a nostalgia for simpler days. My Ántonia, Nebraska. On the same train is 13-year-old Ántonia Shimerda,
an immigrant from Bohemia, whose family is buying the land
set in rural Nebraska, captures this longing, and can be
next to the Burdens. Ten-year-old Jim feels immediately at
compared to such works as Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg,
home on the prairie. He quickly settles into his new life with
Ohio (1919), Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie
Jake Marpole and Otto Fuchs, the farm hands, and his loving
(1935) and Sinclair Lewis' Main Street (1920). All of these works
grandparents.
explore the mainstream desire of the time to abandon the city
and live a more wholesome life out West in a small town. The Burdens soon befriend the Shimerda family, and Jim and
Ántonia bond over their love of the land. Ántonia learns English
eagerly under Jim’s tutelage, although her parents are more
KEY FACTS
hesitant to adapt to American life. Mr. Shimerda, frail and
• Full Title: My Ántonia (pronounced with the accent on the first homesick, finds the adjustment to farm life especially difficult.
syllable) His one solace is his friendship with Pavel and Peter, Russian
• When Written: 1916–1918 farmers whose language is similar to the Shimerdas’. But when
• Where Written: New York City Pavel dies suddenly, Peter leaves to find a job in railway
construction. Mr. Shimerda, having lost his one outside
• When Published: 1918
connection to his native culture, sinks into loneliness and
• Literary Period: Modernism depression. He is unable to provide properly for his family.
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When winter arrives, Jim’s grandparents discover that the Jim, but he leaves Nebraska satisfied that he and Ántonia will
Shimerdas do not have enough clothing or food to survive the always be bound together by the past.
winter. They do their best to help, but when Christmas snow
traps them in their homes, the Shimerdas are trapped without
hearty food or gifts. When the snow melts, Jim’s grandparents CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS
invite the Shimerdas to their home, but the visit goes poorly.
Jim Burden - The protagonist of My Ántonia and the narrator of
Mrs. Shimerda is angry and envious, and Mr. Shimerda is
saddened, reminded of his cozy village in Bohemia. most of the novel. Orphaned at the age of ten, he comes to live
with his grandparents on the Nebraska prairie. Jim is reflective,
In January, two days after Jim’s birthday, Mr. Shimerda commits studious, and a "romantic." He feels deeply connected to the
suicide in his family’s barn. A recently arrived Bohemian man land. He isolates himself from boys his own age, preferring the
named Anton Jelinek comes from Black Hawk to help bury Mr. friendship of the older immigrant girls. He later becomes a
Shimerda. Mrs. Shimerda demands that they dig the grave at successful lawyer in New York City, but can never forget his
the corner of their land, where the roads will cross when they childhood friend, Ántonia, whom he elevates in his mind to an
are built. almost mythical status.
When spring arrives, Ántonia insists on working in the fields Ántonia Shimerda - A Bohemian immigrant and Jim's closest
alongside her brother Ambrosch, and is unable to go to school friend, Ántonia comes to the prairie when she is 13. She is lively
with Jim. They see less of each other, and Jim longs for their old and intelligent, but struggles to remain optimistic while
friendship. enduring the many hardships of poverty. Still, Jim describes her
When Jim turns 13, his grandparents decide to move to town as having a youthful "vigour" and identifies her with light. Like
so Jim can be closer to school. Not long afterward, the Burdens’ Jim, Ántonia feels a deep attachment to the prairie, and she
neighbors, the Harlings, hire Ántonia as their housekeeper. Jim works in the fields with the men when her father dies. But when
renews his old friendship with Ántonia, until she befriends she moves to town to work as a housekeeper, she becomes
other girls and starts dancing every night in the town pavilion. interested in clothing and dancing, and gains a reputation for
When she gains a reputation with the local boys, Mr. Harling being "easy." Although Jim loves her, Ántonia can never view
fires her, and Ántonia goes to work for a moneylender named him as more than a younger brother. She becomes a single
Wick Cutter. Jim sneaks out to the dances with Ántonia, until mother in her early twenties, but later moves back to the farm,
his grandmother finds out and stops him from going. He marries Anton Cuzak, and raises 11 children.
becomes lonely, and longs for his childhood on the prairie. Lena Lingard - Ántonia's friend in Black Hawk and one of the
Ántonia rejects his romantic advances, and tells him she cannot "hired girls." She becomes Jim's girlfriend when they reunite in
think of him as anything other than a younger brother. Lincoln while Jim is in college. While Jim loves Ántonia with a
When Wick Cutter attempts to rape Ántonia, she quits her job pure, childlike love, his attraction to Lena is sexual. A
and starts working at the local hotel instead. Jim, meanwhile, Norwegian immigrant, Lena aspires to earn money, success,
graduates from high school. He makes one last trip to the and independence, and refuses to marry. She is sophisticated
prairie with Ántonia, where they reminisce about years past. and fashionable, and she becomes a successful dressmaker in
They see the image of a plough magnified by the setting sun, Lincoln. Lena later moves to San Francisco with Tiny Soderball.
and recognize it as a symbol of the end their time together. The Narr
Narrator
ator - An unnamed fictional character. One of Jim's
Jim moves to Lincoln to attend college. One of Ántonia’s childhood acquaintances, the narrator provides the
friends, Lena Lingard, takes a job in Lincoln as a dressmaker, introduction to the novel. Jim gives him the manuscript of My
and she and Jim begin dating. But Jim cannot stop loving Ántonia.
Ántonia. Eventually he transfers to Harvard and moves to Emmaline Burden - Jim's paternal grandmother. She is 55
Boston. years old when Jim comes to live with her. A devout Christian,
After college, Jim returns to Black Hawk to visit his she acts as a maternal figure for Jim and also tries to look after
grandparents before he begins law school. He learns that the Shimerdas during their first winter. She has wrinkled brown
Ántonia has had a child but is not married. He goes to see her skin and black hair, and is deeply concerned with Jim's
and finally admits his love for her. But Ántonia disregards his education.
confession, and Jim leaves to go back to Boston. Josiah Burden - Jim's paternal grandfather. A devout
Jim does not see Ántonia again for 20 years. He marries and Protestant farmer, he becomes a deacon when the Burdens
becomes a successful lawyer in New York City. When he finally move to town. He has a snow-white beard and blue eyes. He is
visits Ántonia again, she is working on a farm with her husband, quiet and wise, and not demonstrative with his affection. Jim
Anton Cuzak, also a Bohemian immigrant. They have 11 describes him as having a great sense of "personal dignity."
children. Memories of his childhood with Ántonia overwhelm

Otto FFuchs
uchs - An Austrian man who works on the Burden's farm, the end of the novel, Cutter commits suicide after murdering
Otto's previous jobs include cowboy, stage-driver, and miner. his wife.
Jim describes Otto as just having "stepped out of the pages of Larry Dono
Donovan
van - Ántonia's fiancé and a passenger conductor
Jesse James." He is lively and ferocious, but good-hearted, and on the railway. He gets Ántonia pregnant, but when they run
he looks after Jim. When the Burdens move to town, he leaves out of money, he refuses to marry her and abandons her.
to go back to the "wild West".
Anton Cuzak - Ántonia's husband and a Bohemian immigrant.
Jak
Jakee Marpole - An illiterate farmhand on Jim's parent's farm in Jim describes him as a short "crumpled little man," but says
Virginia, Jake moves West with Jim to Nebraska. He has a Cuzak carries himself with "an air of jaunty liveliness" and is a
faithful and trusting disposition. He leaves with Otto when the good husband and father.
Burdens move to town.
Gaston Cleric - A Latin professor at Jim's university in Lincoln,
Mr
Mr.. Shimerda - Ántonia's father. A tapestry weaver from Nebraska. Cleric persuades Jim to transfer to Harvard, but dies
Bohemia, he is not suited to the harsh climate and hard physical from pneumonia soon afterward.
labor of the farm. He becomes depressed, homesick, and frail,
The Widow Stea
Steavvens - The woman who rents the Burdens'
and is found dead in his barn during his family's first winter in
farm when they move to Black Hawk. She tells Jim the story of
Nebraska. It's unclear if his death was a suicide or a murder.
Ántonia's failed engagement to Larry Donovan.
Mrs. Shimerda - Ántonia's mother. Mrs. Shimerda is angry
Anton Jelinek - A handsome Bohemian man who comes from
about her family's poverty and jealous of the Burdens'
Black Hawk to help bury Mr. Shimerda. Ántonia later marries
comparative wealth. Jim thinks she is rude and grasping.
his cousin.
Yulka Shimerda - Ántonia's younger sister.
Mr
Mr.. Ordinsky - A Polish violin teacher who lives in the
Ambrosch Shimerda - Ántonia's older brother. He runs the apartment across from Lena Lingard in Lincoln.
farm after Mr. Shimerda dies, and "sells" Ántonia out to various
The V
Vannis
annis - Traveling Italian dance teachers who set up a
jobs on the prairie and then in town. Jim dislikes Ambrosch.
dancing pavilion in Black Hawk.
Peter and PPaavel - Russian settlers who befriend Ántonia and
Sylv
Sylvester
ester LLo
ovett - A banker's son who falls in love with Lena
Jim, but who are haunted by a selfish and fatal action they
Lingard, but decides to marry someone of his own, higher class.
committed in Russia years earlier. When Pavel dies, Peter
leaves to work in a railway construction camp. Mrs. Cutter – The wife of Wick Cutter and a "terrible shrew"
of a woman.
Mr
Mr.. Harling - A shrewd businessman who lives next door to the
Burdens in Black Hawk. He makes Ántonia leave her job as his
housekeeper when she refuses to stop dancing.
THEMES
Mrs. Harling - Mr. Harling's wife. A square-looking, energetic
woman, she grows fond of Ántonia, but defers to her husband In LitCharts each theme gets its own color and number. Our
and allows Ántonia to leave. color-coded theme boxes make it easy to track where the
themes occur throughout the work. If you don't have a color
Tin
Tinyy Soderball - One of Ántonia's friends in Black Hawk. She
printer, use the numbers instead.
works as a waitress at the hotel, but later leaves Nebraska and
becomes rich prospecting in the Alaskan gold rush. When Jim
meets her many years later in California, he finds her a bit cold. 1 THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE
Frances Harling - The Harlings' oldest daughter. She is a wise In 1862, the United States government urged colonization of
and intelligent businesswoman whom Jim deeply respects. Nebraska and other territories by creating The Homestead Act,
which stated that any person who was an American citizen, or
Charle
Charleyy Harling - The Harlings' son. Charley is three years
had declared his intention to become one, could claim 160
older than Jim, and leaves Black Hawk to attend the Naval
acres of government land. Some Eastern Americans, like Jim's
Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
grandparents, simply moved west, while others, like the
Samson "Blind" d'
d'Arnault
Arnault - A blind African-American pianist Shimerdas, came all the way from Europe to try their luck at
who comes to play at the Boys' Home hotel. farming the Nebraska prairie. Both groups were in search of a
Peter Kr
Krajiek
ajiek - A miserly old immigrant, Krajiek is Mrs. better life, and, as depicted in My Ántonia, both can be
Shimerda's distant cousin. He sells his land to the Shimerdas for considered immigrants in that they suffer the trials of a new
much too high a price. and unfamiliar life. But while both Jim and Ántonia encounter
Wick Cutter - A cruel moneylender in Black Hawk. Ántonia loneliness and homesickness for the lands they left behind, in
works for him for a while, but quits after he tries to rape her. At My Ántonia the foreign-born immigrants experience the greater
struggle. They face extreme poverty, the barriers of not

speaking the English language, and the challenge of cultural and Jim, for example, holds dear the memories of his childhood
religious differences. In many ways, Cather's novel is the story friendship with Ántonia. And Ántonia eventually moves back to
of these immigrants' acclimation to the American Midwest, as the prairie, where her father's grave reminds her of her last
seen through Jim's eyes. years with him.
2 FRIENDSHIP 5 INNOCENCE AND MATURITY

In the mid to late 1800s on the American prairie, friendship On the prairie, Jim and Ántonia's friendship is uncomplicated
with neighbors was important to every family's survival and by the experiences and prejudices of adulthood. Though they
wellbeing. Neighbors provided both a social outlet and the come from different backgrounds and social classes and are
physical help necessary for survival. The Burdens befriend the members of the opposite sex, they are too young for these
Shimerdas, the Shimerdas befriend Peter and Pavel, and Jim differences to matter. But even though Jim clings to the
befriends Jake and Otto. Yet it's Jim's friendship with Ántonia, simplicities of youth, he can't stop time's advance and the
with its many ups and downs, that is central to My Ántonia. The maturity it brings.
novel begins with their pure and simple childhood friendship, Jim and Ántonia's move from the prairie into town signifies
and follows their many separations and reunions as they grow their first steps toward adulthood, and as they mature they
up. Through it all, both characters remain loyal to the memories grow farther apart. Both characters struggle with the
of their childhood, and in doing so they preserve an allegiance emotional, physical, and sexual changes of adolescence. For
to each other. Ántonia, the death of her father, the social complexities of town
life, and an unexpected pregnancy force her into an early
3 THE PRAIRIE maturity. On the other hand, Jim's entrance into adulthood
My Ántonia is the first of three novels that make up Cather's comes largely when he leaves Black Hawk for college. It is only
"prairie trilogy." In My Ántonia, Jim personifies the landscape to when he moves to Lincoln (the capital of Nebraska) and has his
such an extent that the prairie can even be considered a first serious relationship with a woman, Lena, that Jim begins to
character—and one with a complex personality. The prairie view his childhood friendship with Ántonia as the purest, most
functions as an essential means of survival for farmers like the uncomplicated love one person can have for another.
Burdens and the Shimerdas, because it provides food to
consume and to sell. But, at times, it can also be dangerous. Jim, 6 GENDER
for example, becomes sick during the harsh winter, and one In late 19th century America, gender roles were strictly
summer he is almost killed by a rattlesnake. Still, both Jim and defined. Men were meant to act as providers, and women were
Ántonia form a lifelong connection to the prairie, and as adults meant to marry and care for the family. During his childhood,
they associate it with a simpler, purer life. They are fascinated Jim believes strongly in these roles and looks up to working
by its vivid colors, seasonal changes, and vast openness. Jim's men like Otto and his grandfather, Jake. He tries desperately to
and Ántonia's moods often depend on the "moods" of the land. earn Ántonia's respect by following their examples. Ántonia,
During his first winter in town, for example, Jim becomes lonely however, does not want to conform to the typical female role.
and depressed. And when she tells the story of the tramp who On the prairie, after her father dies, she insists on working in
killed himself, Ántonia is disturbed not by his suicide but by the the fields with the men. After Ántonia moves to town, Jim is
fact that he killed himself in summertime, when everyone is surprised when she forms female friendships and discovers
supposed to be happy. dancing, fancy clothing, and etiquette. He is even more
surprised when she laughs off his romantic advances.
4 THE PAST Only when Jim moves to Lincoln for college does he really
Jim and the other characters in My Ántonia struggle between begin to question traditional gender roles. He dates
living in the present and remembering the past. They share a independent women like Lena and comes to respect Lena for
common longing for the years and places left behind. To Jim, her ambition. He begins to look back on Ántonia's love for the
the past represents the lost innocence of his childhood, while fields and flirtatious behavior in town not as conflicting, but as
to immigrants like the Shimerdas, the past means the friendlier, different aspects of her personality. Eventually, Ántonia finds a
more familiar villages they left behind in Europe. In Book I, the compromise of gender roles when she becomes a mother but
Shimerdas and other immigrant characters cling to the continues working in the fields alongside her husband. Jim, who
traditions, people, and places of the "old country." Mr. Shimerda grows into a liberal-minded New Yorker, sees this lifestyle as
never overcomes his homesickness for Bohemia, and Peter and perfectly suited to Ántonia.
Pavel cannot escape the dark secrets of their youth in Russia.
But the past also functions as a kind of spiritual sustenance.

Jim leaves Ántonia for the last time, he stands alone on the
SYMBOLS prairie roads in "the slanting sunlight" and reflects on the
"incommunicable" past he shared with Ántonia.
Symbols appear in red text throughout the Summary and
Analysis sections of this LitChart.
QUO
QUOTES
TES
THE PRAIRIE
The color-coded and numbered boxes under each quote below
The prairie symbolizes many things in My Ántonia. To
make it easy to track the themes related to each quote. Each
immigrants, the vast size of the prairie suggests both the
color and number corresponds to one of the themes explained
opportunity for a new life and the overwhelming fear that goes
in the Themes section of this LitChart.
with trying to create a new life. The prairie also symbolizes
progress and a lost past: as the prairie is developed, its old,
winding roads are replaced by straight ones, and the tall INTRODUCTION QUOTES
grasses are burned down to make room for farmland. Later, During that burning day when we were crossing Iowa, our talk
when Jim leaves Nebraska, the prairie symbolizes Jim's kept returning to a central figure, a Bohemian girl whom we had
friendship with Ántonia and his nostalgia for his childhood. both known long ago. More than any other person we
remembered, this girl seemed to mean to us the country, the
MR. SHIMERDA'S GRAVE conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood.
When Mr. Shimerda dies, he is buried in the prairie on what •Speak
•Speaker
er: The Narrator -
later becomes a crossroads. Jim says of his gravesite, "in all that •Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Jim Burden, Ántonia
country it was the spot most dear to me" because when all of Shimerda
the land has been cleared for farming, this "island" where two
•Related themes
themes: The Immigrant Experience, The Prairie, The
roads meet is the only place where the tall prairie grass still
Past, Innocence and Maturity
grows undisturbed. The gravesite is a remnant of the prairie in
its purest form, and it symbolizes Ántonia's and Jim's longing •Theme T
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for the past.
1 3 4 5
THE PLOUGH
BOOK 1, CHAPTER 1 QUOTES
The plough, a symbol of the farm work the Shimerdas and the
Burdens do on the prairie, symbolizes man's "beautiful and There seemed to be nothing to see; no fences, no creeks or
harmonious" connection to the land. At the end of Book 2, trees, no hills or fields. If there was a road, I could not make it
before Jim leaves Black Hawk for college, he sees a plough out in the faint starlight. There was nothing but land: not a
silhouetted in the circle of the red sun setting behind it. The sky country at all, but the material out of which countries are made.
quickly grows dark, and the plough disappears from view. This •Speak
•Speaker
er: Jim Burden
image suggests Jim's impending separation from
•Related themes
themes: The Prairie
Ántonia—while Ántonia remains on the prairie, Jim leaves for
good. The change also foreshadows the changes that the •Theme T
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development of farming will inflict on the natural prairie
3
landscape.
LIGHT BOOK 1, CHAPTER 2 QUOTES

In My Ántonia, light symbolizes change. A vivid description of I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the
pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was
light prefaces every major change that occurs in the novel.
entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and
When Jim first meets Ántonia, for example, he describes her
become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or
glowing cheeks and her eyes as "like the sun", and for the rest of
goodness and knowledge.
their lives, he associates her with warmth and vigor. One of his
most vivid memories of Ántonia is reading with her "in the •Speak
•Speaker
er: Jim Burden
magical light of the late afternoon." In contrast, at end of Book
•Related themes
themes: The Prairie, Innocence and Maturity
1—as Jim's and Ántonia's childhoods on the prairie come to an
end—the two friends sit on the roof and watch the lightning of a
loud and "electric" thunderstorm. At the end of the novel, after

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3 5 "Why aren't you always nice like this, Tony?" "How nice?"
"Why, just like this; like yourself. Why do you all the time try to
BOOK 1, CHAPTER 7 QUOTES be like Ambrosch?"
This was enough for Ántonia. She liked me better from that
time on, and she never took a supercilious air with me again. I She put her arms under her head and lay back, looking up at the
had killed a big snake – I was now a big fellow. sky. "If I live here, like you, that is different. Things will be easy
for you. But they will be hard for us."
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Jim Burden
•Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Ántonia Shimerda •Speak
•Speaker
er: Jim Burden, Ántonia Shimerda
•Related themes
themes: Friendship, Innocence and Maturity, Gender •Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Ambrosch Shimerda
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Prairie, Innocence and Maturity
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BOOK 1, CHAPTER 10 QUOTES 1 2 3 5

I never forgot the strange taste; though it was many years
before I knew that those little brown shavings, which the BOOK 2, CHAPTER 8 QUOTES
Shimerdas had brought so far and treasured so jealously, were Yet the summer which was to change everything was coming
dried mushrooms. They had been gathered, probably, in some nearer every day. When boys and girls are growing up, life can't
deep Bohemian forest... stand still, not even in the quietest of country towns; and they
have to grow up, whether they will or no. That is what their
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Jim Burden
elders are always forgetting.
characters
acters: Ántonia Shimerda, Mr.
Shimerda, Mrs. Shimerda, Yulka Shimerda, Ambrosch Shimerda •Speak
•Speaker
er: Jim Burden
•Related themes
themes: The Immigrant Experience, Friendship, The •Related themes
themes: Friendship, Innocence and Maturity, Gender
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1 2 4
BOOK 1, CHAPTER 16 QUOTES If I told my schoolmates that Lena Lingard's grandfather was a
The road from the north curved a little to the south; so that the clergyman, and much respected in Norway, they looked at me
grave, with its tall red grass that was never mowed, was like a blankly. What did it matter? All foreigners were ignorant people
little island; and at twilight, under a new moon or the clear who couldn't speak English.
evening star, the dusty roads used to look like soft grey rivers •Speak
•Speaker
er: Jim Burden
flowing past it. I never came upon the place without emotion,
characters
acters: Lena Lingard
and in all that country it was the spot most dear to me."
•Related themes
themes: The Immigrant Experience
•Speak
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er: Jim Burden
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acters: Mr. Shimerda
•Related themes
themes: The Immigrant Experience, The Prairie, The 1
Past, Innocence and Maturity
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On some upland farm, a plough had been left standing in the
1 3 4 5
field. The sun was sinking just behind it. Magnified across the
distance by the horizontal light, it stood out against the sun,
was exactly contained within the circle of the disk; the handles,

the tongue, the share—black against the molten red. There it BOOK 4, CHAPTER 3 QUOTES
was, heroic in size, a picture writing on the sun.
"After the winter begun she [Ántonia] wore a man's long
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Jim Burden overcoat and boots, and a man's felt hat with a wide brim."
•Related themes
themes: The Immigrant Experience, The Prairie •Speak
•Speaker
er: The Widow Steavens
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acters: Ántonia Shimerda
1 3 •Related themes
themes: The Immigrant Experience, Gender
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Even while we whispered about it, our vision disappeared; the 1 6

ball dropped and dropped until the red tip went beneath the
earth. The fields below us were dark, the sky was growing pale,
and that forgotten plough had sunk back to its own littleness
somewhere on the prairie. As I went back alone over that familiar road, I could almost
believe that a boy and girl ran along beside me, as our shadows
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Jim Burden used to do, laughing and whispering to each other in the grass.
characters
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Jim Burden
•Related themes
themes: The Immigrant Experience, The Prairie,
•Related themes
themes: Friendship, The Prairie, The Past, Innocence
Innocence and Maturity
and Maturity
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BOOK 3, CHAPTER 1 QUOTES BOOK 5, CHAPTER 1 QUOTES

I knew that I should never be a scholar. I could never lose
In my memory there was a succession of such pictures, fixed
myself for long among impersonal things. Mental excitement
there like the old woodcuts of one's first primer: Ántonia
was apt to send me with a rush back to my own naked land and
kicking her bare legs against the sides of my pony when we
the figures scattered upon it.
came home in triumph with our snake; Ántonia in her black
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er: Jim Burden shawl and fur cap, as she stood by her father's grave in the
•Related themes
themes: The Prairie snowstorm; Ántonia coming in with her work-team along the
evening sky.
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themes: The Immigrant Experience, Friendship, The
BOOK 4, CHAPTER 1 QUOTES Prairie, The Past, Innocence and Maturity
I was bitterly disappointed in her [Ántonia]. I could not forgive •Theme T
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her for becoming an object of pity, while Lena Lingard, for
whom people had always foretold trouble, was now the leading 1 2 3 4 5
dressmaker of Lincoln, much respected in Black Hawk.
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er: Jim Burden She was a battered woman now, not a lovely girl; but she still
characters
acters: Ántonia Shimerda, Lena had that something which fires the imagination, could still stop
Lingard one's breath for a moment by a look or gesture that somehow
•Related themes
themes: Friendship, Innocence and Maturity, Gender revealed the meaning in common things. She had only to stand
in the orchard, to put her hand on a little crab tree and look up
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2 5 6 tending and harvesting at last. All the strong things of her heart
came out in her body, that had been so tireless in serving
generous emotions.

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er: Jim Burden The narrator says he ran into The narrator reveals that Jim is
characters
acters: Ántonia Shimerda Jim again last summer on a actually a romantic figure who
train in Iowa. Jim kept bringing can't let go of his past. Jim places
•Related themes
themes: The Immigrant Experience, The Prairie, The
up Ántonia, an immigrant the word "my" before Ántonia's
Past, Innocence and Maturity, Gender
Bohemian girl whom they name because although his
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were young. Months later, Jim accurate, it is the way he
1 3 4 5 6 brings the narrator a remembers her.
manuscript he has written,
BOOK 5, CHAPTER 3 QUOTES called Ántonia. But in the 4
For Ántonia and for me, this had been the road of Destiny; had narrator's office Jim changes
taken us to those early accidents of fortune which the title to My Ántonia, which is
predetermined for us all that we can ever be. Now I understood the story that follows.
that the same road was to bring us together again. Whatever
we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the BOOK 1, CHAPTER 1
incommunicable past. Jim is like an immigrant, moving
Ten-year-old Jim Burden, the
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protagonist, begins his story mountainous "old country" of
characters
on a train from Virginia's Blue Virginia to the unfamiliar, flat
•Related themes
themes: Friendship, The Prairie, The Past, Innocence Ridge Mountains to Black "new land" of the Nebraska
and Maturity Hawk, Nebraska. He is prairie. His parents' deaths force
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slightly older "mountain boy" knows.
2 3 4 5 who worked on Jim's father's
farm. Jim's parents have 1 5
recently died, and Jim and Jake
SUMMARY AND ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS are moving West to live with
Jim's grandparents.
The color-coded and numbered boxes under each row of
Summary and Analysis below make it easy to track the themes During the journey, the Ántonia's excited chattering
throughout the work. Each color and number corresponds to conductor mentions to Jim reveals her youthful fearlessness
one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this that in the "immigrant car" and spunk. Her ability to speak
LitChart. ahead of him there is a English shows she's a quick
European family from "across learner. The scene suggests that
INTRODUCTION the water." In the family, a she'll be able to adapt to the new
bright young girl is chattering country more easily than the rest
An unnamed narrator begins The introduction is a "frame" that of her family.
in broken English about Black
the novel. He says he grew up presents the novel as a series of
Hawk. The conductor says she
with Jim, the story's memories from Jim's point of
is the only one in the family 1
protagonist, in Nebraska. Now view. The frame also introduces
who knows any English. Jim
they both live in New York, but Jim as a practical and successful
later recognizes this girl as
do not see each other often. lawyer who lacks love and
Ántonia.
Jim is a lawyer for a railroad connection in his life.
and travels often. Jim is The train arrives in Black Hawk The darkness reflects the family's
married, the narrator says, but 4 at night. As Jim and Jake exit and Jim's anxiety. Though their
does not get along well with the train, Jim sees what must heritages differ, they're all
his wife, who leads her own life be the family, huddled on the strangers in a new land.
as a socialite, independent of platform, the youngest girl
Jim. clinging to her mother's skirt. 1

Otto Fuchs, Jim's Jim at first feels overwhelmed by The next morning, Jim The Burdens' wooden house
grandfather's hired man, the vast and unfamiliar prairie explores the farm and sees the reveals that they are more
meets the boys at the station landscape. But his decision not windmill, cornfields, and pig- wealthy than their immigrant
in a wagon to bring them to to pray shows he already has a yards. He learns that his neighbors. Jim's transition to
Jim's grandparents' farm. feeling that on the prairie, nature grandparents' house is the prairie life is quick—as the image
Before he falls asleep during seems to take the proper course. only wooden house in the area. of him lying in the garden under
the ride to his grandparents In a sense, he surrenders himself The others are made of sod. the sun implies, he already feels a
farm, Jim sees the Nebraska to the prairie. His grandmother takes him to part of the land.
prairie for the first time. He the garden to dig potatoes. He
feels "blotted out" by the wide- 1 3 stays after she leaves and he 1 3
open spaces and the huge lies in the garden under the
open sky unobstructed by sun. He realizes that he feels
mountains. He wonders if the "entirely happy."
spirits of his parents will be
able to find him here, but BOOK 1, CHAPTER 3
decides not to say his prayers
that night because he feels That Sunday Otto Fuchs Here it becomes clear that Jim's
that "what would be would be." drives Jim and his new life on the prairie will differ
grandmother to bring bread greatly from the Shimerdas' life.
and provisions to the Jim lives in a comfortable house
BOOK 1, CHAPTER 2 immigrant family they met on and is taken care of. In contrast,
Jim's grandmother wakes him Jim's confusion in the house the train—their new neighbors, the Shimerdas live in a house not
the following afternoon. He is shows his continued foreignness the Shimerdas. Jim's fit for the prairie winter, and lack
confused by the layout of the to the prairie and prairie life. Yet grandmother tells him that the skills, language, and
house, with the living room it's also clear to him already that another of their neighbors, knowledge needed to build a
and bedrooms on the ground his grandparents will offer him Peter Krajiek, a distant better life. The friendship and
floor and the kitchen and familial support, and that he'll be relative of Mrs. Shimerda, sold support of their neighbors will be
dining room in the basement. comfortable here. the Shimerda's his homestead, key to their survival.
Still, he is comforted by his but badly overcharged them
grandmother's warmth and 1 3 for a house that can barely 1 2
affection, and by the smells of withstand the harsh Nebraska
supper. winters. Jim also learns that in
Jim's life won't just be the "old country" Mr.
Otto tells Jim his grandparents
comfortable—it'll be exciting. Shimerda had been a tapestry
have bought him a pony, and
After one day he gets a pony and weaver and a fiddler, but is
tells Jim he will show him how
learns to rope steers! The way now old and frail.
to rope a steer the next day.
When Jim's grandfather Jim's grandfather reads the When they arrive at the Mr. Shimerda's soft hands
comes home, he calls Jake, Psalms establishes him as kind, Shimerdas' home, they find a suggest he's not accustomed to
Otto, and Jim for prayers and wise, pious, and virtuous, though sod "cave" dug out among hard outdoor farm labor. Jim
then reads them several also a bit distant. rough red hills. They meet the associates Ántonia with light and
Psalms. Jim is awed by his Shimerdas and their children, compares Mr. Shimerda to
grandfather's "sympathetic" 1 3 Ambrosch, the eldest son, ashes—Mr. Shimerda represents
voice, and the quiet dignity and Ántonia, the pretty middle the past, while Ántonia
wisdom with which he reads. child, and Yulka, the youngest. represents the future.
Jim notices how Ántonia has
cheeks that "glow" and eyes 1 2 3 4 5
"like the sun," while Mr.
Shimerda has soft white hands
and a face "like ashes."

As the adults talk and Mrs. Ántonia's desire to go outside BOOK 1, CHAPTER 5
Shimerda complains about the shows that, like Jim, she has
Mr. Shimerda eventually Until now, Jim has been
poorly built home they have come to love the landscape. They
befriends two Russian Ántonia's guide to the prairie and
purchased, Jim and Ántonia go build a pure friendship based on
neighbors, Pavel and Peter, American life. In this chapter,
outside. Ántonia takes Jim to their love of the land. In her
whom others in the region had their roles reverse—Ántonia
the creek and asks him to desire to learn English, Ántonia
avoided because they were introduces Jim to immigrant
teach her the words for "blue shows her eagerness to adapt to
rough-mannered and spoke an culture on the prairie. Jim's
sky" and "eyes." When they her new life.
unintelligible language. A few surprise at Peter's friendly
arrive back at the dugout, Mr.
1 2 3 5 months after the Shimerdas' hospitality shows that he, like
Shimerda, in broken English,
arrival, Ántonia takes Jim to other English speakers on the
begs Jim to teach Ántonia the
visit the Russians. Only Peter prairie, is somewhat suspicious
language.
is home. Jim is surprised to of the immigrants. Yet Ántonia's
find him "hospitable and jolly." friendship and his natural
BOOK 1, CHAPTER 4 Peter, thrilled by the company, openness helps Jim overcome his
As Jim settles into his new Jim's love for the prairie shows them his garden, suspicions.
home, he begins to run errands landscape is profound—he entertains them with a
considers the prairie a sacred harmonica, and gives them 1 2 5
for the Burdens and rides his
pony, Dude, twice a week to place. In watching the owls, Jim gifts of cucumbers and milk.
the post office. He is and Ántonia show their Jim has only eaten cucumbers
captivated by the land—the connection to the land, which raw before, but Ántonia
sunflower-bordered roads, the forms the basis of their assures him that cucumbers
copper cornfields, and the friendship. cooked in milk are delicious.
occasional elm trees. In the
evening, he and Ántonia watch 2 3 BOOK 1, CHAPTER 6
the burrowing owls fly to their
Weeks pass, and Jim's Jim's nickname for Ántonia
underground nests.
friendship with Ántonia shows that their friendship has
Although Mrs. Shimerda Mrs. Shimerda is hesitant to continues to develop. In what deepened. Ántonia's sadness
grumbles about it, every accept the ways of the "new he describes as "the magical over the insect's song reflects her
afternoon Jim gives Ántonia world." Ántonia is eager to learn light of the late afternoon", he greater dilemma—she is caught
reading lessons. Ántonia a new language and style of and "Tony" (Ántonia) have between her love for the prairie
eagerly learns to cook from cooking, but doesn't forget the their reading lessons and and nostalgia for the past. The
Jim's grandmother, and, in traditions of the "old country." watch the badgers and the grasshopper and the sinking sun
return, teaches her how to rabbits play. One afternoon, symbolize the fragility and
make a "sour, ashy-grey bread" 1 2 4 Ántonia picks up a frail, feebly fleeting nature of life.
that is new to the Burdens. chirping grasshopper that
brings tears to her eyes 2 3 4
In those first weeks, the As immigrants, the Shimerdas
because it reminds her of an
Shimerdas isolate themselves are isolated by language and
old woman from her village
and avoid town because culture, making it easy for Krajiek
who would sing songs to the
Krajiek tells them they will be to manipulate and control them.
children.
cheated out of their money
there. The Shimerdas dislike 1 Just then, Jim and Ántonia see Mr. Shimerda is a tragic fragile
Krajiek, but they feed him and Mr. Shimerda walking toward character who can be compared
house him because he's the them. He has shot three to the grasshopper. But, just as
only one who knows their rabbits, but he seems sad, and the grasshopper would still chirp
language. Ántonia tells Jim that her for Ántonia and Jim despite its
father is not well. Mr. Shimerda frailty, Mr. Shimerda remains
tells Jim he will give Jim his generous and loving.
gun someday. Jim is surprised
at the Shimerda family's 1 3
willingness to give away all
they have to others.

BOOK 1, CHAPTER 7 Mr. Shimerda, Ántonia, and Jim Pavel and Peter's difficulty
stay at Pavel's bedside. Aware making their way in America
Jim and Ántonia visit Peter to This episode underscores the age
that he is dying, Pavel shows the hardships of the
borrow a spade. On the way and gender difference between
confesses to Ántonia, Jim, and immigrant experience. Pavel's
home, they decide to dig into Ántonia and Jim. Jim desperately
Mr. Shimerda that when he story also shows how the past
the prairie-dog holes to see wants the respect he feels he
and Peter were younger, they can haunt you, despite every
how deep they are. Jim is less deserves as a man. When he and
were groomsmen at a wedding effort you make to create a new
comfortable in Ántonia's Ántonia are children, he can earn
in Russia. After the wedding, life. In other words, the past is
presence than usual—he feels this respect through a simple
the wedding party left the something that you carry with
that she's been acting superior display of courage. As they grow
bride's village in sledges and you and can't escape, whether
to him because she's older. up, their age and gender
traveled through the snow to your memories are happy or
While they're digging, a differences won't be so easy to
the groom's village. On the terrible, or a mix of both.
rattlesnake attacks them. Jim overcome.
way the sledges were attacked
acts quickly and kills the snake 1 4
2 3 5 6 by wolves. Terrified, Pavel
by hitting it with the spade.
pushed the groom and his
Ántonia is awed by this display
bride off the sledge to lighten
of courage and brags about
the load and escape the
Jim's bravery when she gets
wolves. Peter and Pavel were
home. She never again treats
chased from their village
him as inferior.
because of their shameful
actions. Eventually they came
BOOK 1, CHAPTER 8 to America, but bad luck
That autumn, Ántonia tells Jim Cutter's exploitation of followed them and they had to
that Peter is worried about the immigrants Peter and Pavel change jobs and move to
growing interest on his mirrors Krajiek's exploitation of different cities several times
mortgage debt to his creditor, the Shimerdas. before they decided to try
Wick Cutter. He manages to farming.
pay some of it, but then Pavel 1
Pavel dies soon after. Peter Peter's eating of the melons
is badly injured while lifting sells everything and takes a job represents the pride he has taken
timber. as a cook in a railway in his work. Eating the melons
construction camp far away also served as a way to mourn
from Black Hawk. Before he Pavel, who is buried in the
leaves, he eats all the melons prairie. Keeping Pavel's secret
he has grown on his farm. shows his allegiance to Pavel,
Ántonia and Jim vow never to and to immigrants in general.
disclose Peter and Pavel's
secret. Mr. Shimerda is 1 2 3 4
depressed without Peter.
BOOK 1, CHAPTER 9
Winter arrives, beautiful but Ántonia and Yulka's lack of warm
bitterly cold. After the first clothes is a sign of their poverty
snowfall, Jim rides to the and suggests they will have a
Shimerdas' house on a sleigh difficult winter.
Otto has built for him. He
takes Ántonia and Yulka on a 1 3
ride, but they become very
cold because they do not have
warm enough clothes. Jim
lends them some of his
clothing.

Although Jim is also growing It's important to Jim to play the To Jim's grandmother, it's Jim's grandmother's view of the
colder on the sleigh ride, he is masculine role and refuse to obvious that the Shimerdas Shimerdas is a bit unfair. She
too proud to show it. When he admit weakness. He learns the are suffering because they expects them to understand the
brings Ántonia and Yulka hard way that the land he loves haven't properly prepared for necessities of prairie life as she
home he refuses to warm can also be dangerous. the winter by storing food or does, but they do not have her
himself by their fire. The next making clothing. On the way experience, or any experience,
day he comes down with 3 6 home, she tells Jim she thinks living on the prairie.
"quinsy," an infection of the the Shimerdas may not have
tonsils. the common sense necessary 1 3
to survive on the prairie.
Stuck inside for two weeks, Strong capable men serve as
Jim eagerly awaits the return Jim's role models. He tries to live Jim's grandmother is Though she treats them kindly,
of the men from the fields each up to their masculine ideal in his suspicious of the shavings Mrs. Jim's grandmother distrusts the
night. He admires how interactions with Ántonia. Shimerda gave them, so she Shimerdas. Jim is more accepting
resilient and hardworking throws them in the fire when and tastes the "shavings." Only in
Jake, Otto and his grandfather 2 6 she gets home. But before she adulthood does Jim realize the
are, and that they never does, Jim tastes a few. Many sentimental value that these
complain. years later, Jim realizes that mushrooms must have held for
the shavings were dried the Shimerdas.
BOOK 1, CHAPTER 10 mushrooms, which the
Shimerdas had carried all the 1 2 4 5
Jim does not see Ántonia for Mrs. Shimerda's initial response way from the forests of
weeks. One night, the Burdens to the Burden's shows she's Bohemia.
learn that the Shimerdas are ashamed of her poverty and
taking turns wearing their one jealous of the Burden's lifestyle.
overcoat and are eating Yet her intense crying when Jim BOOK 1, CHAPTER 11
prairie-dogs to survive the and Jake bring in the food shows The week before Christmas, a Jim sees Virginia as another
winter. Jim, Jake, and his just how desperately she and the heavy snowfall makes the country entirely and considers
grandmother take a basket of Shimerda's need the Burdens in roads impassable. Rather than himself an immigrant. Although
food over to the Shimerdas. order to survive. do their Christmas shopping in he doesn't seem to realize it, his
When they arrive, Mrs. town, the Burdens have a "immigrant" experience is
Shimerda cries and accuses 1 2 3 homemade "country completely unlike the Shimerdas'.
them of being poor neighbors. Christmas." Jim's grandmother Though stranded in their house,
When Jake and Jim carry in bakes gingerbread and Jim the Burdens have the resources
the food, Mrs. Shimerda cries makes picture books for for a comfortable holiday, while
harder. Ántonia and Yulka from the Shimerdas suffer.
magazine clippings and cards
Mr. Shimerda is embarrassed The Shimerdas are ashamed of 1 2 3 4
he brought to Nebraska from
by his family's poverty, and their poverty because they
his "old country" of Virginia.
says that in Bohemia they had weren't always poor. Still, they
Jake brings the presents to the
a lot of money. He also tells plan to improve their standing in
Shimerdas on horseback.
them about his plans to build their new life. Mrs. Shimerda's
their house up into a log cabin. gift shows her gratitutde toward When Jake returns home, he Jim recognizes his first holiday as
Before they leave, Mrs. the Burdens. brings a little cedar Christmas a fusion of two cultural
Shimerda gives Jim's tree he has cut down as a traditions. His observation shows
grandmother some strange 1 2 3 4 present for Jim. The Burdens how the prairie, like America
brown shavings that she says decorate the tree with paper itself, served as a "melting pot" of
are for eating. doll figures Otto's mother has various immigrant cultures.
sent him from Austria over the
years. As the narrator, Jim says 1
the paper dolls are his fondest
memory of the holiday.

BOOK 1, CHAPTER 12 Jim snaps at Ántonia when she Jim's simplistic understanding of
complains that Mr. Shimerda is why immigrants come to
On Christmas morning the Otto is an immigrant. Yet unlike
sick. He tells her, "People who America reveals his immaturity.
Burdens eat waffles and play Mr. Shimerda, who can't let go of
don't like this country ought to He dislikes Ambrosch mainly
dominos. Otto writes a letter his past, Otto has almost
stay home." Ántonia responds because he finds it unfair that
to his mother in Austria, but he forgotten the language and
that Mr. Shimerda only came Ambrosch has greater
has been gone so long that he traditions of his homeland.
to America because Mrs. opportunities than Ántonia just
struggles to remember the
1 4 Shimerda wanted good because he is male. Ántonia
language.
husbands for her and Yulka seems much less bothered and
Mr. Shimerda comes to visit The warm and friendly house is and opportunity for accepts the situation as just the
the Burdens to thank them for comforting to Mr. Shimerda Ambrosch. She adds that way things are.
the presents. As they sit in because it reminds him of his old Ambrosch will be very
front of the stove, Jim notices comfortable life in Bohemia. successful one day. Jim thinks 1 5 6
that the warmth and security Ambrosch is surly, and is
of their house seem 1 4 disgusted that he is considered
"completely to take the most important person in
possession" of Mr. Shimerda. the Shimerdas' family.
Before he leaves, Mr. The Burdens are Protestant, and
Shimerda kneels before the the Shimerdas are Catholic. This BOOK 1, CHAPTER 14
tree and crosses himself. Jim difference bothers Jim's Two days after Jim's birthday, Mr. Shimerda's death is the
knows his grandfather is grandfather, but not Jim. Jim's he wakes up to find his climax of Book I. His suicide,
uncomfortable with other tolerance reflects the younger grandparents, Otto, and Jake though awful, is an unsurprising
people's religions, but his generations' ideals of acceptance in the kitchen, with Ambrosch outcome of his depression and
grandfather quietly tolerates and multiculturalism. asleep on a bench behind the struggles adapting to prairie life
Mr. Shimerda's prayers and stove. Otto explains that the (though the question of whether
later tells Jim, "The prayers of 1 5
night before, Mr. Shimerda Mr. Shimerda was murder is
all good people are good." had dressed in clean clothes, never completely resolved). The
hung up his coat, and shot Burdens are furious with Mr.
BOOK 1, CHAPTER 13 himself in his barn. Jake Shimerda because the father is
believes that Krajiek actually supposed to support his family.
There is good weather after Jim's failure to understand this
murdered Mr. Shimerda,
Christmas, and Ántonia brings situation shows his immaturity 1 3 4 5 6
because there was an axe by
Mrs. Shimerda to visit the and lack of understanding about
the body that fit a gash in Mr.
Burdens for the first time. But the differences between his
Shimerda's head, but Otto and
Mrs. Shimerda is angry and experience and that of the
Shimerda's. His grandmother's Jim's grandmother convince
jealous of the Burdens' nice
kind gesture shows a maturity him otherwise. Jim's
house, and rudely asks Jim's
gained with age. grandparents are furious that
grandmother for one of her
Mr. Shimerda would abandon
pots. Jim's grandmother gives
1 5 his family.
it to her. Jim thinks Mrs.
Shimerda is selfish, but his Otto goes to Black Hawk to Neighbors on the prairie help
grandmother tells him in get the priest and the coroner, each other in times of tragedy.
confidence that it's hard for a and Jim's grandparents go to
mother to see her children bring food to the Shimerdas. 2 3
wanting for things.
After sitting quietly for a while With everyone else gone, Jim is
and praying, Ambrosch leaves left in charge of the farm. He
to return to his family's farm. feels like a grown and powerful
Alone on the farm, Jim feels man.
"considerable power and
authority." He feeds the hens 5 6
and the cat.

With his chores done, Jim sits While Jim's grandparents are Otto, once a cabinet-maker in Otto must recall a skill he
down to read. He wonders if angry at Mr. Shimerda, Jim Austria, makes a coffin for Mr. abandoned when he left Austria.
Mr. Shimerda's spirit is in the understands Mr. Shimerda's Shimerda while the men This scene echoes his difficulty
room with him, since Mr. distress over missing a distant debate Mr. Shimerda's burial. recalling the Austrian language in
Shimerda liked the Burdens' place and a lost past. They're not sure they can get writing his Christmas letter
house so much better than his the body through the snow to (Chap. 12) and again shows the
own. He knows homesickness 1 4 the Catholic cemetery in town, challenge of remembering old
killed Mr. Shimerda. while the Norwegian church, skills while learning new ones.
which has the closest
When the adults return that Here light symbolizes transition. 1 4
cemetery, won't allow Mr.
night, they tell Jim that a The Shimerdas hope the light will
Shimerda to be buried in its
lighted lantern has been kept aid in Mr. Shimerda's soul
graveyard because he
over Mr. Shimerda's body until ascending to heaven.
committed suicide.
the priest arrives to bless the
dead. 1 3
BOOK 1, CHAPTER 16
BOOK 1, CHAPTER 15 Mr. Shimerda's funeral occurs Despite their differences from
five days after his death, just as the Shimerdas, farmers on the
The next day Otto returns Jim's description of Anton's
a new snow storm approaches. prairie stick together in tough
from town, bringing with him a bright features is similar to his
Nevertheless, neighbors from times. Mrs. Shimerda's request
handsome young Bohemian earlier description of Ántonia.
all over the region attend the shows she understands that her
man named Anton Jelinek. Jim Not only are their names similar,
funeral. Mrs. Shimerda asks family must assimilate.
immediately likes Anton's but like Ántonia, Anton is an
Jim's grandfather to say a
"bright" eyes and cheeks and eager student. They, not Mr. 2 3
prayer, in English, at the
warm personality. Anton says Shimerda, are the future of the
funeral.
he had wanted to visit the immigrants in Black Hawk.
Shimerdas months ago, but he Mr. Shimerda is buried at the The gravesite is important to Jim
had been hired to husk corn 1 corner of the Shimerda's land. because he associates his
and then had been going to Jim says that years afterward, childhood with the prairie in its
school to learn English. roads were built that crossed purest form. Just as Mr.
at that spot, and after all the Shimerda was nostalgic for the
Anton, a Catholic like the Jim's grandfather is set in his
prairie grass had been "old country," Jim is nostalgic for
Shimerdas, says it is very ways and refuses to accept the
eventually cut up by farmers, his own youth on the prairie.
important to have a priest ideas of other religions. In
the grave is the only place
bless the body, but Jim's contrast, Jim's open-mindedness 3 4
where the grass still grows. Jim
grandfather argues that Christ and Anton's thoughtful
says "in all that country it was
is the only savior a soul needs. consideration of Protestantism
the spot most dear to me."
Anton responds that he shows the sense of acceptance
understands the Protestant among the younger generation.
beliefs, but tells a story about Rather than fearing change and BOOK 1, CHAPTER 17
when he fought against the difference, they welcome it. Spring arrives, and the farmers Though a destructive force, the
Prussians in Europe. He used set their pastures on fire so fire will eventually bring new life.
to carry the holy water for a 5
that new grass can be planted. By destroying the past, the light
priest blessing the dead Jim says that the lights of the of the fire symbolizes growth,
soldiers. When everyone in his fires seem to represent "the hope, and change.
camp died of cholera, only the kindling that was in the air."
priest and Anton survived, and 3 4
this is why he believes in a
priest's powers. While Jim's
grandfather is still not
convinced, Jim admires Anton
for his "frank, manly faith."

The Shimerdas now have a The Shimerdas' new life mirrors When he learns of the fight, Jim's grandfather knows that a
new log house, which the the growth of the new harvest. Jim's grandfather tells Jake to family feud is senseless in the
Burdens and other neighbors Like the land, they must go to the justice of the peace harsh world of the prairie, where
helped them build. They also experience death, and cut their on his own accord and pay the everyone needs friendly
have a new windmill and connection to the past, before fine for hitting Ambrosch, so neighbors. He also knows that
chicken-house, and Jim's they can experience growth. that Mrs. Shimerda can't start the best way to end the feud is
grandfather gave them a cow, any trouble. The Shimerdas through money, highlighting the
to be paid for after the harvest. 3 4 avoid dealing with the Burdens economic differences between
Mrs. Shimerda has also for a number of weeks. Jim's the Shimerdas and the Burdens.
learned to speak more English. grandfather then brings about
a reconciliation by hiring 1 2
That spring, Ántonia turns 15, Though Ántonia takes pride in
Ambrosch and Ántonia to do
and Jim notices she is no working like a man, she still has
some work and telling Mrs.
longer a child. She has grown her childhood desire to learn. She
Shimerda that she does not
tan and strong while working cries because she now has the
have to pay him for the cow.
in the fields beside Ambrosch. mature understanding that
Ántonia and Jim resume their
He asks Ántonia if she would family obligations will make her
friendship.
like to start going to school education impossible. Jim, whose
with him, but she says proudly family doesn't face the
that she has to work now, "like Shimerdas' struggles, doesn't BOOK 1, CHAPTER 19
mans." But when she looks realize this. The "dying light" When school is out in Ántonia has gained an adult's
over at the "streak of dying symbolizes their friendship as midsummer, Jim and Ántonia awareness of class differences,
light" in the sky, she starts to their paths diverge—Ántonia's spend more time together. which Jim does not yet
cry. leads to work, and Jim's to One night Jim and Ántonia understand. Jim nostalgically
school. climb to the roof to watch a yearns for the simple friendship
distant lightning storm. As they shared in childhood, but
1 2 5 6
they watch, Jim asks Ántonia Ántonia knows their differences
why she can't be "nice" all the will make this impossible.
BOOK 1, CHAPTER 18 time and instead tries so hard
to be like Ambrosch. Ántonia 1 2 4 5
Jim starts school and sees less The fight between Jake and
of Ántonia. One Sunday, Jake Ambrosch is a physical symbol of responds that things will never
takes him to the Shimerdas to the tension developing between be as easy for her or her family
retrieve a horse-collar Ántonia and Jim as they move in as they are for Jim and his
Ambrosch has borrowed. But their separate directions. family.
when Ambrosch hands over
the collar, it is damaged. This 1 2 BOOK 2, CHAPTER 1
leads to a nasty exchange When Jim turns 13, his The location of the Burdens' new
between Jake and Ambrosch grandparents decide to move home, midway between the farm
that ends with Jake punching to town because they are and downtown, shows they are
Ambrosch in the head. Mrs. getting too old to farm and in reluctant to abandon prairie life
Shimerda and Ántonia are town Jim can go to school full- entirely.
furious at Jake and Jim, while time. Jim is pleased that they
Jake advises Jim not to trust or buy "the first town house one 3
befriend "foreigners" like the passed driving in from the
Shimerdas. farm."

Rather than seeking work at Otto and Jake's departure means BOOK 2, CHAPTER 3
another farm, Otto and Jake not only the end of two
Ántonia arrives at the With Jake and Otto gone, Mr.
decide to move to the "wild friendships for Jim, but also the
Harlings, excited about her Harling becomes the object of
West" to be silver prospectors. end of Jim's childhood. Now Jim
new job. Jim is jealous of her Jim's fascination. He is a strong
They leave after the Burdens must forge new male
immediate admiration for male figure who plays the role of
move and send a postcard a relationships with boys his own
Charley, but he is happy to see patriarch. But he intimidates Jim
few months later. Jim never age.
her again, and spends more because his showy macho
hears from them again.
2 4 5 6 time at the Harlings. But he is behavior is at odds with Otto's
in awe of and intimidated by and Jake's quiet competence.
Jim's grandfather becomes Although Jim's family thrives in Mr. Harling, who he says
the deacon of the new Baptist the town, he is nostalgic for his dresses like "a noble" with 6
Church. His grandmother old friendship with Ántonia in the caped overcoats and diamond
holds dinners for church prairie. Jim still believes in rings.
functions and for farmers traditional gender roles, and does
coming into town. But Jim not want Ántonia to be treated
yearns for news of Ántonia. as a man by her brother. BOOK 2, CHAPTER 4
He hears Ambrosch has been One evening that autumn, a Times are changing, and finding a
hiring her out as a farmhand to 3 4 6 pretty well-dressed girl arrives good husband is no longer the
other farmers, and Jim thinks at the Harlings. Ántonia and goal of women everywhere. Lena
Ambrosch is mistreating her. Jim are surprised to recognize represents the "new woman."
her as Lena Lingard, a While Ántonia tried to emulate
Norwegian girl who used to men through physical work, Lena
BOOK 2, CHAPTER 2
work on one of the nearby shows her how to enjoy the
Jim and his grandparents The Harlings are an example of farms and would always dress pleasures of a man's
befriend their new neighbors, an immigrant family who have raggedly. Lena proudly tells lifestyle—she dresses well, is
the Harlings, who are overcome the initial hardships of them she has a job with a promiscuous, has asserted her
Norwegians. Mr. Harling is a immigrant life and built a life full dressmaker and is renting a independence, and lives on her
successful grain merchant, and of opportunities for themselves room of her own. She tells own.
his family is wealthy. Charley, and their children. Frances is an Ántonia to visit her. Jim
the son closest to Jim's age, is example of strong woman. remembers that Lena used to 6
preparing for the Naval be "talked about" for a scandal
Academy, and the oldest 1 6
in which a married farmer fell
daughter, Frances, is Mr. in love with her and the
Harlings' chief clerk. Jim notes farmer's wife physically
that she is never cheated in a attacked her, although Lena
business deal. denied ever seducing the
After the Harling's cook leaves Although Ántonia has proven farmer.
them, Jim's grandmother herself in "man's work," she still
convinces Mrs. Harling to hire has a woman's limited rights, and BOOK 2, CHAPTER 5
Ántonia. They do, and intend must defer to her male guardian.
Jim sees Lena often Although she has embraced town
to pay Ántonia well, including
6 downtown. She says she is life, even the fiery and
an allowance for her clothing.
thrilled to live in town, and tells independent Lena shows a
But Ambrosch insists all
him about her friend Tiny nostalgia for her childhood on
Ántonia's money should go
Soderball, who works at the the prairie.
directly to him.
Boys' Home hotel as a
waitress. One afternoon in 3 4 6
December, Jim sees Lena
helping her little brother buy
Christmas gifts for their family.
After her brother leaves, Lena
cries a little and tells Jim she
still gets homesick sometimes.

BOOK 2, CHAPTER 6 BOOK 2, CHAPTER 8
That winter, Jim spends many Ántonia is not disturbed by the That June, three Italians Inside the pavilion, the class
evenings at the Harlings, tramp's suicide but by the season named the Vannis come to differences between native-born
playing games and listening to in which it occurs. Although she Black Hawk from Kansas City Americans and immigrants that
Ántonia's stories. One night, is happy in town, the prairie will to teach dancing. They set up a have characterized the novel are
Ántonia tells a story about a always be home to her, and she temporary dancing pavilion in cast aside for the first time. The
tramp who wandered into the cannot comprehend that town, and a dancing frenzy immigrant girls take advantage
farm she was working at the someone could feel otherwise. ensues. Ántonia and the other of this freedom to socialize with
year before and jumped into "hired girls" love the pavilion, wealthy young men.
the threshing machine, killing 3 which is, as Jim notes, "a place
himself. Ántonia wonders why where the girls could wear 1 5 6
he would kill himself in their new dresses, and where
summer, when everything is one could laugh aloud without
good. being reproached." They dance
freely with the sons of
BOOK 2, CHAPTER 7 wealthier families.
The only break in the long The discovery of the girls dancing
winter occurs in March, when is their debut as grown women in BOOK 2, CHAPTER 9
Blind d'Arnault, a Negro the town. No longer just girls, Jim notices how all the young Jim's liberal views on equality
pianist, comes to Black Hawk. now they dance with men, a men are attracted to the hired between the classes are
The townspeople gather at the metaphor for their social and immigrant girls, who continue progressive, ahead of his time.
Boys' Home hotel to listen. sexual maturity. This is also the to dance every night. Jim His ideas are supported by future
The scene is electric, and at first time Jim sees Ántonia with thinks the sacrifices and events, as the immigrants earn
one point d'Arnault senses the Lena and Tiny. Just as Jim had to struggles the girls have had to their success through hard work
tapping of dancing feet in a make new friends among his endure make them more while the "refined" and privileged
room next to the parlor where peers when he moved into town, beautiful and energetic than upper class works less diligently
he is playing. The door Ántonia has made friends with the "refined" town girls. Jim, and lose their power.
between the two rooms is the other "hired girls" (immigrant looking back as an adult,
opened, revealing Ántonia, girls hired to work for wealthier, observes that the immigrants' 1 5 6
Lena and Tiny dancing to the established families). work ethic has in fact made
music. Though at first the girls them the most prosperous
are shocked to be discovered, 2 5 6 families in the area.
the men in the hall convince The brief anecdote of Sylvester
Sylvester Lovett, the son of a
the girls to come in and dance and Lena shows that despite the
banker, becomes infatuated
with them. dances, prejudice against the
with Lena. Jim hopes that if
Sylvester marries Lena it will poorer immigrant classes still
help rid the townspeople of exists in Black Hawk. Though he
their prejudices toward the loves Lena, Sylvester is too
immigrants. But when embarrassed to marry her
Sylvester's infatuation causes because she's an immigrant.
him to slip up at work, he
decides to marry a well-to-do 1 6
widow in town instead. Jim is
furious at him.

BOOK 2, CHAPTER 10 With Ántonia no longer living Jim's restlessness foreshadows
next door to him, Jim is his departure from Nebraska. But
Ántonia's dancing gains her Ántonia's departure from the
restless, and tired of he isn't restless because he wants
many admirers. Eager to get to Harlings' house is a turning point
socializing with the wealthier more adventure in is life. Instead,
the dances every night, she in Jim and Ántonia's relationship.
families. Looking for he craves relationships with the
becomes irresponsible at Now a physical distance
something to do, he visits the immigrant classes as he had on
work. One Saturday a man separates her and Jim. Though
drugstore, train depot, and the prairie. But Black Hawk
who is engaged to another girl by asserting her independence,
cigar factory. He even visits a society disapproves of this sort of
tries to kiss Ántonia at her Ántonia shows she's no longer a
saloon operated by Anton mingling.
front door. Although Ántonia naïve girl controlled by her
Jelinek. But Anton, who
rebuffs him, Mr. Harling comes brother, it's clear to Jim she is 1 2 4
respects Jim's grandfather and
outside and tells Ántonia she is making the wrong decision by
knows that he wouldn't want
getting a reputation for being working for the Cutters.
Jim to go to a saloon, asks Jim
"easy," and if she wants to
1 2 5 6 to leave. Jim also starts to hear
dance she cannot work in his
rumors that people around
house anymore. Though Mrs.
town are discussing his
Harling begs her not to,
behavior.
Ántonia quits her job and goes
to work for Wick Cutter's Jim starts sneaking out at Now sexually mature, Jim wants
family. night to attend the Fireman's more than just friendship with
Hall, where the immigrants Ántonia. Yet, just as she
gather to dance. One night Jim understood that Jim could get an
BOOK 2, CHAPTER 11
walks Ántonia home from the education while she could not,
Jim says that the Cutters are Through his interactions with dance and tries to kiss her. She Ántonia now understands that
disliked by nearly everyone in Peter and Pavel, Wick Cutter has reprimands him. When he tells the different options available to
Black Hawk. Wick Cutter is a shown a tendency to take her that Lena lets him kiss her, them would make any romantic
moneylender who preys on advantage of immigrants like she tells him not to make a fool relationship between them
farmers, tricking them into Ántonia. of himself, since he will soon be impossible. Since he idealizes
accepting loans they can't going away to school to make immigrants and craves a
afford. Cutter also constantly 1 6
something of himself. Jim connection with them, Jim
argues with his wife, Mrs. knows that Ántonia will always doesn't understand this.
Cutter, a "terrifying" shrew of think of him as a kid, and
a woman. wishes he could have dreams 1 2 5 6
about Ántonia like the dreams
BOOK 2, CHAPTER 12 he has about Lena.
After she leaves the Harlings, As she grows up, Ántonia
Ántonia begins to care about explores her sexuality. It's not BOOK 2, CHAPTER 13
nothing except dancing and clear whether she is actually When Jim's grandmother Frances doesn't dislike the
fun. She spends all her free having sex, but she is clearly discovers he has been country girls because they are
time sewing, and then wearing, enjoying the attention she gets. sneaking out to the Fireman's poor, as other townspeople do.
new clothes with other hired Hall, she gets upset and Jim But she knows they are also not
girls. 2 6
stops going to the dances. As a the idealized women Jim thinks
result, he is lonelier than ever. they are, and that getting
One spring evening he meets entangled with them will hurt
Frances Harling, and she both them and him.
scolds Jim for imagining "a kind
of glamour" in the country girls 1 5 6
like Ántonia. She tells Jim he is
too much of a "romantic."

At his graduation, Jim gives a Jim has reached a turning point BOOK 2, CHAPTER 15
speech that is very well in his life and knows he will leave
In August the Cutters go to Ántonia may have shown her
received. His grandparents Black Hawk for college. He is
Omaha for a few days, leaving independence by leaving the
and the Harlings congratulate nostalgic for his friendship with
Ántonia behind to watch the Harlings, but as a domestic
him. Afterward, he sees Ántonia, but he understands that
house. Ántonia visits Jim and servant she either has to obey
Ántonia on the street, and she they are not meant to have a
his grandparents, worried her employers or be fired.
tells him how proud she is of future together.
because Mr. Cutter left a great
him, words that "pull on his 1 6
1 2 4 5 deal of silver in the house and
heartstrings."
told her not to leave the house
or have any friends sleep over.
BOOK 2, CHAPTER 14
Jim's grandmother decides Jim After the idyllic scenes of the
That summer Jim spends all his As Book 2 nears its end, Jim and should sleep in the Cutters' previous chapter when Ántonia
time inside studying, preparing Ántonia return to the prairie house in Ántonia's place. On and Jim recall their simpler life as
for university. He only takes a where they first met. Their trip his third night in the house, he friends on the prairie, real life
break from studying when represents one last fleeting wakes to find Mr. Cutter in now intrudes. Ántonia has
Ántonia, Lena, and their attempt to hold onto their Ántonia's room—Cutter had become a sexual object not just
friends invite him to the river childhoods and reclaim the past ditched his wife and returned to boys her own age, but to
to pick elder flowers. Jim before Jim leaves. home alone, hoping to have his men—a fact she must live with
arrives early and realizes how way with Ántonia. Jim hits and can't escape.
much he's missed the vivid 2 3 4 5
Cutter and runs home. The
colors of the prairie. next day, Jim's grandmother 1 6
Ántonia arrives before the Ántonia expresses her goes with Ántonia to the
other girls, and she and Jim homesickness for Bohemia to Cutters house so she can quit
talk about old times. She disguise the nostalgia she feels and take her belongings.
notices a flower and cries, she for her old life with Jim on the
says, because she is homesick prairie. Lena's comment about BOOK 3, CHAPTER 1
for the old country and her money shows that the girls know
Jim attends university at Though Jim moves away from
father. When the other girls they have grown up and
Lincoln (the capital of Black Hawk, he still tries to
arrive, they discuss the recognize their adult
Nebraska) and begins to study maintain a connection to the
differences between the responsibilities, like caring for
Latin under a young instructor prairie.
country and the town, and their aging parents.
named Gaston Cleric. He
Lena says she is going to make 3 4
1 2 3 4 5 rents a room on the edge of
enough money to get her
town near the prairie and stays
mother out of the sod house
in Lincoln his first summer to
and into a wooden one.
take a course in Greek.
That evening, as the sun is The plough's disappearance with
Jim calls this first year at Though Jim is a talented
setting, Jim, Ántonia and the the setting sun symbolizes the
university a time of "mental academic, he finds it impossible
other girls see a black figure on end of Jim's and Ántonia's
awakening." For a while, his to escape from the pull that both
the prairie magnified by the childhoods. Just as they make
past seems less important to the prairie and his own past have
red sun sinking behind it. They one last trip to the prairie, the
him But he knows he will never on him.
realize that the figure is a plough (a symbol of prairie life)
be a scholar, because he has
plough left in the field that is becomes magnified for a brief 3 4
too much of a connection to
now "exactly contained within moment before vanishing.
the "naked land and the figures
the circle of the disk." But the
1 2 3 4 5 scattered upon it."
sun sets, the sky quickly grows
dark, and the plough
disappears from view.

BOOK 3, CHAPTER 2 BOOK 3, CHAPTER 4
One March evening during his Jim feels a connection to Virgil's Lena's success in dressmaking Jim's prediction that the young
sophomore year, Jim and nostalgia for his hometown. Jim grows, and Jim begins to visit immigrant women will become
Cleric read a passage from realizes that his own memories her for dinner. He notices that successful is coming true in Lena.
Virgil about "patria," which will always be rooted in Black there is some tension between Whereas Jim used to believe in
Cleric tells Jim is not meant to Hawk and the nearby prairie, Lena's landlord and Mr. traditional gender roles, now
mean "country," as it is usually which are his "patria." Ordinsky, a Polish violin Jim's views are more progressive,
translated, but instead refers teacher who lives across the as he defends Lena's right to her
to the little rural neighborhood 3 4 hall. He realizes that both of independence.
where Virgil was born. these older men have crushes
on Lena. One day, Mr. 1 6
That same night, Lena appears Though Lena and Ántonia are
Ordinsky corners Jim and
at Jim's door. She explains that both immigrants, they are very
questions him about his
she has opened a dressmaking different. Ántonia is content
intentions regarding Lena. Jim
shop in Lincoln and is finally becoming a wife, but Lena is
responds that a woman like
able to build her mother a ambitious and wants
Lena who supports herself
house. Jim asks about Ántonia, independence, which she can
should be able to have guests
and Lena tells him Ántonia is only get through success and
without being talked about.
working as a housekeeper at wealth.
the hotel in Black Hawk and is As the semester comes to an Jim's goodbye to Lena is also a
engaged to Larry Donovan. 1 6 end, Cleric tells Jim that he goodbye to the Midwest and the
Jim and Lena make plans to see was offered a position at prairie. Lena's forward-thinking
each other again. Harvard, and suggests that Jim views on women make her crave
accompany him. Jim receives independence. Though Jim and
BOOK 3, CHAPTER 3 permission to go from his Lena seem to love each other,
grandfather and decides to go. neither seems capable of feeling
Lena and Jim go to the theater By paying for her seat, Lena He is sad to leave Nebraska. a truly deep connection.
often that spring, although shows her independence. She When he tells Lena of his
Lena insists on paying for her loves the glitz of the theater decision, she is also sad, but 3 4 5 6
own seat. Lena loves the because she grew up glamourless encourages him to go. She
glamour of the theater, with its and poor. adds that she loves being
champagne, sterling silver single and will never marry.
dishware, and roses. 3 5 6
At the theater, Jim feels "like a Jim no longer feels the social BOOK 4, CHAPTER 1
man" with Lena. When Jim and restrictions placed upon him and
The summer after finishing Jim's time at Harvard passes
Lena see a performance of Lena in Black Hawk. Yet Jim is
college and before entering quickly—the novel's focus is not
Dumas's Camille, Jim moved by the play because
Harvard Law School, Jim visits on Jim's life in the East, but his
sympathizes with the young Marguerite, who is out of
his grandparents in Black connection to Nebraska and the
character Armand, who falls in Armand's reach, reminds him of
Hawk. While there, Jim visits prairie. Once again, Jim deplores
love with the older Ántonia, whom he still loves.
with old friends and learns that the unfair treatment of
Marguerite, who is dying of
2 4 5 6 Ántonia's fiancé Larry, a train immigrant women.
tuberculosis. Both he and Lena
conductor, got her pregnant
are moved to tears. Jim drops 1 3 5 6
and then abandoned her. The
off Lena at home, then
news deeply upsets and angers
wanders the rainy streets
Jim.
pondering the relationship
between Armand and
Marguerite.

Jim mentions Tiny Soderball, Jim holds up Tiny as a contrast Ántonia wrote to tell her Larry takes advantage of
who moved to Seattle to open to Ántonia. Tiny has ambition, family that she had arrived Ántonia, exploiting her for her
a boarding-house, then without love of a place or past, safely in Denver. No further dowry. Whether by choice or by
followed the gold rush to which leaves her successful but word came from her, however, fate, Ántonia cannot leave the
Alaska, where she was deeded cold. Like Jim, Ántonia loves a until many weeks later when prairie. She is bound to Nebraska.
a claim by a dying Swedish place, which saps her ambition she suddenly showed up in
gold-seeker, which made her but gives her a past and a Black Hawk, unmarried and 3 6
fortune. She eventually moved connection to the land. upset. Larry had lied about his
to San Francisco with Lena. train changing routes. In fact,
Years later, Jim ran into 3 4 6 he had been fired, and used
Tiny—she was very rich, but Ántonia for her dowry, then
also cold and unfeeling. ran off to Mexico when the
money ran out.
BOOK 4, CHAPTER 2 Ántonia immediately began Ántonia wears men's clothes and
When Jim takes his Photography offers a way to working in the fields and resumes her work in the fields to
grandparents to have their preserve the past. But for Jim, his started wearing a man's baggy disguise her pregnancy and the
photograph taken a few days dearest recollections only exist in coat, boots, and hat. Because embarrassment she endured as a
later, he notices a picture of his mind. These memories tie him she wore these clothes, no woman.
Ántonia's baby on the wall. Jim to the prairie, and to Ántonia. one, including her family,
realized she was pregnant until 6
later visits Mrs. Harling and
asks her to give him more 3 4 she gave birth to a baby girl,
details about how Ántonia is who is now two years old.
doing. Mrs. Harling advises Jim
to go see the Widow Steavens, BOOK 4, CHAPTER 4
who is Ántonia's close friend Jim and Ántonia shared a love of
The next day, Jim goes to see
and rents the Burdens' old the prairie, but Jim allowed
Ántonia at the Shimerda's
farm. himself to be diverted into a life
farm. She is thinner and looks
"worked down." They sit near of "success," as it would be
BOOK 4, CHAPTER 3 Mr. Shimerda's burial plot, and defined by the "refined" people of
Jim goes to visit the Widow Jim questioned why Ambrosch Jim tells Ántonia how he plans Black Hawk. Ántonia stayed true
Steavens, who tells Jim hired Ántonia out to other farms. to practice law in New York to her love—the land.
Ántonia's story. Ántonia was He did not understand that City and that Cleric has
recently died. She responds 2 3 4 5
preparing for her wedding Ambrosch needed to build a
when she got a letter from dowry for Ántonia in order to that she would rather live
Larry saying that his train help her find a husband, a "where all the ground is
route had been changed, and necessity for a poor immigrant friendly."
that they would have to live in woman. Jim then tells Ántonia that he Jim has a lucrative career ahead
Denver. Though unhappy thinks of her more often than of him as a lawyer. But it's his
about leaving Black Hawk, 1 6
anyone else, and that she is a past, the prairie, and Ántonia,
Ántonia went to Denver to be part of him. She responds that that he loves. But he loves all
with Larry. Before she left, she will always remember him three in an idealized static way,
Ambrosch gave her $300 for a and will tell her daughter wishing things could be as they
dowry, which he had saved about their youth together. were when he was a boy, instead
from her wages earned by They walk home, and Jim of loving them in the present.
working on other people's wishes he could be a little boy
farms. again. 2 3 4 5

BOOK 5, CHAPTER 1 Ántonia shows Jim old Ántonia has kept the past alive
photographs of her wedding through photographs, and has
Jim avoids going back to see Jim has a vision of the perfect
day, including photos of shared these photographs with
Ántonia for 20 years, afraid to prairie and of a perfect Ántonia.
Ambrosch and Lena. Then she her family. These memories
find her "aged and broken." In By trying to preserve these
shows Jim one of himself, with inspire Jim to see the Ántonia he
those years, he hears bits of visions, Jim avoids returning to
Jake and Otto, and one of Jim loved from his childhood in the
gossip, so he knows that she or growing alongside the things
just before college. That night, day mother and matriarch she
has married a man named that he loves. He is rootless, as
Jim sleeps with Ántonia's boys has become. He sees her for her
Cuzak, a cousin of Anton his many business trips suggest.
in the haymow. Three changing evolving self.
Jelinek, moved back to the To Tiny, a husband without
"snapshots" of Ántonia stand
prairie, and now has 11 "force" and a "hard life" sound 2 4
out in his mind—when he killed
children. At one point, he hears terrible, but perhaps those things
the snake; standing by her
from Tiny, who describes don't bother Ántonia.
father's grave; and coming in
Ántonia's husband as not
4 5 from the fields.
having "much force," adding
that Ántonia had a hard life.
Eventually he runs into Lena BOOK 5, CHAPTER 2
during one of his many The next morning, Ántonia's Cuzak is, as Tiny described him,
business trips. She persuades husband, Cuzak, comes home without "force." But his life seems
him to go see Ántonia. from town with his oldest son. grounded, full of love and
Jim stops in Nebraska on the Ántonia does not recognize Jim Though Cuzak is far from a friendship.
way back from his business because he has changed, even handsome man, Jim notices
that he and Ántonia have a 2 3
trip. When he arrives at the though he wanted to keep things
Cuzak farm, Ántonia doesn't the same. But while Ántonia has marriage of "easy friendliness."
recognize Jim at first. When been changed by hard times, she During dinner, Cuzak and his The story of Wick is like a parody
she finally realizes it is him, she has kept her youthful vigor boys tell Jim how Wick Cutter of people who value money and
is thrilled. For his part, Jim because she has kept growing had killed his wife and then success over land, love,
describes her as "battered but and changing, just like the land. shot himself, making sure to friendship, and everything else.
not diminished" and as still wait long enough so that his The result is emptiness.
having the same youthful vigor 1 2 3 4 5
hated wife's family would not
he always loved about Ántonia. inherit his money. 2 3
Antonia introduces Jim to all When they first arrived, the After dinner, Jim walks with Cuzak in many ways was similar
of her 11 children. The Shimerdas didn't know how to Cuzak outside and asks about to Jim, desperately missing his
children take Jim to see their store food. Ántonia has now his life. Cuzak admits that home. But through Ántonia,
"fruit cave," an underground become adept at prairie life. when he first came to Cuzak was able to put down
room where they keep their Nebraska he terribly missed roots in Nebraska and create a
large store of preserves. 1 3 5 new home.
his old life in Bohemia and
Ántonia shows Jim the apple Ántonia is able to fulfill her Vienna. But Ántonia's love,
warmth, and tireless effort 1 2 3 4
orchard. She tells Jim that she spiritual bond with the land
and her husband planted all through her farming. helped him build a life and a
the trees, and that she loves family in Nebraska, and so he
them "as if they were people." 3 has no regrets.
BOOK 5, CHAPTER 3
Jim leaves Ántonia's farm the Through Ántonia and her family,
next day, promising to return Jim has reconnected with the
soon to visit Ántonia, Cuzak, prairie—not the prairie of his
and their children, and then to youth but the living prairie of the
return regularly after that to present.
hunt with them and just to
"tramp around." 2 3 4 5

Jim takes the train to Black In finding the road out to the
Hawk, but finds that most of farm Jim literally comes full HOW T
TO
O CITE
his old friends have died or circle. That road took him away It's easy to cite LitCharts for use in academic papers and reports.
moved away. He walks out of from his childhood into town,
town into the country, where and then into the wider world. MLA CIT
CITA
ATION
he accidentally comes upon Now, reconnected with Ántonia,
the remnants of the old road he has reconnected with his past Sprow, Victoria. "My Antonia." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 22 Jul
and in the process found his way 2013. Web. 26 Oct 2016.
that used to run out from town
to the farms on the prairie. He home again.
sits down, watching the CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL CIT
CITA
ATION
haystacks glow as the sun sets, 3 4
Sprow, Victoria. "My Antonia." LitCharts LLC, July 22, 2013.
and realizes that even though Retrieved October 26, 2016. http://www.litcharts.com/lit/my-
he and Ántonia have antonia.
separated, they are bound
together by "the
incommunicable past."

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LitCharts The best way to study, teach, and learn about books.

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2 FRIENDSHIP 5 INNOCENCE AND MATURITY

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LIGHT BOOK 1, CHAPTER 2 QUOTES

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BOOK 1, CHAPTER 10 QUOTES 1 2 3 5

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Even while we whispered about it, our vision disappeared; the 1 6

BOOK 3, CHAPTER 1 QUOTES BOOK 5, CHAPTER 1 QUOTES

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