My Antonia is a fictional narrative written by Willa Cather. Looking closely at the authors biography and the protagonist of this story, Jim Burden, it can be said that the story was inspired by some of the facts in the life of the author. The author and Jim are both from Virginia and moved to Nebraska during childhood and attended school at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and eventually moved from Nebraska to New York to pursue their career.
My Antonia is a story of the life of Jim Burden, a successful lawyer in New York. The book was written in his point of view, looking back to the early years of his life with his family in Nebraska. He narrates, as well, his memory of a childhood friendship with a girl named Antonia from Shimerda family.
The kind of living the family of Jim and Antonia have is very different from each other. Jim moved in Nebraska with his grandparents when his parents died. They are well-off and are financially equipped with the help of their farm. They live comfortably in a well-built house, can afford a wagon for their ride and eat anything they would please to have when they like. On the other hand, the family of Antonia is from Bohemia. With the dream of Mrs. Shimerda to live in a greener pasture, they moved to America. Even if migrating is against the will of Mr. Shimerda, the family went to Nebraska. All the time she says, America big country much money, much land for my boys, much husband for my girls (p. 55). Life in another country has not been smooth sailing for the Shimerdas. The house where they live is not conducive for the American weather. Also, they had a hard time coping and were not earning well. All the money they had is used in buying tools for farming which has been overpriced by a native Bohemian in America. Moreover, they do not know much about farming. As an evidence of their life of poverty, in a visit of Jim to the house of Antonia, Mrs. Shimerda snatched off the covers of two barrels behind the door, and made us look into them. In one there were some potatoes that had been frozen and were rotting, in the other was a little pile of flour (p.45). They do not have any food to eat or even if they do, it is already not good for eating because it is already rotten.
It is a fact that Mrs. Shimerda resent the Burdens at times. She feels this way because she is envious of the state of living of the Burdens. While the family of Jim lives comfortably, her family is in great struggle to live. She wants to have everything the Burdens have because her family got nothing at all. She feels bad that her family is in poor condition since she pressured them to transfer to a location they do not know anything about, dreaming that it could actually help them be rich. However, the turn of events did not favor them. She feels bitter that she needs to receive help from other people in order to survive.
What Mrs. Shimerda is feeling is not correct. Being in a new place and having a hard life, she should be humble and thankful that she is receiving help from good-hearted people. Also, it is a sin to be greedy and jealous. Having an ambition wherein the whole family would be suffering does no good. In the first place, the family should have not migrated without the full cooperation of all the members and without being ready.
The visit of Mr. Shimerda at the residence of the Burden family during Christmas is a result of his gratitude. After receiving gifts from the Burdens, he wanted to express his thankfulness. His odd behavior, kneeling in front of the Christmas tree, is out of his admiration of the tree. Since he cannot speak the American language, what he did was a manifestation of his praising the tree. Also, the line he liked to look at us, and that our faces were open books to him (p. 53) shows that he wanted to say much but he cannot express it.
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