Summary:

The first-person introduction is written in the voice of a childhood friend of Jim Burden, who is the narrator for the remainder of the novel. The anonymous speaker in this introduction tells us that last summer, he unexpectedly met his friend on a train and that they spent the journey reminiscing about their childhood in Nebraska. It is hot and dusty on the train, and it reminds them of the weather growing up on the frontier.

According to the speaker, Jim Burden now works for the railroad in New York and is unhappily married to a dull woman who is a patroness to a number of mediocre artists and writers. A quiet man, Jim loves the American West that he grew up in and is able to pursue his passion through his work with the railroad.

That day on the train, they talk about a Bohemian girl that they both knew named Ántonia. For both of them, she symbolizes their childhood on the frontier, and Jim mentions that he thinks about her quite a bit. He tells the speaker that he has been recording his memories of the girl, and a few months later, he brings a folder containing his writing to the speaker. He had just finished it the night before and says that it was written haphazardly, just as he remembered it. Jim gives the folder to the speaker, but not before writing "My Ántonia" on the front of it.

Analysis

The introduction of My Ántonia is called a frame, or framing device. It is a preface for the novel, and it is written in a voice other than the one that narrates the body of the text. It is called a frame because it provides a very specific context for the novel itself, and it forces the reader to see the novel from a certain perspective. Because it is written in the voice of an anonymous, relatively insignificant character, it creates a distance between the reader and what he is about to read. In creating the folder labeled "My Ántonia," Jim was writing primarily to himself, not to a larger audience. My Ántonia is like a private love letter to this Bohemian girl, and we therefore don't really know anything about Jim Burden. We are intruding on his private correspondence and seeing Ántonia through his eyes, but we don't have any real connection to him. My Ántonia thus becomes the story of Ántonia, not of Jim. She is the central figure of the novel and the person we are supposed to admire as much as Jim does.

What is crucial to remember is that Willa Cather, through her semi-autobiographical character Jim Burden, is writing in the voice of a man. Though Cather bases the character Ántonia on a real person that she knew during her Nebraska childhood, she chooses not to describe her from a female perspective. Cather is thus distancing herself from both Ántonia and the male narrator of the novel, and the framing device of the introduction further contributes to this narrative manuever.

In the introduction, the speaker's brief mention of the Nebraska climate will be further developed in the rest of the novel. In the novel, place, and specifically the Western frontier, will become very significant in shaping Jim Burden's view of the world and of himself. Setting will come to symbolize the feelings of growth, expansion, and moral fortitude associated with modern America at the turn of the twentieth century.

Book I The Shimerdas

Chapter I

Summary:

The story begins with the narrator Jim Burden, age 10, travelling by rail across the country to Nebraska. Having just lost both his parents in Virginia, he is travelling with a hired man Jake Marpole to live with his grandparents. During the journey Jim reads the "Life of Jesse James," which he thoroughly enjoys. Jim first hears of Ántonia (pronouced An´-ton-ee-ah, with the accent on the first syllable) on this journey, when a friendly conductor tells him that a Bohemian immigrant family, which can't really speak English, is going to Black Hawk, Nebraska and that they have a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl.

Jim travels all day through the huge expanse of Nebraska, and in the middle of the night they finally get off the train. There Jim catches his first glimpse of the immigrant family. Soon Otto Fuchs, a hired man, comes to pick them up. He looks like a cowboy desperado, and Jim is impressed. They get into a wagon, and Jim stares into the night, seeing nothing but land and darkness. He feels like he has entered into a completely different, empty world and that everything he has known before has been left behind.

Analysis

In this chapter we are introduced to Jim the narrator, but as we shall see, the novel is primarily the story of Ántonia and of Jim's feelings towards her. Although we do find out certain details of Jim's past, the novel begins when he first sees Ántonia and her family, not at some earlier point. Jim only has a story to tell‹his story‹after he meets Ántonia, which is why a number of critics consider Jim to be a secondary figure, though it is his voice that we hear throughout the novel.

It is interesting to note that Jim is reading the biography of Jesse James, a Western adventurer, at the same time that he is embarking on his own frontier adventure. During the novel, the books that Jim reads often acquire a particular significance when considered in the context of his life. Jim will compare real life with the fictional world that he is reading about, and he will find reality infinitely richer and more exciting. In this case, he will find Otto Fuchs and life in Nebraska much more interesting than anything he could possibly discover in the world of fiction. Although Jim does not realize it at the time, he and Ántonia are embarking on a shared adventure, and their lives will intertwine in complex ways. What begins as a casual encounter on a train will become the beginning of a mutual journey in the American West.

In the novel, setting is extremely important, and Jim's first impression of the Nebraska frontier is that it is extremely vast and empty. He feels like he is leaving civilization, and he is. Everything that happens to him in Nebraska will be a new experience, and he will have to learn new rules and codes of conduct. He is leaving his past completely, and he will have to become an entirely new person in the country. For this reason, he feels "erased" and "blotted out" as he travels on the wagon to his grandfather's house.

Chapter II

Summary:

Jim wakes up in the afternoon in a small bed, with his grandmother smiling over him. She comments on how much like his father he looks, and he follows her to the kitchen to take a bath. Their home is very pleasant and clean, with flowers in the windows and plaster on the dirt walls. Jim's grandmother is energetic, with a strident, high voice, and she always seems to be thinking of something far away. His grandfather is solemn and kind, with a huge white beard and bald head. After supper, Jim is immediately befriended by Otto Fuchs, an Austrian cowboy, who tells him stories, teaches him how to throw a lasso, and has bought him a pony named Dude.

Before bed, Grandfather reads in a resonant voice from the Bible for everyone in the household. The next day Jim begins to explore his new environment. Outside, their frame house is surrounded by sod houses and dugouts, and Jim looks out at the windmill, corncribs, and huge cornfield. There is red grass everywhere, and it seems like everything is in constant motion. Jim accompanies his grandmother, who is carrying a cane as protection against snakes, to the garden, and he feels like he is at the end of the world. After warning him about snakes, Grandmother leaves Jim to play in the garden. He has a feeling of lightness and content and sits down to watch the insects. He feels completely happy and at one with the earth.

Analysis:

My Ántonia is written in the past tense and from the perspective of an adult Jim. Everything in the novel is therefore filtered through Jim's older and wiser adult personality and understanding. For example, in this chapter, Jim's description of his grandparents is very respectful and reverent, and it is obviously written by someone who has thought for awhile about what an important role that they played in his life. While the reader gets a very good sense of how Jim's childhood experiences fit into the larger pattern of his life, however, we do not feel his childish excitement and fearfulness at being in an entirely new place by himself. Jim seems a little bit too distant and removed, a little bit too knowing and self-aware, than a child his age would be. However, it is due to Cather's narrative ability that we feel this way‹that it seems like an older, adult man wrote these passages describing his earlier life experiences. After all, it was Cather's intention to create this effect.

In this chapter Jim feels at one with nature as he sits in the garden and watches insects. He is completely content and feels like this is how life should be. In describing Jim's communion with nature, Cather is romanticizing the frontier, which is pure and innocent, free from the corrupting and crowding influences of the city, civilization, and industrialization. Although she does not offer any overt criticism of the industrialized East that Jim leaves, her vision of the frontier is meant to be seen as an implicitly better alternative. Jim's love for the country and the freedom of the West will further develop as the novel progresses.

Chapter III

Summary:

On Sunday morning Otto, Grandmother, and Jim drive across fields of red grass to visit the new Bohemian family that has recently settled in the area. They are the first Bohemian family to move to this area, and they purchased their farm from another Bohemian man named Peter Krajiek. The farm and house are not particularly good, and the family‹the Shimerdas‹paid too much for it. In addition, the father knows nothing about farming. He was a weaver and a fiddler in his native land, is dignified and neatly dressed, and has white, skilled hands. The mother has shrewd eyes, and when she sees Grandmother, she points to her dugout house and says it's no good. She thanks Grandmother for bringing over bread and pies. The oldest son Ambrosch, age nineteen, looks sturdy and has shrewd eyes.

There is also a pretty little girl named Yulka, but Jim thinks that Ántonia is the prettiest, with big eyes and brown hair and skin. Marek, another son, is mentally challenged and has webbed fingers. Suddenly Ántonia comes up to Jim, and they run through the fields hand in hand, with Yulka following them. It is very windy, and after Jim tells Ántonia his name and the word for "sky," they lie down next to each other in the middle of a field and stare up at the blue sky. Ántonia tries to give Jim one of her rings, but Jim doesn't think it's appropriate and refuses.

Ántonia's father calls them back and stares deep into Jim's face. When they return to the dugout, he takes out a Bohemian-English dictionary and gives it to Jim's grandmother. Extremely earnestly, he begs her to teach Ántonia English.

Summary:

Since the Shimerdas do not speak English, they are dependent on anybody who speaks their language, and they are thus taken advantage of by Krajiek. People who immigrate to the United States need a network of reliable people who can help them accommodate to their new environment, and since the Shimerdas lack this, they are unable to learn the basics of farming and keeping house on the frontier. Jim's grandparents do not really realize this yet and attribute the Shimerdas' destituteness to either cultural differences or Mrs. Shimerda's overbearing personality. They do not know exactly how much help the Shimerdas need, but they are prevented from finding out because of differences in language and culture. The theme of cultural separation between new immigrant families and "Americans" is a central one in the novel.

Despite their differences in language and culture, however, Jim and Ántonia immediately hit it off. Though the narrator doesn't say that much about their first interaction, Ántonia seems to be the leader and the initiator in their relationship. She grabs Jim's hand, speaks excitedly while he listens, and tries to give him her ring. Jim is clearly fascinated by her and is content to follow her around and observe her, and this dynamic will continue to be played out in the rest of the novel.

The chapter concludes with Mr. Shimerda begging Grandmother to teach Ántonia English. Mr. Shimerda recognizes the value of education and is a learned man, and he wants his daughter to have a fair chance in America. As the novel progresses, the role of education in Ántonia's life shifts a great deal, and it is important to notice what factors account for this shift.

Chapter IV

Summary:

Jim reminisces about the countryside in this chapter. He recounts how he used to ride his pony Dude to the post office and to give messages. During this time there are no fences, and Jim likes to ride on the roads bordered by sunflowers. He hears that the Mormons had planted the sunflowers when they were fleeing to Utah, and he therefore associates the roads with freedom.

There are very few trees on the landscape, and he and Ántonia like to go look at the earth-owls and prairie dogs. He describes Ántonia as very opinionated and tells that every day he would give her English lesson and then they would go eat watermelons in the garden. Ántonia would also help Jim's grandmother in the kitchen. According to Jim, Mrs. Shimerda isa very poor housekeeper and makes bad bread. During their first few months in their new home, the Shimerdas are dependent on Krajiek, who is the only person who they can speak to and who gives them bad advice. Krajiek tells them not to go to the city, and he lives with them.

Analysis:

In the novel road imagery is very significant. At this point in the history of the United States, the roads in the frontier are winding and follow the natural contours of the land. They go from point to point, but they do not have the same sense of directness and urgency that city roads have. There are no fences or obstacles blocking the roads, which are free to simply cut across the countryside in whichever way is most convenient. Roads thus represent the freedom, vastness, and unlimited potential of the Western frontier. They take explorers, as well as the persecuted Mormons, to entirely new places where the land is open and undivided and free from the laws and biases of civilization. Jim is discovering new lands and a new life (with his grandparents and Ántonia) at the same time that adventurers and pushing the new roads ever westward.

Chapter V

Summary:

Even though the Shimerdas are having trouble getting used to their new home, the two young girls never complain and are always happy. One day Ántonia tells Jim that her father had met two Russian men, Peter and Pavel, who speak a dialect similar to the Shimerdas. Pavel is tall, skinny, and wasted-looking; he makes excited gestures, so people think he's an anarchist. Peter is short, fat, pleasant, and very friendly. The two men live together and work together as farmhands.

Mr. Shimerda visits the Russians almost every day, sometimes with Ántonia, and one day he takes Jim along with them. Peter is out washing laundry, and he shows them his cow, which he is very fond of. Pavel is not home, and their house is very neat and organized. Peter gives them fresh melons, and they eat many of them messily on the table. Looking at Ántonia, he sighs because he wishes he hadn't had to leave Russia, where he could have a daughter just like her. Before Jim and the Shimerdas leave, Peter plays the harmonica for them and gives them cucumbers and milk.

Analysis:

In this chapter the Shimerdas finally meet other immigrants that they can talk to. During the beginning of the twentieth century, the type of people immigrating to the United States began to change. Whereas before most immigrants had been of Northern and Western European origin, around the turn of the century, immigration from Eastern Europe increased dramatically. These new immigrants were initially greeted with a great deal of prejudice and were assumed to be inferior, both morally and intellectually, than their Northern and Western European counterparts. My Ántonia reflects the changing face of immigration during this time period, as most of the immigrant families are of Eastern European (and Scandinavian) origin.

As bachelors trying to survive together, Peter and Pavel form a household that though unconventional, works well for them. The two men have a clean house that is decorated and organized, even though there are no women around to take care of them. Jim is favorably impressed with how well put together their home is. In living together, Peter and Pavel are redefining the typical American household and demonstrating how two single men can effectively band together to survive the frontier.

Chapter VI

Summary:

One afternoon Jim and "Tony" are sitting outside in the sun for their English lesson. Tony begins talking about badgers and how they are hunted by special dogs in her native country. It is almost winter, so all the insects, except one, are dead. Tony picks the bug up and begins to speak to it in Bohemian, and it starts to chirp back at her. She begins to cry a little bit because the bug reminds her of an old beggar woman she once knew who used to sing songs for children. When they decide to go back, Ántonia puts the bug in her hair.

As they walk back, Jim marvels at the prairie surrounding them, covered in red grass and cornfields. Every day they walked back through the fields, and the moment seems triumphant, "like a hero's death‹heroes who died young and gloriously." They see Mr. Shimerda up ahead and run to overtake him. Ántonia confides that her father is sick, and he shows them three rabbits that he killed for food and fur. As Ántonia shows her father the bug from her hair, Jim looks at Mr. Shimerda's gun. With Ántonia translating, the father tells Jim that he can have the gun when he grows up. The gun is a gift from a very wealthy man whose wedding Mr. Shimerda played at. Jim wonders that the Shimerdas are always wanting to give away their possessions, and he is touched by the old man's look of sadness and pity.

Analysis:

This chapter describes the near-perfect communion with nature that Jim and Ántonia have at this point during the year before winter comes. They feel triumphant and comfortable in nature, and they appreciate all forms of life, even the little grasshopper. Nature and humans are in harmony during the fall, and Jim feels like nature is celebrating him for his life and vitality when he walks home in the sunset. In passages such as these, Cather is once again idealizing the peaceful, wholesome life in the country. However, she does not maintain this fairy tale-like tone through the entirety of the novel, as Mr. Shimerda's failing health implies.

Unlike his daughter Ántonia, Mr. Shimerda is not thriving in the countryside and is becoming depressed. He does not have the luxury of being as carefree as his daughter, and he has to try to master and take advantage of nature in order for his family to survive. Thus, he has to go hunting for rabbits to feed and clothe his family; he must kill wild animals, unlike his daughter who wants to save even a little caterpillar. He has responsibilities that Jim and Ántonia do not have, and as the weather changes and the elements become fierce, he will feel the effects much more strongly.

As noted earlier, the Shimerdas have very different cultural values than the Burdens and other "American" families. Jim does not understand why Mr. Shimerda wants to give him his expensive gun, and he thinks it is foolish that the family is so generous. Raised in an American capitalist society, he values individual competition and private ownership, and he does not see how Mr. Shimerda is not just offering him a possession, but also lifelong loyalty and assistance.

Chapter VII

Summary:

According to Jim, Ántonia often treats him a little condescendingly, until one autumn adventure that changes her opinion of him. One day Jim takes Ántonia on his pony so that she can borrow a spade from Russian Peter. Afterwards, they go look at the ten-acre large prairie dog town. Suddenly, Ántonia screams in Bohemian and points at a huge, coiling snake as big as Jim's leg. Jim rushes up to it and digs into its neck with the spade, while it coils furiously around his feet.

After he kills it, Jim feels sick and is irritable. Ántonia comforts him and tells him how brave he is. They look at the snake, who is five and a half feet long and twenty-four years old. Jim drags the snake behind him on the way home and feels proud of having killed it. Otto Fuchs tells Jim that he is lucky to have killed the snake so easily, and Ántonia tells how brave Jim was. Afterwards, Jim realizes how lucky he was to have had a weapon available and how lazy and old the snake probably was at the time. Nevertheless, Ántonia treats him with more respect from then on.

Analysis:

In our culture snake imagery almost always has Biblical overtones, so we should consider how this chapter relates to the story of the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve are inhabiting a paradise of nature, surrounded by fruit, trees, and animals of all sorts. Eve, however, introduces sin into the world by succumbing to the temptations of Satan, as incarnated in the body of a serpent. Like Adam and Eve, Jim and Ántonia are living in a pure, untainted environment that has not yet been exposed to the greedy, corrupting influence of the East. However, in their case, the threatening snake is destroyed. This snake represents the danger and destructiveness of nature itself, and it indicates what a threatening, untamed environment that they are living in. The Nebraska frontier is far from a paradise, as Jim and Ántonia learn during the winter. In addition, Jim is able to destroy the snake not because of any moral fortitude, but simply out of luck. In fact, he feels sick and panicky after killing the snake, not brave or proud.

In this chapter it is important to note how distanced Jim's narrative voice is from the action taking place. He barely describes his own thoughts and feelings when attacking the snake, and he seems to act almost passively‹as if he was drawn into the action without any volition on his part. He is barely present in his own telling of the story, and instead, it is Ántonia's voice and emotions that come through most clearly. Even though Jim kills the snake, Ántonia is the one who truly reacts to the its appearance. This narrative distance recurs throughout the novel but is strikingly apparent in this particular passage. It strengthens the critical interpretation of the novel as really being Ántonia's story, not Jim's.

Chapter VIII

Summary:

In this chapter Jim relates the story of the two Russian men, Peter and Pavel. During the autumn they are having a lot of bad luck. Peter owes money to Wick Cutter, a ruthless money-lender from Black Hawk, and he is forced to mortgage everything. In addition, Pavel injured himself while at work and is now bedridden. One day, Jim goes with Mr. Shimerda and Ántonia back to Peter and Pavel's house. Pavel is very sick, and Peter is worried that he will never get better. When they arrive, the wind is blowing loudly, and the coyotes are whining. Delirious and emaciated, Pavel cries out, afraid of the coyotes. He takes medicine, but he seems resentful of Peter, who is described as being simple and docile.

Pavel begins to rage and tell a story that Jim cannot understand and that frightens Ántonia. Suddenly, he begins to cough up blood but then falls asleep again. On the way home, Ántonia tells Jim Pavel's story, and they talk about nothing else for days:

Back in Russia, Peter and Pavel were groomsmen for a friend. After the wedding, there was a big party with a lot of merrymaking, and then everyone got into sleds to go home. Peter and Pavel, with Pavel driving, were in the sled with the bride and groom. It was a moonless night, and wolves began to chase the sleds. One sled veered out of control and tipped over, and the wolves immediately pounced on them. More and more sleds tipped over, and Pavel focused on keeping his sled under control. Soon, all the sleds had tipped over, and Pavel's middle horse was having trouble running. Pavel told the groom that he must throw his bride out of the sled in order to make it lighter, and then he knocked both bride and groom out of the sled. Peter saw nothing. Peter and Pavel were the only two people who survived, and they were shunned by everyone in their village. They had to leave Russia and saved enough money to come to America.

After telling his story, Pavel dies. Peter sells everything in the household and then eats all the melons that were to be saved for the winter. When Mr. Shimerda and Krajiek come to take him to the train so that he can move away to be a railroad cook, his beard is covered in melon juice. Mr. Shimerda is depressed after his friends leave and frequently goes to sit in their empty log house. Ántonia and Jim keep Pavel's secret between them, and Jim often thinks about it before he goes to bed.

Analysis:

In this chapter Jim hears the fairy tale-like story of Pavel and the wolves. Pavel's illness and death marks the beginning of the winter hardship for the frontier inhabitants, and his story emphasizes how much at the mercy of nature humans actually are. The wedding guests that Pavel talks about were helpless when chased by the wolves, and similarly, the Shimerdas and the Burdens will be intensely vulnerably to the bitter, impersonal cold. After a long and idyllic autumn, Pavel's death is the first of a number of winter tragedies.

Pavel's story is also significant because it brings Jim and Ántonia closer together. It is scary and exotic, much different from the huge, empty prairie that surrounds them. Since they tell no one else Pavel's secret, it is something that only they share. In addition, Pavel's story casts America as the land of opportunity‹the only place where he and Peter can go to escape their past. Only in America can the two men begin anew and keep their dramatic tale a well-hidden secret.

Pavel's death emphasizes how important human relationships are on the frontier. With Pavel's death, Mr. Shimerda loses his one friend and can now only speak to his family and, brokenly, to the Burdens. He becomes completely isolated from outside social contacts and loses the only people who can really offer him good help and well-meaning advice.

Chapter IX

Summary:

In December it snows for the first time. A little way from the house, there is a circle in the grass where the Indians used to ride their horses around, and Jim thinks that the pattern in the snow looks like a good omen. Jim begins to ride around in the snow in a sleigh that Otto Fuchs makes him. One day Jim takes Ántonia and Yulka for a ride. Though they do not have adequate winter clothes and are very cold, they are excited to be away from their shabby home and scolding mother, and they go all the way to Russian Peter's house. The two girls want to stay there forever.

When they go back, it becomes unbearably cold, and after dropping the Shimerdas off, Jim drives back alone and catches quinsy, which keeps him in the house for two weeks. Jim is cozy indoors and reads "The Swiss Family Robinson" to his grandmother. During the winter, the family's life revolves around eating food and keeping warm. Sometimes they sing and eat popcorn or taffy around the fire.

Jim greatly admires Otto and Jake. Otto has done all sorts of work, while Jake is barely literate and often violent, although very soft-hearted. Both are very hard workers. Otto tells a funny story about how he had to accompany a woman on the boat to America and how he got a very bad reputation because she had three babies on the way over.

Analysis:

At first the winter is very pleasant and non-threatening, and Jim likes to admire the winter landscape and drive his sleigh around. The Indian circle in the grass reminds the reader that though the fields are empty and undeveloped, they have a long history that stretches way back before white settlers came west. Though Jim's family and the Shimerdas are new settlers in Nebraska, the land had been inhabited by Native Americans for centuries before. While Jim thinks that the Indian circle is a good omen, it is also a sign that the white settlers never know the land as well as they think they do‹that it will surprise them and that it will endure long after they are gone.

When Jim, Ántonia, and Yulka visit Russian Peter's house, they talk about staying there forever. Although Jim mentions the episode casually, it is clear that the little rendezvous had a lasting impression on him. In fact, his tone during the entirety of Book I is one of happy contentment, and he is very much infatuated with Ántonia, though he doesn't overtly say so. He recounts their shared adventures in a tone of simple delight which makes it obvious that those simple, innocent experiences are ones that he wishes could have gone on forever.

After Jim gets sick, he reads "The Swiss Family Robinson," which is about an idealized, traditional family that lives an adventurous, happy life together in a treehouse. As in the first chapter of the novel, Jim finds this fictional world much less interesting than the one that he is actually living in. In addition, though Jim is an orphan and therefore has a less than ideal family situation, he is clearly very happy living with his extended family: his grandparents, Otto, and Jake. Jim does not long for a mother and father, but instead rejoices that he has found new, caring people to spend this epoch of his life with.

Chapter X

Summary:

For several weeks Jim doesn't hear anything from the Shimerdas because he's inside sick. One day Otto says that he saw Mr. Shimerda hunting, wearing the one winter coat that the whole family shares. Apparently the family is so poor that they eat prairie dogs, so the next day Grandmother decides to bring over food and chickens. When they arrive, Mrs. Shimerda speaks accusingly to them in Bohemian and shows them how little food they have. The dugout house is dingy and sad.

When Jake brings in the food, Mrs. Shimerda begins to weep. Grandmother is appalled to discover that the girls sleep in a small cave in the dirt wall, and Mr. Shimerda, with Ántonia translating, explains that in the old country they were a very respectable family. They still have some money left, and once it is spring, they will be ready to build a nice farm. They are just having trouble their first winter. Grandmother gives them some advice.

Before they leave, Mrs. Shimerda measures out a pint of some pungent, earthy substance to give to the Burdens. On the way back, Grandmother comments on how lacking in sense and resources the Shimerdas seem. When she looks at what Mrs. Shimerda gave her, she doesn't know what it is and throws it out. Jim tastes a bit of it, and only much later in life realizes that the food was dried mushrooms that the Shimerdas carried over from their homeland.

Analysis:

In this chapter Grandmother finds it a little hard to reconcile two conflicting cultural values: the American appreciation of individualism and self-sufficiency on the one hand, and a Christian commitment to goodwill and caretaking on the other. So when she visits the Shimerdas, she feels as if they should be able to take care of themselves, but she also feels guilty that they are so impoverished and wants to help them. She repeatedly says that the Shimerdas lack common sense, but at the same time she fails to realize that they are immigrants to a new country and have no experience with farming. She wants to give them things to help out, but she is irritated when Mrs. Shimerda acts as if she deserves help. In the end, she does help them, despite Mrs. Shimerda's demanding atttitude and inability to quickly adapt to the family's new environment.

It is interesting, but not particularly surprising, that a lot of the cultural distance between the Shimerdas and the Burdens is played out in issues surrounding food. In an earlier chapter, Grandmother criticizes Mrs. Shimerda for making bread that she perceives as being gray and sour, and in this chapter she is distrustful of the powdered mushrooms that the other woman gives her. As is often the case, differences in culture are often most noticeable in terms of what people eat, and though a good woman, Grandmother is no stranger to cultural prejudice. Although the adult Jim is aware of this lack of understanding surrounding Bohemian culture, in recounting his childhood experiences he is careful to maintain a distant, reserved, and nonjudgmental tone. He does not criticize his grandmother for not understanding the Shimerdas' customs, and he even reveals his own failures in understanding them. The adult Jim presents both perspectives, and once again, it is due to Cather's narrative skill that she is able to believably manage this narrative juggling.

Chapter XI

Summary:

Jake is supposed to go to Black Hawk to make the family's Christmas purchases, but it snows so much that it is decided that he shouldn't go. The family has a country Christmas instead and makes everyone's gifts. With Grandmother's help, Jim makes picture books for Yulka and Ántonia. On the day before Christmas, Jake brings the Shimerdas their Christmas gifts and returns with a Christmas tree. The family decorates it with gingerbread, popcorn, and candles. In addition, from a trunk containing all his cowboy possessions, Otto takes Christmas paper figures sent to him yearly from his mother in Austria.

Speaking in the present, Jim relates that he can still see Otto and Jake exactly as they looked then. Though they looked fierce on the outside, he knew that they were actually very vulnerable. They only knew how to fight, and though Otto loved children, he was destined to become a hardened, childless laborer.

Analysis

In this chapter Cather idealizes simple country living. Since it snows so much that Jake cannot go to town, they celebrate Christmas without any artificial city contrivances, and they have a great time. Their Christmas gifts come from the heart, instead of being tokens of an overcommercialized society. They enjoy each other's company and conversation, something that is perhaps a rarity in today's modern civilization. By presenting such scenes of peace and harmony, Cather offers a subtle version of social criticism. Her views represent a quiet alternative to the bustle of modern industrialized society, but she is understated and balanced, never dogmatic, in her approach.

In depicting Jake and Otto as gruff, yet kind-hearted workers, Cather is going against the stereotype of the cowboy as hardened, ruthless desperado. She may, however, be creating a different kind of cliché. Instead of being naturally rough, they become so because of their environment. They are forced to become violent and unemotional because of the difficulties of living solitary lives in the West, while at heart they are still dutiful sons and gentle, kind men. In naturalist novels (and My Ántonia has elements of naturalism in it), characters are shaped by their environment, and Otto and Jake therefore become who they are not because of innate, inner qualities, but because their circumstances and physical surroundings determine the course of life they will take.

Chapter XII

Summary:

On Christmas morning, Jim wakes up, and the whole family listens to Grandfather solemnly and simply make morning prayers. Grandfather's prayers always reflect his present thoughts, and Jim asserts that it is through them that one got to know his thoughts and feelings. That day they all do miscellaneous chores and play games, and Otto laboriously writes his annual Christmas letter to his mother. In late afternoon Mr. Shimerda comes over to thank them for all the gifts they gave his family. After escaping from the dreary dugout, he welcomes the Burden's home as an oasis of peace and order. He rests there and is completely content.

When Jim lights the Christmas tree, Mr. Shimerda kneels in prayer in front of it. As Protestants, Grandfather and Grandmother are a little uncomfortable but say nothing. Mr. Shimerda stays over for dinner and watches everyone's face intently. While leaving, he thanks Grandmother and makes the sign of the cross over Jim. After he leaves, Grandfather says, "The prayers of all good people are good."

Analysis:

This chapter is a continuation of the previous two chapters and builds on the theme of country harmony, as opposed to city discord. The Burdens live a simple life, with simple prayers, and they have everything they need simply by being together. City diversions would simply disrupt the cozy family circle they have created on the frontier.

It is curious that neither Jim nor his grandparents comment on the fact that Mr. Shimerda celebrates Christmas with them, rather than with his family. It becomes apparent exactly how much he values their company only in later chapters, when we discover how unhappy he is with his own home life. Mr. Shimerda's eagerness to spend Christmas with the Burdens indicates just how peaceful and idyllic the Burden household is, and while Jim may be exaggerating the happiness he felt as a child, he is not overstating the truth by very much.

Though Jim's grandparents may not be the most progressive people in the world, they are remarkably tolerant of the Shimerdas' customs and religion. Even though they are not entirely comfortable with Catholicism, they do nothing to offend Mr. Shimerda for his differing religious practices. Through her portrayal of such open-mindedness, Cather seems to be advocating a climate of general tolerance for different people and different customs. However, as we shall see in later chapters (Book II, Chapter VII), even Cather does not maintain a universally progressive stance with regard to cultural and racial diversity. Though she is trying to advance a particularly enlightened social vision, she is nevertheless a product of her times and cannot entirely break free from contemporary social prejudice.

Chapter XIII

Summary:

During the week after Christmas, the snow starts to thaw for awhile, and Ántonia and her mother come over to visit. Mrs. Shimerda had never been to the house before, and the entire time she looks at everything enviously and complains that the Burdens have so much more than she does. She asks Grandmother for a pot, which she gives to her. Jim is annoyed by Mrs. Shimerda, who lacks humility despite her misfortune. Ántonia explains to Jim that her father is sick and depressed at having left the old country. He misses playing the fiddle with his friends, and he had not wanted to come over originally. Mrs. Shimerda wanted to come to America because she thought that Ambrosch would be able to become rich here. Ambrosch is considered the most important person in the Shimerda family, and even Ántonia is in awe of him.

For three weeks it seems like it is almost spring. The bulls get into a fight across the fence between them and have to be separated. On January 20, Jim's eleventh birthday, however, a huge blizzard starts. It was the biggest storm in ten years, and Otto and Jack have to dig tunnels through the snow to get to the barn and the henhouse. All the water is frozen, and as soon as they finish the chores, they have to start over with them again. Jim calls that day very strange and unnatural.

Analysis:

The Shimerdas do not understand why the Burdens, who are rich, do not help them out more in adjusting to their new life, and this makes them seem arrogant and demanding. However, the problem seems to be more of communication than anything else. The Shimerdas do not know how to survive and prosper in their new country, but they also do not know enough English to ask for help and advice. Neither lazy nor unclean, they are simply unknowledgeable about farming life. However, the Burdens do not understand how destitute and lost their neighbors are, and they help them out of charity rather than anything else.

Despite all that Mrs. Shimerda heard in her homeland, she is not finding America to be the land of opportunity right now. The family is encountering difficulty and hardship quite unlike anything they had expected, and Cather's portrayal of them de-romanticizes the myth of America as the promised land. However, as we shall see in later chapters, once the family gets used to their new life, through hard work they are able to get ahead and become successful.

Though the novel is set around the turn of the twentieth century, Jim is surprised that the Shimerda family revolves around Ambrosch, the oldest son. Even though it is customary at this points in American history for sons to be given all of life's opportunities, he seems to think it remarkable that Ántonia defers to her brother. However, seeing as Willa Cather was a very successful, independent woman, perhaps Jim's seemingly naïve attitude functions more as social commentary rather than character development.

Finally, in this chapter, the Burdens witness the largest snowstorm in a decade, and winter begins to unleash its full force on the Nebraska frontier. Now nature becomes something that the family has to contend with, rather than simply admire and enjoy.

Chapter XIV

Summary:

On the 22nd Jim wakes up excited because it sound like there is a crisis going on downstairs. Otto and Jake look exhausted and cold, while Ambrosch is asleep on the bench. Grandfather tells them that Mr. Shimerda is dead and that Otto and Jake had gone over in the middle of the night with Ambrosch. At breakfast, Otto says that nobody heard a gun going off and that Ambrosch discovered his father because the oxen were behaving strangely. Mr. Shimerda had washed and shaved beforehand, had arranged his clothes neatly, and then shot himself in the mouth with a shotgun while lying down. According to Jake, however, Krajiek's axe fits precisely into the gash in Mr. Shimerda's face, and Krajiek was skulking around and acting guilty. The family argues a little about what happened, but there is nothing that they can do until a coroner arrives.

Otto goes to Black Hawk to fetch the coroner, and Ambrosch devoutly prays the entire morning. Finally, Grandfather, Grandmother, Jake, and Ambrosch all leave to bring the Shimerdas clothing, while Jim is left alone. Jim is excited to be responsible for all the chores and thinks that the life of Robinson Crusoe is boring in comparison to his. He imagines that Mr. Shimerda's ghost is resting in the house before it goes away to his homeland. He is not afraid and just thinks very quietly about him.

When the family returns, Otto tells Jim that Mr. Shimerda is frozen solid outside in the barn and that the Shimerdas take turns praying over his body. Ambrosch wants to find a priest immediately so that his father's soul can get out of Purgatory. Jim knows that Mr. Shimerda's soul will not be stuck in Purgatory and realizes that he was just very unhappy in life.

Analysis:

Winter finally brings a horrible tragedy to the Shimerdas and the Burdens: Mr. Shimerda's suicide. While it may seem inexplicable why a loving, caring father, as Mr. Shimerda most decidedly was, would leave his family helpless and bereaved in the middle of the worst winter in ten years, his action is understandable when considered as a last, desperate attempt at communication. While Mr. Shimerda was unable to make his family prosper, by killing himself he is making one final plea for help. His neighbors will literally have to take care of his family now and help them survive the winter and coming spring. They will know that the Shimerda situation is dire and will realize exactly how much assistance the family needs. Paradoxically, by killing himself and depriving his family of their head of household, he is ensuring that his wife and children will be thoroughly taken care of.

While Jim is very respectful of Christianity and organized religion, in this chapter he experiences a feeling stronger than any religious sentiment he ever feels: the sense that Mr. Shimerda's ghost is present in the house. He knows that Mr. Shimerda is homesick and through death, wanted to return to his homeland and the pleasant places he knew in life, like the Burden household. This sensation is so strong that Jim adamantly disbelieves Ambrosch's assertion that his father's soul is trapped in Purgatory. His awareness of Mr. Shimerda's presence in the house indicates how the closeness and depth of emotion between Jim and the Shimerdas.

Chapter XV

Summary:

After returning from Black Hawk, Otto tells them that a coroner will arrive shortly but that it is impossible for the priest to come. He brings with him a young, strong, and confident Bohemian man named Anton Jelinek, who tells Grandfather that it is very bad that a priest is unavailable. Jelinek tells about how, during a war with the Austrians in his native land, he helped the priest carry the Sacrament around to dying men. Everyone except them got really sick with cholera, and ever since he has appreciated the power of the Sacrament and wishes that Mr. Shimerda could receive it.

Jelinek starts to break a road through the snow to the Shimerda's house, while Otto, who is the only cabinet-maker in the neighborhood, begins making a coffin. Otto is a good carpenter, and the sawing and planing noises are pleasant in the house. The postmaster Mr. Bushy and some neighbors drop by to talk about the news, and Jim is excited because he is not used to people being so unusually talkative. Later in the day the postmaster returns to tell Grandmother that the Norwegians refuse to let Mr. Shimerda be buried in their graveyard. Grandmother is upset and vows to start a more "liberal-minded" American graveyard in the spring.

The coroner decides that Mr. Shimerda did in fact commit suicide, even though Krajiek is continuing to act like a guilty man. Krajiek probably just feels bad for being so ruthless and unhelpful. During dinner the family talks about how Mrs. Shimerda and Ambrosch want Mr. Shimerda to be buried at the southwest corner of their land, which will someday become a crossroads. Nobody really understands, but they assume that there must be some Bohemian superstition about burying suicides at a crossroads.

Analysis:

In the previous chapter, Jim is impressed by how devout Ambrosch is, and in this chapter he meets another pious young Bohemian, Anton Jelinek. Even though Grandfather does not understand the value of the Catholic sacrament, he listens attentively when Jelinek tries to explain how much he respects his faith. Despite their religious differences, Grandfather and Jelinek are actively engaging in mutual discussion and learning something about the other's culture in doing so. Such depictions of tolerance and respectful engagement by Cather help advance her view that harmonious engagement is something one should actively strive for. In contrast, the Norwegians exhibit a very tactless intolerance in refusing to allow Mr. Shimerda to be buried in their cemetery.

When Otto makes Mr. Shimerda's coffin, it makes the entire house seem very pleasant and cheerful. Instead of being depressing, the coffin-making is very productive and expends a lot of creative energy. Rather than simply creating the box that contains Mr. Shimerda in his death, Otto is fashioning a resting place for him in his new life. In this way, Mr. Shimerda's death can be seen as a beginning, rather than just an end.

Chapter XVI

Summary:

On the fifth day Mr. Shimerda is buried, but Jake and Jelinek have to chop him away from the pool of frozen blood surrounding him. When Ántonia sees Jim for the first time since her father's death, she clings to him so tightly that he seems to feel her heart break. Once the neighbors arrive, it's time to start the funeral. Outside all the children except Yulka, who is too young to understand, cross themselves over their father's body. The coffin is closed and placed on a wagon, then taken to the grave.

Mrs. Shimerda asks Grandfather to make a prayer, and Jim says that it was so remarkable that he still remembers it now. At Grandmother's suggestion (to make the funeral seem less heathenish), Otto begins to sing "Jesus, Lover of my Soul," which Jim still associates with the funeral and the "white waste" of snow there.

Jim relates that years later, the grave is still there, surrounded by a fence and marked by a cross. However, the roads do not pass over the grave but instead swerve around it. Jim thinks of the grave as an island and is glad that wagons have to pass by it and realize that it's there.

Analysis:

When Ántonia runs up to Jim sobbing, once again it is her emotions that come to the forefront of the narrative. Through Ántonia's behavior and reactions, we get a sense of how deep a tragedy Mr. Shimerda's suicide really is, and we realize how close the affective ties between Ántonia and Jim are. Jim appreciates Mr. Shimerda's death more on an intellectual, abstract level, whereas through Ántonia's grief, we appreciate the emotional depth of her and her family's despair.

Though the funeral is simple and performed somewhat haphazardly, it is poignant and still affects Jim as an adult. The fact that it lacks ceremony, ritual, and an official person to preside over it is a reflection of the kind of life that new settlers have to make on the frontier. In other words, new settlers like the Burdens and the Shimerdas do not really have any precedent or set procedure to follow, in the funeral as in other aspects of life, and they have to fashion an entirely new way of life out of remembered bits of their past. For example, Otto sings the first hymn that comes to mind when asked to do so and Grandfather improvises his prayer, yet the ceremony as a whole is intense and perfect the way it is. The act of creating something that is new and unique, though possibly a little disjointed and disorganized, renders the product beautiful.

Chapter XVII

Summary:

Finally spring comes, and Jim says that the coming of spring in Nebraska is much different than anything he had experienced in Virginia. Spring is everywhere, and you can just tell that it's there. People are burning their pastures before the new grass starts to grow, and the smell pervades the prairie. Neighbors are helping the Shimerdas a lot and extending them credit, so now they have a new log house, a windmill, and farm animals.

One day Jim visits the Shimerdas to give Yulka her English lesson since Ántonia is now busy working in the fields. Mrs. Shimerda is very suspicious of everyone and thinks that people are trying to cheat her. When Ántonia returns from plowing the fields, Jim is amazed at what a strong, young girl of fifteen she has become. She is proud of how much work she can do and says she doesn't want to go to school because she is happy to be working with Ambrosch like a man. Jim worries that Ántonia is becoming boastful like her mother, but then he notices that she is secretly crying. As he helps her with some chores, she makes him promise to tell her the things he learns in school and not to forget her father, who also went to school.

Jim stays for dinner but is not having a good time. Ántonia and Ambrosch quarrel about who can do more work, Mrs. Shimerda and Ambrosch wrongly accuse Grandfather of trying to cheat them, and it is apparent that Ántonia has lost her gentle, ladylike ways. Jim is sad because Ántonia is always working and has no time for him anymore. He knows that Ambrosch is overworking her and that people are gossiping about it, and he imagines how sad her father would be if he were alive.

Analysis:

After the death of Mr. Shimerda and the hardship of winter, spring, life, and rebirth come to the land. Everything is blooming, and the Shimerdas are learning how to farm the land and are beginning to thrive. Thus, Mr. Shimerda's death just becomes a part of the life cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. The burning of the grass becomes a symbol of the ever-changing life cycle.

Jim's attitude towards Ántonia during this time in her life is very ambivalent, though he doesn't acknowledge it in his narrative. Mostly he feels bad that Ántonia is working the land, cannot spend as much time with him as she used to, and is losing her girlishly feminine ways. At the same time, however, in his physical descriptions of her, he greatly admires and eroticizes her physical strength and masculine vitality. Even though he resents the fact that Ántonia is being forced to do a man's work, he cannot help finding her strong, athletic body very attractive. As usual, however, Jim never explicitly states his feelings, which are nevertheless apparent and implied.

Although Ántonia is helping her family to thrive by working the land, she is simultaneously sacrificing the opportunities she herself might have had. In an earlier chapter, Mr. Shimerda begged Jim's grandmother to teach Ántonia English, but in this chapter, she is being forced to give up education and all the life possibilities that it entails. Ántonia seems to recognize this when she tries to hide her crying from Jim, but she is determined that her family will succeed in America, no matter what the personal cost. Though Jim and his grandmother seem to realize exactly what Ántonia is giving up, there is really not much that they can do about it.

Chapter XVIII

Summary:

Jim starts school and tries to get back at Ántonia by becoming friends with his classmates, even though he thinks they're boring. He is resentful that Ántonia seems to worship Ambrosch, while she treats him with mild disdain. He recounts how the Burdens and Shimerdas were further estranged that spring.

Jim and Jake went to the Shimerdas to retrieve a horse-collar that Ambrosch had borrowed but not returned. Ambrosch is surly and gives Jake a collar in very poor condition. The two men get into a scuffle, with Ambrosch fighting unfairly and Jake knocking him down. Ántonia screams hatred at them, and Mrs. Shimerda threatens with the law. While leaving, Jim and Jake express their distrust of foreigners and say they're just not the same as other people. Grandfather simply laughs at the story and tells Jake to go to town and pay his fine. Jake happens to sell a pig at the same time, and the Shimerdas mock him because they think he needed to sell it in order to have enough money to pay the fine.

Despite the feud, the Shimerdas are always respectful to Grandfather, who gives them a lot of helpful advice and helps them when they have a problem with their horse. Ambrosch and Marek have started working for wages, and Grandfather decides to pay Ambrosch and Ántonia to help out on the farm. When he goes to the Shimerdas to ask, he graciously gives Mrs. Shimerda the cow that she has purchased on credit, and she falls to her knees and kisses his hand. Afterwards, the feud between the two families is forgotten, although Mrs. Shimerda wants to have the last word.

Analysis:

As the beginning paragraph of this chapter suggests, Jim at times structures his life around Ántonia, even if she is not directly involved or even present. For instance, he makes friends at school seemingly out of spite at Ántonia; in other words, he engages in normal human activity, but always with Ántonia in mind.

This chapter paints Ambrosch as a brutish, somewhat selfish creature that the reader simply cannot sympathize with. While this characterization may or may not be true, it does lead the reader to feel sorry for Ántonia, who is under Ambrosch's thumb and has to obey him. Jim's reaction to the Shimerdas in this chapter is somewhat uncharacteristic. While Ántonia's anger can be attributed to her intense feelings of family loyalty and devotion, Jim's prejudiced insults seem strikingly out of place, especially as they are directed primarily at Ántonia. However, as might be expected, they are probably just his pent-up feelings of frustration and resentment at no longer being the main object of Ántonia's affection.

Chapter XIX

Summary:

In July the heat comes, and the corn grows fabulously. Jim notes that his grandfather has already predicted that in the future the American Midwest will produce enough corn for the rest of the world. During this time Ántonia is mostly working in the kitchen with Grandmother, but she also goes outside to work with Jim in the vegetable garden. She prefers to work outside like a man and is proud of her arm muscles.

One day there is a big thunderstorm, and Ántonia and Jim go outside to watch it. It is pleasant, and Jim asks her why she can't always be herself and why sometimes she tries to be like Ambrosch. She answers that if she lived with Jim in the Burden household, life would be easy and she would be different. However, she predicts that life will be hard for her and her family.

Analysis:

Though she has to give up her education, Ántonia is finding that working as a man has its advantages. She seems more independent, carefree, and sure of herself, and she appreciates the sense of added physical strength that she is acquiring. Jim doesn't like her so much because she acts boastful and arrogant like Ambrosch; however, it is interesting social commentary that these qualities, which are accepted or taken for granted in men, seem out of place to Jim when they occur in Ántonia.

This last chapter of Book I recounts the last moment of closeness that Jim and Ántonia share together in the country. Afterwards, things will change, and the two will no longer be innocent children exploring the country for the first time. Though their meeting is idyllic and it seems to Jim that Ántonia is like she used to be as a child, they are both older and wiser than they were when they first came to Nebraska. Ántonia is aware that her future will be difficult, and she does not have the same sense of unlimited potential that Jim still retains.

Book II The Hired Girls

Chapter I

Summary:

After Jim lives in the country for three years, his grandfather, who feels like he is getting too old and that Jim needs to go to school, decided to move to Black Hawk. The Burdens sell their farm to the Widow Steavens and buy a house at the very edge of town. Otto decides to go West, and Jake follows him, even though the Burdens think he is too kind and trusting to live on the frontier. Jake and Otto help the Burdens move to the town, and Jim only hears of them once after that, when they are working in a mine.

Black Hawk is a nice, clean little town with a river that reminds Jim of the country. Soon the Burden family feels like town people, and Jim learns boyish ways at school. Country neighbors coming to town would generally stay with them at their home, although Ambrosch only came alone, wouldn't stay long, and wouldn't tell them much about his family. Mrs. Steavens, however, tells them news of Ántonia, whom her brother hires out like a man and whom everyone liked. Grandmother gets Ántonia a place to work with the Harlings, who live next door to them in Black Hawk, so she doesn't have to be hired out again for the fall.

Analysis

In this section of the novel, Jim and his family make the transition from country to city. However, even though they are changing locale, they still see the people they knew in the country. Ántonia and other country girls come to the city, where there is more opportunity for them to work. Though Jim misses the country, he seems to realize that he must move to the city in order to eventually get ahead in the world. He can only get an education and meet important connections if he's living in the city, and city life thus entails more responsibility than his carefree, harmonious existence in the country did. However, it is important to remember that city life is essential only if one is attempting to attain a certain kind of financial and worldly success.

Like a man, Ántonia begins to work for wages in the fields. Whereas before people were gossiping about her because she was doing so, now the farmers respect her for her industry and reliability. By working in the fields, Ántonia is able to gain the respect and independence that men her age do. Her productivity becomes the measure of her worth, regardless of her gender. Though Ántonia's working as a farm laborer is perhaps unconventional, her success suggests that women should be allowed to make the same choices as a man can. By depicting Ántonia as a strong, determined woman, Cather is asserting that there should be no limitations set on a woman's potential.

Chapter II

Summary:

Jim begins this chapter by describing their Norwegian neighbors, the Harlings. Mr. Harling is very successful and frequently away on business, and his wife generally runs the household. She is short, sturdy, and jolly. There are three Harling children around Jim's age: Charley, Julia, and Sally the tomboy. The oldest daughter Frances helps her father with his business and is trusted around the countryside because of her understanding of financial matters.

When the Harlings' cook leaves, Grandmother persuades Mrs. Harling to hire Ántonia. Mrs. Harling goes to visit the Shimerdas to get an impression of Ántonia and her family. Afterwards, Jim and the grandmother go hear what Mrs. Harling has to say. Mrs. Harling likes Ántonia and tells about how grumpy and demanding Ambrosch was. Ambrosch wanted all of Ántonia's wages to go directly to him, but Mrs. Harling mandates that a certain amount will be set aside for Ántonia's own use. Mrs. Harling comments on how pretty Ántonia is, and Jim and Grandmother are pleased at the praise. Grandmother then tells a brief history of the Shimerda family.

Analysis:

Jim's world at this time is an essentially female-dominated space, as he spends a lot of time with strong, independent women: his grandmother, Mrs. Harling and her daughter Frances, and, of course, Ántonia. Jim sympathizes with these women, who he clearly admires and respects. Mrs. Harling is responsible for running her household in her husband's absence and creates a lot of joy in the lives of Jim and her children. Though she does not have any real occupation, her role as a mother (and surrogate mother to Jim) is worthy of respect and much appreciated by Jim. Mrs. Harling's daughter Frances takes care of the finances of many people around the country, and though she is a woman, is very much trusted. These two Harling women exemplify female strength and initiative, and for this reason, Cather's work can be considered progressive and pro-feminist. Women like Frances can have the responsibilities usually granted only to men, but such a lifestyle should be a matter of personal choice. If women like Mrs. Harling choose to raise a family, they should be celebrated for doing that too, as it is clearly a pursuit to be admired.

In contrast, Ambrosch, the Shimerdas' male head of household, is selfish and not worthy of respect. His behavior towards Ántonia emphasizes how generous and wise the Harling women, as well as Ántonia, really are.

Chapter III

Summary:

Ántonia soon comes to work for the Harlings, and Jim and Grandmother are very happy to see her. Ántonia likes working in town and learning English, and she plays with the children a lot. Jim is jealous because Ántonia has a crush on Charley Harling and is always trying to do nice things for him.

The Harling household is always very pleasant, except when Mr. Harling is at home. He likes to have everything quiet, and he makes Mrs. Harling devote all her attention to him. Later Jim realizes how important Mrs. Harling's presence in their lives was. Jim thinks that Mr. Harling is an arrogant man and walks around feeling powerful all the time. Whenever Mr. Harling is not around, the house is loud with a lot of music. Mrs. Harling is very serious about playing the piano.

Analysis:

In this chapter Cather offers a dramatic example of how marriage can be stifling to women. Although the previous chapter sets Mrs. Harling up as someone to be admired, in this chapter all her good qualities become invisible when she is forced to minister to her husband. Even though she is a cheerful person who enjoys life and loves music, she becomes simply her husband's caretaker when he is around. Though Cather is not condemning the institution of marriage, through passages such as these, she is implying that marriage is a bad, confining thing for women when it is not based on a relationship of equality. In addition, since it is easy for women's needs to become secondary to those of her husband, marriage should be a personal choice, not an inevitable destiny. This theme of questioning marriage is further developed in the chapters concerning Lena Lingard.

Ántonia loves playing with the Harling children, and her attitude towards them will acquire greater significance in the last section of the book. At the end of the novel, when Jim goes to visit Ántonia and her huge brood, he will note that her interactions with her children mirror those with the Harlings. In addition, Ántonia will tell him that working for the Harlings and taking care of the children was excellent preparation for her life as a mother. Though Jim does not realize it at the time, Ántonia's life with the Harlings is essentially a dress performance for her future life as the mother of many.

Chapter IV

Summary:

While Ántonia is making a cake for Charley and being teased because of it, a young girl from the country named Lena Lingard appears at the door. She is prettily dressed like a town girl, and Ántonia doesn't recognize her at first. Lena is going to work in town for Mrs. Thomas the dressmaker. Mrs. Harling warns Lena to be serious about her work and not go gallivanting around town like a lot of the country girls do when they come to town. As Lena leaves, she asks Ántonia to come visit her. Ántonia is not particularly friendly to her.

Afterwards Ántonia explains that she felt uncomfortable because Mrs. Harling might not have approved of Lena's being there. Jim then proceeds to recount the town gossip surrounding Lena. As a country girl, Lena was wild and extremely pretty, yet gentle and feminine. An unlucky man named Ole Benson, who was married to Crazy Mary, became enamored of her and used to sit in the fields all day watching her plow in her rags. After being urged to go to church, Lena finally appears one day, looking grown up and very beautiful. After the service, Crazy Mary screams at her threateningly in front of everyone. Crazy Mary continued to harass her by chasing her around in the fields with a knife, and one day Lena tried to escape by hiding out at the Shimerdas. Afterwards, Mrs. Shimerda scolded her, but Lena mildly said that it wasn't her fault and that she couldn't stop Ole Benson from sitting where he wanted to.

Analysis:

In this chapter we are introduced to Lena Lingard, who knows what she wants to do with her life. She sees marriage as a hindrance and a burden, and she is determined to remain unmarried in order to become a successful dressmaker. She believes that by remaining single she will be able to answer to herself only and to better support her mother, and she ends up doing just that. She is able to surpass her bad reputation through determination, hard work, and independence, though no one expects her to succeed. When Jim meets Lena later in college, he casually dates her and even believes that in doing so, he is saving her from pregnancy and a stifling marriage.

Like Ántonia, Lena is a child of the country. She farms the land, which nurtures her until she grows into a voluptuous and fertile young woman. And it is fitting that Ole Benson becomes obsessed with her as she is working the soil, alone in her fields. For part of what makes Ántonia, Lena, and the other immigrant girls so appealing is that they are so much a part of the land. However, unlike Ántonia, Lena tries to break free of the pull of the land and achieves a measure of worldly success.

Chapter V

Summary:

Jim frequently meets Lena downtown, and they used to walk home together and talk. Lena tells him about a hotel called the Boys' Home where she and Tiny Soderball (another hired country girl) would listen to the entertainment being put on for traveling salesmen. The traveling men would give Tiny gifts.

One day Jim meets Lena and her young brother Chris going Christmas shopping. Chris shows all the presents he got for his family members and tries to decide which handkerchief to get his mother. After Chris goes back home, Lena tears up a little bit and confesses how homesick she gets.

Analysis:

In this chapter we see the toll that Lena's independence takes on her. She desperately misses her family, but she must remain alone in town, without her family as a base of support, if she wishes to make enough money to learn a trade.

We also get a sense of the distractions that the town holds for young girls like Lena. While going to visit traveling salesmen must surely be interesting for bored young women, it is also something that could threaten their future if they're not careful. In searching for diversions, young women like Lena run the risk of falling in love, getting pregnant, or acquiring bad reputations. Thus, while Lena has the freedom to pursue her own goals, she also faces a number of difficulties that independent single men simply do not.

Chapter VI

Summary:

It is winter again, and it seems like the cold, bleak light of the winter is the light of truth. Winter is like punishment for the summer. The streets become more and more deserted, as people run from building to building and stay in their warm homes. Jim would often stop in at the Harlings, and if Mr. Harling wasn't at home, all the children would play charades and Ántonia would make snacks for them. Ántonia tells a story about a day at work when she was throwing hay into a bin. A tramp came over and offered to help out. After working for awhile, he waved at Ántonia and then jumped headfirst into the bin, which chopped him up. Frances remembers the story also and how the only thing found on the tramp was a poem.

Ántonia and Mrs. Harling are very similar in nature: they are honest, independent, and strong people who like children and who take pride in keeping a good household.

Analysis:

During winter, people have to try hard just to survive, and they are able to focus only on the bare necessities, like keeping warm and eating enough food. For this reason, Jim calls the light of winter the light of truth. In winter there are no illusions; all is stripped away in the name of basic survival.

Jim wanders the streets alone and doesn't speak to anyone since everyone is preoccupied with keeping warm. Although there are more people in the city than in the country, it is just as easy, and perhaps even easier, to feel alone in the city. In the country, there was only Jim, his grandparents, Otto, and Jake, so they all appreciated each other's company, but in the city, because there is less need to become attached to particular people, people end up feeling perhaps more isolated.

However, Jim finds his refuge of coziness and warmth with the Harlings, who function as a surrogate family for Jim. There he can play with a lot of children his own change and feel the maternal presence of both Mrs. Harling and Ántonia. As noted earlier, Mrs. Harling represents the strength of maternal femininity, and she also functions as a role model for Ántonia.

Chapter VII

Summary:

Jim is bored of winter by March. During that month the only exciting thing that happens is when Blind d'Arnault, a negro pianist, comes to play at the Boys' Home on a Saturday night. The atmosphere is free and relaxed, particularly because the proprietor, the snobbish and proper Mrs. Gardener, is not present. Blind d'Arnault comes in to play for the men, and Jim describes him in racialized terms. Jim thinks he is the happiest-looking person he has seen since leaving Virginia.

After swaying back and forth on the piano bench, the mulatto plays negro tunes. Jim recounts Blind d'Arnault's story: When he was three, he lost his vision. His mother named him Samson and hid him away because he was ugly and dim-witted. Samson used to go listen to his mistress Miss d'Arnault practice the piano, and one day he stole into the house and began to play the piano. When he was discovered, he had a violent fit, but afterwards his mistress let him play the piano. Samson became a negro prodigy who played barbarously but in a way that was somehow more real.

Blind d'Arnault senses that there are girls dancing in the other room, and the men open the doors and invite Ántonia, Lena, and Tiny, who are listening on the other side of the wall, to come in. The girls are pretty, and Blind d'Arnault plays until they have to close the hotel.

Analysis:

Despite Cather's progressive attitudes towards women, marriage, and religion, she does not have the most enlightened attitude towards African-Americans. In this chapter her depiction of Blind d'Arnault makes him into an exotic, primitive spectacle. Everyone looks at him with wonder and awe, but they find him fascinating in a somewhat condescending and patronizing way. Blind d'Arnault is not an equal, but rather a performer who takes elements of his culture and transforms it into palatable entertainment for his spectators. This scene recreates a form of entertainment popular at the time: the Negro burlesque. For the white spectators, Blind d'Arnault is a member of a race that they find somewhat threatening, yet exciting. His race becomes neutralized as entertainment, however, when he performs, and he becomes a harmless, childlike object that his audience can gape at without fear of danger.

Though Jim enjoys Blind d'Arnault's piano-playing, he doesn't consider it real art or music. Instead, it becomes a perversion and a distortion of the traditional musical genres. Although his music is praised for being more "real," this "realness" is associated in the minds of the audience members with primitiveness, childishness, and lack of sophistication. While Cather may indirectly be praising African-American culture for being free of artificiality and formality, she is nevertheless presenting it as being at the earlier stages of cultural development.

Finally, Blind d'Arnault's piano-playing is described in highly sexualized terms. It is analogous to the act of copulation, with Blind d'Arnault characterized as being aggressive, with animal instincts and desires. Such a description conforms to negative stereotypes of the African-American male as hypersexual and driven by lustful passions, never by intellect or emotion.

Chapter VIII

Summary:

Jim and the Harling children feel the happiest and most content that spring just playing in the garden. They do not yet know that the summer will change everything. In the beginning of summer, some Italians (the Vannis) come into town and set up a dancing pavilion in a vacant lot. They begin giving dancing lessons to children, and people start to gather and congregate around the lot. Now there is something for people to do and somewhere for them to socialize. Dancing becomes a city-wide craze, and every Saturday night there is a late-night dance. Jim goes all the time, as do many girls and boys from the country. At this point, Ántonia, Lena, and Tiny become known as "the hired girls" and are always at the dances too.

Analysis:

Although the dancing craze catches on very quickly, dancing during this time period is generally associated with frivolity, moral decline, and loose women. When Jim mentions the Vannis' arrival in Black Hawk, he does not indicate that dancing was met with any disapproval. However, the cultural stereotypes associated with dancing do emerge as more and more people begin spending time at the dance halls.

At this point in the novel, however, the dance halls fit well into the social order. They provide a space for the young people to interact and exist as the primary form of entertainment for a very bored town populace.

Chapter IX

Summary:

Jim describes the social situation of the hired girls in this chapter. The hired girls from the country had generally made sacrifices in order to help their families survive their first year or two in a new country, and they were therefore less educated than their younger siblings. They were, however, wise, mature, and physically vigorous, and were thus different from typical Black Hawk women. Black Hawk women never exerted themselves physically and were more refined, but they were less attractive to Black Hawk men than the hired girls. Though their families might be poor, these American girls were not allowed to work for wages, as the Bohemian and Scandinavian girls did. As a result, the Bohemian and Scandinavian families quickly became prosperous, but they were still faced with small-town prejudice in Black Hawk.

The Black Hawk men were expected to marry Black Hawk women and live very proper lives, but they were tempted by the independent, free-living hired girls. The country girls were therefore considered something of a social menace, but Black Hawk men were actually more desirous of respectability than anything else. At the Saturday night dances, the town boys and country girls could interact. One man named Sylvester Lovett had an obvious crush on Lena, but he refused to do anything about it and married an older widow instead. Jim feels contempt for Sylvester.

Analysis

This chapter provides an interesting example of the limitations of social mobility. Because the town girls have money and respectability, they are paradoxically limited in their life possibilities. They are not expected or encouraged to choose vocations for themselves, and they are just expected to get married. Their options in life are limited to becoming a wife and a mother. On the other hand, the country girls who are born poor have much more open to him. Since their families do not have the luxury of allowing them to stay at home, they have to go out into the world to work, and they there discover the myriad of possibilities open to them. They are thus able to actually choose a vocation, make money, and more fully engage in worldly pursuits.

While the hired girls are able to break free of traditional male-female constraints, they do so at a price: they lose social standing and respectability. Indeed, determined town girls, if they chose, could very well become employed, but they would risk a number of social privileges. Country girls have nothing to lose and only financial remuneration to gain. However, though their farm labor makes them more attractive than town girls, they will never be completely accepted.

The country girls do not really threaten the social order because social pressures prove stronger than male desire. While their presence does stir things up somewhat, the status quo inevitably triumphs.

Chapter X

Summary:

Ántonia starts going to the dances all the time, and people begin to talk about her. Boys start hanging around the house at all times, and one night Mr. Harling happens to see a boy jumping over his fence. Ántonia explains that an engaged man had tried to kiss her after walking her home and she had slapped him. Mr. Harling tells her that she is hanging out with loose women and that she is getting the same reputation. He forbids her from going to the dances, and the next day Mrs. Harling backs him up. Ántonia decides to leave to go work for Wick Cutter instead. Mrs. Harling warns her that Wick Cutter will likely get her pregnant, but she is unable to change her mind. Mrs. Harling is bitter that she let herself grow attached to Ántonia.

Analysis:

After awhile, dancing is seen not just as an innocent pastime, but as a sign of moral lassitude and debauchery. Ántonia starts getting a bad reputation because she likes dancing, even though she is not especially flirtatious to men. Although Ántonia does become more irresponsible with her household duties, we should remember that dancing has been the one positive outlet that she has found in all her time in America. Up till now, she has done hard work in the fields and been hired out for wages. Dancing is the sole source of fun and pleasure that has entered her life.

In addition, music is very important to Ántonia. Her father was a musician in his native Bohemia, and as a child, she is sad when he refuses to play his fiddle anymore in America. Dancing provides a connection to her musical past, and while it is just an innocent diversion, it is also a lot more.

Chapter XI

Summary:

Wick Cutter the money-lender is a sketchy philanderer who likes to gamble, and he had gotten two Swedish servant girls pregnant. He and his wife fight constantly and viciously. Mrs. Cutter is a sharp and scary-looking person who obsessively paints china. The Cutters fight about the question of inheritance, and each blames the other for remaining childless. They never separate, however, and seem to find each other interesting. Jim remarks that Wick Cutter is a unique rascal but that Mrs. Cutter is just a prototypical shrew.

Analysis:

This chapter provides another example of domestic disharmony‹another example of a marriage gone awry. As discussed earlier, the theme of marriage as a potentially confining arrangement is one that is developed throughout the novel.

"Wick Cutter" is an especially sinister-sounding name, and it adds to the characterization of the Cutters as a particularly vicious and stingy couple. The name is particularly symbolic, as in the last section of the novel, we discover exactly how violent and "cutting" Wick can be.

Chapter XII

Summary:

Ántonia becomes obsessed with going dancing, and she starts wearing clothes that she copies from high-society ladies. Every afternoon Jim and his friends would watch Ántonia, Lena, and Tiny go downtown, and sometimes Jim would catch up with them and take them to an ice-cream parlor. He thinks Ántonia is still the prettiest, but he knows that people think he's a little "queer" because he's only interested in these older country girls. He refuses to join the Owl Club and socialize with town people his own age.

Jim is bored at Black Hawk. He starts hanging out at Anton Jelinek's saloon, but Jelinek asks him not to because his grandfather would disapprove. He wanders the streets of Black Hawk since there is nothing to do, and he is angered by the hypocrisy and timidity of the people living in their houses. He starts sneaking out of his house to go to Saturday night dances at the Firemen's Hall, where the "foreigners" go to dance. There everyone wants to dance with Lena and Tony. Dancing with Lena is like waltzing home to something, while dancing with Tony is like setting out on an adventure.

One night Jim walks Ántonia home. She is appalled when he kisses her, even though he says Lena lets him do the same with her. Ántonia tells him not to get mixed up with any of the immigrant girls, particularly Lena, because he is smart and needs to go make something of himself. Jim is proud of Ántonia and considers her a real woman: she is his Ántonia. Jim frequently has sexual dreams about Lena, but never about Ántonia, although he wants to.

Analysis:

At the time of the novel's publication, the word "queer" was beginning to have the same kind of connotations that it does now, and Cather would undoubtedly have been aware of its secondary meaning. If so, how is Jim queer? He doesn't like girls his own age, is a little bit antisocial, and hangs out with older girls who are not really part of his social stratum. Whether or not Jim might be a modern-day homosexual is somewhat irrelevant, but what is clear is that Jim does not display a "normal" attraction to girls his own age. Perhaps Cather intends the word "queer" to emphasize Jim's total lack of interest in girls his own age and background, but solely in order to underscore his total fixation on Ántonia and girls like her. He is therefore "queer" by focusing only on one girl at the expense of all others.

Marriage threatens the life possibilities of not just girls, but also boys. While Lena asserts that she doesn't want to get married because she wants to be a successful dressmaker, Ántonia warns Jim not to get mixed up with the Swedish girls for a similar reason. Ántonia fears that he may fall in love with someone like Lena, get married, and then never leave Black Hawk. In warning Jim not to flirt with Lena, Ántonia has Jim's long-term interests in mind.

Chapter XIII

Summary:

Jim's grandmother is crying one afternoon because she has heard that he has been going to the Saturday night dances. He promises not to go anymore since she is so sad that he may be growing up to be a bad boy. As a result, he has a very boring spring and does extra reading to get some college requirements out of the way.

Frances Harling tells Jim that her mother does not disapprove of him but just wonders why he prefers to spend time only with older, country girls. Frances thinks it's because he's more mature than most boys and because he knew Ántonia and her friends in the country and romanticizes them.

Jim gives a speech at his graduation, which Mrs. Harling is very proud of. Ántonia and her friends run up to him afterwards and also praise him. Ántonia was reminded of her father during the speech, and Jim confesses that it was dedicated to him. Ántonia hugs him tearfully, and Jim says that that was the most poignant moment of his life.

Analysis:

Jim is shunned and treated as if he really were "queer" because he only likes spending time with older country girls like Ántonia. He doesn't have any friends, becomes depressed, and wants to get out of Black Hawk as soon as he can. The situation is apparently so serious that Frances Harling brings it up with Jim one day. Though she sees why Jim focuses all his energy on Ántonia and her friends, she does not see why he makes all the effort. Her comment that he romanticizes them implies that he is making more of them than is necessary‹that there is really nothing overwhelmingly special about them. For the first time, we thus get a glimpse of what people other than Jim really think about Ántonia and the other hired girls. Frances Harling does not think that there's any special mystique surrounding them, which makes Jim's love and admiration only seem more sincere and genuine. Ántonia in particular is especially important to him, and though his opinion is necessarily subjective, it makes his relationship with Ántonia that much more personal.

Chapter XIV

Summary:

After Commencement Jim begins studying Latin seriously for college. Only once during the summer does he take a break to go pick elders with the hired girls. Arriving at the river first and going swimming, he realizes he's going to miss Black Hawk and the country. The girls arrive when he's still in the water, and he gradually makes his way over to where they are. He comes up on Ántonia by herself and finds her crying because a certain type of flower is making her homesick. When she asks whether he thinks her father is back in the old country, Jim tells her how he felt her father's spirit in the house the day he died, and Ántonia feels better. She tells him how her father honorably married her mother, who was a servant, when she got pregnant and how her father's family never forgave the two of them. Jim is happy because Ántonia seems exactly the same as she did when he first met her and he tells her he will one day visit her homeland.

Lena appears, looking like she does in Jim's sexual dreams, and he leaps up to help her pick elders. In the hot afternoon, they all sit around and talk. Ántonia becomes irritated when Lena behaves flirtatiously towards Jim. The girls discuss how it is difficult for older adults to make the transition to a new country and how difficult it is to be the oldest child when more babies keep arriving. They play a game called "Pussy Wants a Corner," and then Jim tells them about how Coronado the Spanish explorer came as far West as Black Hawk. As they sit in silence, the clouds disappear, and all of a sudden, they see a distant black figure on the horizon. Jumping up to see what it is, they realize that someone had left a plow standing in the field, and it looks molten red and glowing against the backdrop of the sun. The image only lasts for a moment as the sun continues to set.

Analysis:

In the previous chapter Jim dedicates his commencement speech to Ántonia's father and calls the hug she gives him the most poignant moment in his life. In this chapter, he learns the story of the marriage of Ántonia's parents and promises to go visit her native village. In all these ways, Jim is becoming a part of the Shimerda family history and sharing Ántonia's past with her. While he is possibly just trying to become emotionally closer to Ántonia, he is also searching for the nuclear family that he never really had. While Jim did have his parents for ten years of his life and his grandparents after than, he never really had siblings or parents to guide him through the difficult years of his childhood. The Shimerdas are like his surrogate family, providing him with the rich cultural heritage and family scandals that were never a prominent part of his own life.

While Jim obviously loves Ántonia and considers himself emotionally and spiritually bonded to her, his feelings towards Lena are primarily sexual. He desires her sexually because though she is not Ántonia herself, she is very much like her. In addition, Ántonia seems beyond the realm of sexual desire, and her relations with Jim seem always chaste and innocent, though sometimes intense. Jim cannot think of Ántonia in a sexual light because she is more than just the beloved to him; she is a maternal, feminine presence in his life that cannot be limited simply to the role of lover.

The image of the plow has symbolic importance. It represents the shared past of Jim, Ántonia, and the other girls, but it is also a symbol for the future. At this point in time, right before many of them are going to leave Black Hawk and begin new lives, the plow is a reminder that the land that they grew up on will never really leave them and will always remain a part of them. A symbol of fertility and growth, the plow represents the past that created and nurtured them, as well as the new life that they themselves will create. Finally, the image of the plow is a legacy to them. Though they may leave their childhood farms, Jim, Ántonia, and the hired girls have a responsibility to the land to maintain and protect it.

Chapter XV

Summary:

At the end of the summer, the Cutters leave Black Hawk on a business trip, and Ántonia comes to the Burdens to complain about feeling uneasy. Mr. Cutter had put all the silver and important documents under Ántonia's bed and told her that she had to sleep there in order to keep them safe. Worried that Mr. Cutter is playing some sort of trick, she gets Jim to sleep at the Cutters in her bed, while she stays with Grandmother.

On the third night, Jim awakes to find Mr. Cutter trying to grope him. They get into a fight, with Mr. Cutter beating Jim fiercely about the face. Jim runs back home and in the morning feels disgusted, ashamed, and angry at Ántonia. He refuses to see her or a doctor and is worried about word getting around town.

When Ántonia and Grandmother go over to the Cutters' house to pack up Ántonia's belongings, they find her room in a disarray. They also find Mrs. Cutter, who is indignant because her husband intentionally put her on the wrong train so that he could come back to Black Hawk for an intended rendezvous with Ántonia. Jim notes that Mr. Cutter came up with a needlessly complex plan specifically to outrage Mrs. Cutter, and he comments that it was obviously Mr. Cutter's greatest joy to make his wife upset.

Analysis:

This section of the book ends on a rather sinister note of violence and messed-up sexuality. It is not a promising conclusion to Jim's life at Black Hawk, and it provides an interesting sequel to Jim's earlier characterization as "queer." Though Jim and Ántonia never become sexually involved, in this chapter Jim gets to sleep in her bed. However, this switching of beds confuses Wick Cutter, who mistakes Jim for Ántonia. Cutter starts to grope Jim, and after the two get into a fight, Jim feels ashamed, doesn't want anyone to see him, and is worried that the situation will incite a lot of gossip. After being considered "queer" for devoting all his attention to Ántonia, this story would, if word got about, insinuate that Jim was queer for another reason‹namely, for being involved with men. While doesn't mind the first connotation of the word, in this case he is resentful of Ántonia for once again making him seem "queer."

This episode of marital infidelity and aggressive sexuality is a fitting beginning for the next segment of Ántonia's life, which is not the happiest for her. In the Wick Cutter scenario, Ántonia is blameless and at the mercy of a rascal, and she is similarly not responsible for what happens to her during the next few years of her life.

Book III Lena Lingard

Chapter I

Summary:

At the University in Lincoln, Jim meets Gaston Cleric, who is his mentor in the Latin Department and who arrived at the same time he did. Jim stays in Lincoln during the summer studying Greek, and he spends a lot of time socializing with Gaston, who helps effect his mental awakening. During that time, the University is still very new, and it is full of earnest young men from the farms and enthusiastic, young instructors. Jim lives in a small cramped apartment where Gaston used to come visit him to talk about poetry and Italy.

Gaston talks very vividly and poetically, and Jim imagines that he might have been a poet if he didn't waste so much creativity talking to other people. Jim particularly remembers one conversation they had about Dante's admiration for his teacher Virgil. Although he admires Gaston, Jim knows that he cannot be a scholar because he loves the people and places of his past so much. He has very vivid memories of them sometimes.

Analysis

With Gaston Cleric, Jim has the second close relationship of his life. While this section of the novel is entitled "Lena Lingard" and he does become romantically involved with her, he is close to her primarily because she reminds him of Ántonia and his childhood. His relationship with Gaston is entirely separate from Ántonia and his life in the country, and it is centered around intellectual pursuits.

Although Gaston is his instructor in the Latin Department, their relationship goes far beyond a simple teacher-student one. Gaston is his mentor and introduces him to new worlds of knowledge, and they have an intimate, intense relationship of equals. Just as Virgil inspires Dante, so does Gaston awaken Jim to scholarly pursuits and the world beyond Black Hawk. However, Jim feels tied to the land and his childhood friends much more strongly than he does to his scholarly pursuits. Jim's intense love of Latin and Gaston Cleric pales in comparison to the pull that Ántonia and the land has on him. In a sense, even this epoch of Jim's life, seemingly unrelated to Ántonia, is a way for him to discover the other possibilities that life has to offer and to see how they compare to his idyllic childhood experiences.

Chapter II

Summary:

One day during September Jim is sitting in his room reading Virgil and thinking about one particular line which, translated, means, "I was the first to bring the Muse into my country." He thinks about how Gaston may feel like that about his New England hometown when suddenly, Lena Lingard appears at his door. He doesn't recognize her at first because she is smartly dressed in city clothes and looks grown up. Lena tells him that she is now living in Lincoln as a dressmaker and is beginning to save enough money to build her mother a house. Jim is impressed that she has been able to do so well all by herself.

Lena mentions Tony, and Jim is eager to hear about her. According to Lena, Tony is now Mrs. Gardener's housekeeper, has reconciled with the Harlings, and is engaged to Larry Donovan, whom she adores. Jim says he doesn't like Larry Donovan and unself-consciously remarks that he should go back to Black Hawk to look after Ántonia. Lena tells him that Ántonia is always bragging about him being so smart.

Before she leaves, Lena gets Jim to offer to take her to the theater sometime, and she tells him that she has to write a letter to Ántonia all about what he's doing. She whispers suggestively into his ear about his maybe being lonely and then leaves. Jim is happy after she goes because she reminds him of all the hired girls. He realizes that poetry like Virgil's would never exist unless there were girls like Lena. As he sits down to read, the sexual dream about Lena seems like an actual memory, and a line of poetry, translated "The best days are the first to flee," acquires special meaning.

Analysis:

When Lena comes to visit, their conversation not surprisingly centers around discussion of Ántonia. Though she flirts with Jim, Lena seems to acknowledge that he and Ántonia have a special, primary relationship that she can never really interfere with. Jim seems to feel the same way when he suggests going back to Black Hawk to look after Ántonia and when he feels jealous of Larry Donovan. Though Jim thinks that he is attracted to the flirtatious Lena, in reality he just desires the memories of his lost childhood that she evokes. He is in love with the carefree, independent attitudes of the country girls and with Ántonia in particular, and he imagines that by being with Lena he can recapture the innocence and excitement of playing with Ántonia as a child.

At the beginning of the chapter, Jim thinks of Gaston Cleric bringing the Muse into his own country, and his thoughts at the end of the chapter once more return to the poetry of Virgil. If fresh, country girls like Ántonia and Lena are the inspiration for poetry, then in a sense they are the ones who are responsible for bringing the Muse (aesthetic beauty and poetry) into the Nebraska frontier. Ántonia's entry into the country is a source of inspiration (poetic, moral, intellectual) for Jim, as his words at the end of the chapter imply. Though Jim loves the country and his childhood, it is Ántonia's presence that made it beautiful and a thing to be cherished.

Chapter III

Summary:

Lena and Jim start going to plays together, with Lena insistent that she pay her own way. With excitement, they go see a new play called "Camille," set to the opera "Traviata" and written by Alexandre Dumas' son. Immediately, Jim is enthralled by the play. He loves the scenery and even now feels hungry when he thinks about the staged dinner. He admires the wittiness of the men and women in the play, and he is captivated by the famous actress who plays Marguerite, even though she is old and lame.

During intermission Jim is proud of Lena and realizes that they are both mature adults. Jim and Lena weep as the sad love story plays on before them. Even though the actress who plays Marguerite is melodramatic and ungraceful, Jim feels for her, as she dies in the arms of a man who no longer loves her. After Jim walks Lena home, he continues to mourn for Marguerite's fictional death because he thinks her story is timeless. He notes that whenever that play is performed, it is April.

Analysis:

Though the plot of the play is somewhat hard to follow in this chapter, it appears that Marguerite was having some sort of intrigue involving a father-son pair. She seems to be in love with the elder Duval, also called Varville, and in the beginning of the play, their love is idyllic and peaceful. By the end of the play, however, the younger Duval, Armand, feels betrayed by Marguerite and rejects her, throwing money at her like a whore. We can surmise from the last paragraph of the chapter that Marguerite dies a tragic death because of her frustrated love.

Even with this sketchy outline, however, we can discern why the play affects Jim so profoundly. In watching the play, he sees a story of perfect love lost that he connects with his own relationship with Ántonia. He sees his childhood relationship with Ántonia as being part of a near-perfect life that he has lost forever and can never fully recreate. Though Marguerite is played by a woman who is not really beautiful anymore, her physical flaws only make her seem more human and more real to him. Her despair at having lost the love of her life is Jim's own unspeakable sorrow, which is why he thinks that the play is timeless and universal.

For the first time in Jim's life, he finds the world of fiction as compelling as real life. In the past, the adventure novels he read always paled in comparison to the life that he was leading. Now, however, he finds that a different kind of adventure story‹one of love‹can not only replicate the feelings he feels in real life, but can also provide a framework for understanding them.

Chapter IV

Summary:

Although Lena is not aggressive or high-strung, she is doing very well in her dressmaking business. People come to her because of her sense of style, even though she often gets behind schedule and over budget. Jim frequently sits in her parlor to wait for her, and they like to eat Sunday breakfasts together in a cozy nook at her place. Lena has a dog named Prince, and they both play with him a lot. Jim likes how Lena speaks colloquially and how pretty she looks in the morning. One day Lena explains that Ole Benson (the man who used to sit and watch her in the fields) was basically harmless and just liked to look at her to forget his troubles and as entertainment. He would talk to her in Norwegian, and they would look at his many tattoos because there was nothing else to look at in the fields. Lena tells Jim that Ole married Crazy Mary because he wanted her to keep him in line.

Two men in Lena's apartment are in love with her at the time: a Polish violin-teacher named Ordinsky, and her landlord, the Colonel, who liked to frequently renovate her rooms for her. Once Ordinsky, who usually glares at Jim in the hall, comes in to ask Lena to help him mend some clothes he's wearing. When Lena goes out of the room, Ordinsky warns him that his intentions had better be noble, and Jim assures him that they are and that he and Lena have known each other for a long time. Afterwards, Ordinksy is friendly to him.

Jim begins to be lax in his studies and spends all his time playing with Lena, Prince, Ordinsky, and the Colonel. Gaston notices and asks him to join him at Harvard, where he has been offered a teaching position. Grandfather approves, and Jim is somewhat sad and tries to convince himself that by dallying with Lena, he is preventing her from burdening herself with marriage.

He goes to see Lena, and they talk about how Ordinsky and the Colonel have crushes on her. Lena tells him that she will never marry because she doesn't want to be accountable to anyone and because she has had enough family life after helping to raise all her younger brothers and sisters. When Jim tells her he is going away, Lena says that maybe she shouldn't have begun their little fling by coming to visit him that one day, but she confesses that she always wanted to be his first sweetheart, especially because Ántonia always told her not to.

Jim leaves Lincoln, visits his grandparents and Virginia, and then joins Gaston Cleric in Boston.

Analysis:

In this chapter Jim and Lena start dating, and though they enjoy each other's company, there does not seem to be the kind of emotional or romantic attachment that one would except from a first romance. To be sure, Jim and Lena do spend a lot of time together, so much so that Gaston Cleric worries that Jim is no longer concentrating on his studies. Jim is clearly infatuated with Lena because of her beauty and finds it extremely pleasant to spend time with her, but there is none of the heartfelt, self-revelatory soliloquizing that occurs whenever he thinks about Ántonia. Lena simply does not open him up to self-discovery in the same way that Ántonia does.

In addition, Ántonia plays an indirect role in Jim and Lena's relationship, as Lena herself admits at the end of the chapter. Lena becomes interested in Jim primarily because Ántonia keeps telling her that he is inaccessible to her. In other words, Ántonia and Jim's relationship is the central one that Lena wants to disrupt. While Jim is sad to leave Lena, we get the sense that he accepts the closing of this chapter of his life. In contrast, his relationship with Ántonia never ends, though he may not see her for years at a time.

Lena refuses to get married because she wants to be independent and thinks that a man will simply drag her down. Such a view was quite radical at the time of the novel's publication, and Cather seems to endorse it by portraying Lena in a favorable light. Indeed, Jim and many of the hired girls never marry and instead follow individual paths to success. While Cather seems to suggest that marriage should be a matter of individual choice, she does not necessarily assert that remaining single is the better option. In the sections of the novel that follow, we will see how Ántonia's marriage prevented her from achieving financial success in life, but Cather suggests that motherhood and childbearing has its distinct advantages and rewards also.

Book IV The Pioneer Woman's Story

Chapter I

Summary:

After graduating from Harvard two years later, Jim goes home for a visit before starting law school. He sees the Harlings and his grandparents, who look exactly the same. He is told that "poor Ántonia" had a baby after Larry Donovan ran off and is now living at the farm with Ambrosch, where she is barely heard of. Jim is heartbroken that Ántonia is now an object of pity in the town. In contrast, Lena Lingard is now a very respectable, successful dressmaker in Black Hawk.

Apparently, Tiny Soderball is running a sailors' lodging house in Seattle, and people insinuate that it will soon become a brothel. What actually happens is that Tiny becomes the most successful person from Black Hawk: After hearing about the gold rush in Alaska, Tiny sells the boarding house and travels to Dawson City, where she sets up a hotel and cooks for hundreds of homeless, single men. A Swedish man named Johnson leaves his land claim to her after she nurses him before his death, and she begins buying, trading, and selling other land claims. After ten years, she amasses a fortune and moves to San Francisco, where Jim later meets up with her. By this time, she is "hard-faced" and reserved, bored with everything except making money, and only cares about the Swedish man Johnson and Lena Lingard, who she persuades to move to San Francisco. Tiny says that Lincoln is too small for someone like Lena. Tiny is satisfied with her life, but essentially bored.

Analysis

In Books IV and V, Jim describes what happens to various of the hired girls. Through this narrative voice, Cather subtly critiques the various definitions of success, as embodied in the fates of the different immigrant women. In this chapter Jim learns that Ántonia had a child out of wedlock, and he measures her by the same standard as the town folk do. Feeling pity for her and lamenting her lost potential, he compares her to Lena Lingard and Tiny Soderball, who despite their bad reputations as young women, have managed to become wealthy and well respected.

However, Tiny Soderball does not seem particularly happy or content when Jim meets her. Jim senses that all she cares about now is making money, and though he does not fault her for this, pities her for her lack of feeling and personality. To Jim, Tiny does not seem like a complete, engaging person, and her monetary success is thereby subtly undermined.

Jim doesn't seem to think that either Ántonia or Tiny have lived ultimately successful, rich lives. While Ántonia has an illegitimate child, is poor, and still works the land, Tiny is close to only two people and is jaded and bored with life. Despite their difference in income, at this point neither of them have lives that Jim is particularly envious of. In order to be truly successful, a person needs something else, and at this point Jim does not know what that is.

Chapter II

Summary:

Jim takes his grandparents to have their picture taken, and while at the photographer, sees an elaborately framed portrait of Ántonia's baby. He decides that he must see her and is happy that Ántonia is not too ashamed to hide her baby from public view.

Larry Donovan is a passenger conductor for the railroad and acts like a superior, underappreciated individual. He spends a lot of time getting women to sympathize with his sad plight, and he convinces them that he is much better than he really is.

Jim goes to Mrs. Harling and tells her he wants to know about Ántonia's aborted marriage. She tells him to go ask the Widow Steavens, who knows the entire story and loves to talk.

Analysis:

Though Jim is disappointed in Ántonia's current mode of life, he does not feel disdain or contempt for her. Rather, he still feels a great deal of affection for her and is pleased that she feels no shame about having a child out of wedlock. By displaying her baby's portrait so prominently, she is indicating to Jim that she is still as strong and independent as ever and will do what she wants regardless of what people say, just as she did when she was working in the fields for Ambrosch. It is this quality that perhaps Jim most admires in Ántonia, though it is also the quality that sometimes causes him pain and distress.

Chapter III

Summary:

On the way to see Widow Steavens, Jim looks at the country and seems to remember every single aspect of it. Mrs. Steavens asks him to stay the night, and after dinner she begins to tell Ántonia's story:

The summer before she was supposed to be married, Ántonia used to come to the Widow Steaven's house and sew her fine wedding linen, singing happily in Bohemian. Larry Donovan would write letters to her while working on the railroad, and he told her that they would have to move to Denver. When it came time for her to meet him, Ambrosch did the right thing and gave her a very nice dowry. In Denver, she sent a couple of postcards saying that they would get married soon, after Larry got his promotion.

One day, though, Ántonia came back on a wagon, and the next day Mrs. Steavens went to visit to see what had happened. Ántonia tells her that Larry had gotten fired and only lived with her in Denver until her money ran out, and then he left to go to Mexico to cheat railway passengers. Ántonia did not try to get a civil marriage because she didn't want to support him. Mrs. Steavens cries when she hears the story because she thinks Ántonia is a good girl (unlike Lena Lingard).

After her marriage fiasco, Ántonia starts working in the fields all the time and doesn't visit anyone. Mrs. Steavens worries about her and visits her as much as she can. One day Ántonia reminisces about her childhood with Jim and her father, and she says that she feels like she won't live very long so she's just trying to enjoy the fall. During the winter Ántonia wears men's outerwear. When she goes into labor, Mrs. Shimerda comes running to the house saying that Ambrosch is behaving like a devil, and Mrs. Steavens goes over and warns Ambrosch not to touch the child. Now the baby is a year and eight months, and Ántonia, a good mother, loves it dearly.

Analysis:

In the first paragraph of this chapter, it becomes clear exactly how important the land is to Jim. After seeing the world and all that it has to offer, the country still has a kind of harmony unattainable elsewhere. It is as important to him as an actual person, and indeed, in the novel it seems to acquire a life of its own. Jim is seeing the country from an adult perspective for the first time, and the fact that he sees it in much the same way as he did when he was a child renders the power and pull it has timeless and universal.

After being disgraced in her marriage, Ántonia shuts herself off from outside society and tries to regain her independence by working the land as she used to. In being jilted, Ántonia was helpless and at the mercy of another person. As a young girl, she discovered masculine independence and strength by plowing the ground, and after her marriage scandal, she returns to plowing as a way to rebuild the confidence she once had. She works industriously, begins wearing man's clothing, and starts talking about farming all the time. In this way, she hopes to compensate for the dependency she experienced in waiting for Larry Donovan to marry her. In other words, Ántonia returns to the land because it has nurtured and strengthened her in the past, and she hopes that it will do the same again now.

Chapter IV

Summary:

Jim goes to see Ántonia the next day and finds her looking strong and healthy, though a little wornout. She is only twenty-four. Jim tells her everything about his life: how he plans to study law in New York City and how Gaston Cleric had died last winter. Ántonia is sad that Jim is leaving Nebraska for good, but she knows she won't lose him because she still feels the presence of her father on the farm.

She tells Jim that she wouldn't like big cities and that she wants to live and die in the country, which she knows and loves. She wants to make sure that her daughter has more opportunities than she did. Jim tells her that he wishes that Ántonia could have been "a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister‹anything that a woman can be to a man" because she is so much a part of who he is. She is surprised because she feels like she disappointed him, but she is glad that they had such important shared memories when they were little.

They walk across the fields together, and Jim feels the pull of the earth and wishes that he were little so he could just stay there forever. Jim tells Ántonia that he will return, and she says that even if he doesn't, she will still be able to feel his presence.

Analysis:

When Jim sees her again, Ántonia seems very much a part of the land. She talks about wanting to stay there forever, even though people keep leaving and she is left alone. In a sense, she cannot leave the land that she came to as a stranger. It has become tied to her existence, though it treated her so harshly her first year there.

For the first time, Jim tells Ántonia how much she means to him, and perhaps it is because he realizes how much Ántonia and the land are intertwined. When he tells her that he wishes she could have been "anything that a woman can be to a man," he is speaking in mythic terms. He wishes that she could have been Woman to his Man: that is, nurturer, caretaker, mother of life. He does not specify which woman/man relationship he wishes they could have had because he believes they had all of them simultaneously. Ántonia was sweetheart, wife, mother and sister to Jim; she is his female complement because they grew up together in a new, undiscovered country. Only in such an unsettled, empty environment, without all the rules and customs of society as precedent, could Ántonia embody all the mythic qualities of womanhood: she can represent primitive, fundamental ideals of femininity without the hassles and constraints of modern life.

Ántonia is the "pioneer woman" of this section because she brings new life‹and the Muse‹into the land. Like the land, she is fertile, strong, and resilient. In essence, she is an earth mother, as the last section of the novel makes clear.

Book V Cuzak's Boys

Chapter I

Summary:

After twenty years, Jim goes to visit Ántonia again. He had sent her pictures of Bohemia when he went to visit, and he had visited Tiny and Lena in San Francisco, who told him that Ántonia had remarried a Bohemian man named Anton Cuzak, had a hard life, and had about ten or eleven children. Jim was afraid to see the effects of twenty years on Ántonia but finally decides to go see her.

While walking up to Ántonia's house, he is greeted by a number of her children in succession, and right before meeting her, he feels terrified and nervous about seeing her. He recognizes her immediately, but she takes awhile to figure out who it is. When she does, however, she is very excited. She then introduces all her children to Jim. Her favorite is twelve-year-old, mischievous Leo, who was born on Easter. Jim finds that though Ántonia has lost some of her teeth, she is still full of life and energy.

Ántonia and all the children show Jim their cave full of all kinds of fruit and their orchard, full of trees that Ántonia and her husband Anton watered individually. Everything is peaceful, alive, vibrant, and harmonious. Ántonia tells Jim that she worked hard all her life to help her husband, who had no experience farming. She is happy in the country and never gets depressed the way she did in the city. She is glad she lived in the town because there she learned how to cook, keep house, and raise children.

Jim takes a walk with the two older boys, Ambrosch and Anton. He is impressed with how well-made and upright they are, and he tells them to always respect their mother because he used to be in love with her and knows how special she is. They tell him that their mother talks about him a lot. Afterwards, there is a lively and pleasant supper, followed by musical performances by the children. Then they all look at old photographs, and Jim realizes that Ántonia's relationship with her children is very much like her relationship with him and the Harling children years ago. Ántonia provides stories and entertainment.

Jim goes to sleep in the haymow with two of the boys. As he lies awake, he sees a succession of images of Ántonia and realizes that "she lent herself to immemorial human attitudes which we recognize by instinct as universal and true." She "reveals[s] the meaning in common things," and Jim thinks of her as "a rich mine of life, like the founders of early races."

Analysis

In this chapter Jim sees Ántonia in her ultimate incarnation as an earth mother, the bringer of new life. Everywhere life surrounds her: in her innumerable children, in the plethora of fruits and trees surrounding the house, in the myriad of farm animals running around, and in the playful interactions of her and her children. Expecting to see a tired, worn-out woman, Jim is surprised at how energetic and full of life Ántonia is among her brood of children. Instead of draining her energies, her children seem to feed it, and their enthusiasm is contagious as Jim discovers firsthand.

Jim admires all of Ántonia's children, and the strong, manly boys in particular. Ántonia is not raising a gaggle of uncontrollable children; instead, Jim sees her as the mother of a new race of people who love the land, each other, and life itself. As Jim realizes as he falls asleep, Ántonia captures universal human attitudes in herself and brings them out in other people: she is Woman, and though she may not be the most financially successful person, she is the richest in life and love. After pitying Ántonia for so long for not making more of herself, he realizes that she has achieved her ultimate destiny and is repaying the land, which nurtured her in her youth, with new life, her own innumerable offspring. Jim realizes that Ántonia has achieved a success much more lasting than Tiny's or Lena's.

Though Jim is not physically present during twenty years of Ántonia Œs life, he is very much present in her imagination and those of her children. It is obvious that Ántonia talks about him a lot to her children and that she cherishes his memory. Similarly, Jim holds Ántonia's memory dear, which is paradoxically why he puts off seeing her for so long. Jim and Ántonia have an emotional attachment that stretches across time and distance and which guarantees that their story will never really end. They continue to exert an influence on each other, though their actual physical interaction is actually quite limited. For this reason, the story of Jim's life is also the story of Ántonia's.

Chapter II

Summary:

When Jim wakes up, he secretly watches Leo, who seems to have a devil-may-care attitude about everything. After breakfast, Ántonia tells him how sad she was when her oldest daughter Martha got married and had to move away, and then her husband arrives from his little holiday in town. "Papa" looks worn, yet lively, and he starts talking about the street fair that he went to. Jim observes the pair and finds their relations to be very