Resumo de Part I, My Antonia

Part I of My Antonia, by Willa Cather, introduces the readers to Jim Burden the narrator, his Grandparents, and Antonia and her family, the Shimerdas. Jimmy first notices Antonia on his journey across the great midland plain to Nebraska. His relatives in Virginia had sent him there to live with his grandparents in Nebraska after both of his parents died. He was ten years old then. Antonia was thirteen, and her family was Bohemian emigrants traveling to settle in the same area outside of Black Hawk, Nebraska. Jake Marpole was his father?s hired hand, and has accompanied Jim on the trip. Otto Fuchs is Mr. Burden?s hired man who meets Jim at the train station to drive him out to the country which will be his new home. Jim has truly embarked upon a new life in a new land. And there he meets the Bohemian girl Antonia who has similarly begun a new life in a foreign country. The book quickly becomes an adult recollection narrative of Jim?s relationship with and feelings for Antonia. Part I introduces the simple beauty Jim found there in the plains, which creates a perfect metaphorical backdrop for the fondness he develops for Antonia.
After the night long wagon ride, Jim wakes in the afternoon in his new bedroom. Jim?s grandparents?, the Burden?s, home is very pleasant and clean, with flowers in the windows and plaster on the dirt walls. The home seems to be very nice. And the farm with its barn, animals, crops and windmill indicate that Jim?s grandparents are quite prosperous. They are always very accommodating and charitable to any neighbors around them. 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. Jim?s new life seems quite comfortable.
The next morning, Sunday, Jim travels with his grandmother and Otto to visit the new Bohemian family that has also just settled in the area. They purchased their farm from a Russian man who acted as their only interpreter, and who was also a swindling; unfair money-lender Peter Krajeik. The father, Mr. Shimerda, was easily cheated, as he spoke no English and did not have any experience as a farmer; he was a dignified weaver and fiddler in his native land of Bohemia. Antonia?s new life is quite different from the comforts that Jim enjoys. The property they have secured on loan from Krajeik is terrible. The Shimerdas dwell in a cave in the land called a dugout. Their nearby shed, ?is thatched with the same wine-colored grass that grew everywhere. Near it tilted a shattered windmill frame, that had no wheel? (14). Upon the Burden?s arrival, Mrs. Shimerda tries to tell them, ?House no good, house no good (14)!? The Bohemian clan of five, Mr. and Mrs. Shimerda, the oldest son Ambrosch, Antonia, a younger sister Yulka, and one other dim-witted boy with webbed fingers; Merek. The Shimerda?s were very happy for the gifts of breads and pies. The Bohemian family had been living on corncakes and sorghum alone for three days. Sadly, the family of immigrants will have years of even worse hardship ahead of them.
That first winter is very hard for the Shimerdas. ?The snow and bitter weather had disheartened them all (39).? Mr. Shimerda has become good friends with the Russians Peter and Pavel who live together in a nice cabin nearby. Their cabin becomes a regular stop for Jim and Antonia as they wander. Pavel falls ill and dies. On his deathbed he relates the story of how he and Peter were run out of their town and country. As groomsmen for a friend?s wedding at home in Russia they were driving the married couple?s sled in the wedding party. A pack of wolves began chasing the whole party, killing everyone. As the lead sled was the only one left running,Pavel yelled to the groom to lighten the load by throwing off the bride. In the fight the groom fell to his death with his bride at the mercy of the wolves. Pavel and Peter were disgraced and run out of town. When Pavel died, Peter sold off everything and went to be a cook in a railway construction camp.
By chapter fourteen, ?Old Mr. Shimerda is dead and his family are in great distress (48).? Mr. Shimerda told the family he was going out hunting rabbits, and in the cabin he neatly set aside his boots and green sash, and lie down and shot himself with his rifle; pulling the trigger with his toe. It took four days for the coroner to arrive from Black Hawk. On the fifth day he was buried in an outer corner of their property, after much disagreement from the town and family where he should and could be layed to rest. Antonia?s carefree childhood died that day along with her father. Mr. Shimerda dearly loved Antonia, calling her ?My Antonia?. She wore the rabbit skin hat and muff he made her to his funeral. But she was a strong girl and the work of the farm fell to her and her brother Abrosch the next spring.

Resumos Relacionados