The Theme of Individualism in My Antonia

My Antonia is a novel that tries to illustrate Jim’s maturity journey from his childhood, his youth and as an older and wiser individual. The novels show Jim’s reflections on his experiences during his childhood days. It then relates the drama and struggles that Jim witnesses as he grows up with a great emphasis on his friends and family. The story begins when Jim Burden is ten years of age and follows his maturity journey into adulthood. At a tender age, Jim gets ideas of what it manhood means. He learns and understands what it really means to withstand and suffer as an adult man. As he grows he also learns more about relationships, romance, and friendships (Cather 54). As illustrated in the novel, Jim’s character was never typical or in line with his age group throughout the novel.

The theme of Individualism dominates the novel showing the inward journey of a person who has decided on his destiny. The author fits Jim’s childhood experiences into the larger life’s pattern. Jim’s childhood lacks a child’s excitement but is filled with fear and a feeling of distance and from himself. His friendship with Antonia makes him feel at home and their adventure soon become a great part of his life. Jim also feels a sense of competence when Mr. Shimerda pleads with him to teach Antonia the English Language (Cather and O’Brien 145).

The plot follows the endeavors of a female protagonist by the name Antonia who is an immigrant seeking happiness while struggling to learn the new language and culture. Jim, on the other hand, had just lost his parents and was now living with his grandparents. He was in grief and was uncertain of the future (Cather and O’Brien 145). Deep in his thoughts, he tried to convince himself that he was not homesick while still telling himself that whatever the future had for him was good and he was ready to accept his fate. While on the train and deeply contemplating his future, a bohemian family was riding on the same train. Among the family members was a girl by the name Antonia Shimerda would later become Jim’s best friend (Cengage Learning Gale 102). Jim’s childhood is filled with many instances of male domination, for instance, the hiring out of Antonia as slave labor while her wages are collected by her brother. Jim is faced with several conflicts such as trying to match to his grandparent’s expectations of being a preacher while he ended up being a lawyer. There was also the dance hall conflict with his grandmother (Cather 183).

When Jim got to a school going age, his grandparents had to relocate to Black Hawk. At school, he was able to overcome his past misfortunes. He worked hard enough to improve his grades at school as well as making new friends and having fun. He successfully managed to be admitted to the university in Lincoln before completing his academic course at Harvard and later joining Law School (Cather and O’Brien 165). When Jim was young, he considered Antonia to be the prettiest, they would even make romantic runs through the fields. However, Jim does not accept Antonia’s offer of one of her rings which at his age he considered inappropriate. Antonia is seen as the initiator of their relationship which Jim finds fascinating and is willing to follow (Cather and O’Brien 97).

In the fourth chapter, Jim recounts of his past days whereby he would ride his pony Dude to the post office. He liked riding on the roads in the countryside which were bordered by sunflowers and no barriers. He associated the roads with the feeling of freedom. As the story continues, Jim and the Shimerdas meet other Bohemian immigrants. They come across two bachelors, Peter and Pavel, who are a household trying to survive together. Jim is impressed at their well-kept house without women taking care of them and how effective they are at surviving the frontier. At this time Jim and Antonia are in a near-perfect communion with comfort and a bond appreciative of nature and all forms of life (Cather 213). Antonia confides to Jim of her father’s sickness. She also translates to him that her father told him he would have his gun when he grew up. Jim is confused and wonders why Mr. Shimerdas would be willing to give him his precious possession. He finds such generosity as foolish basing his argument from the values he has gained being raised from a capitalistic society which valued private ownership and competition. Jim gets a feeling that nature might be celebrating him on his way home from their English lesson.

At his adolescence, Jim feels that Antonia treated him a little bit more condescendingly. However, he gains more respect from Antonia one day after they went to borrow a spade from Peter. On their way back, Antonia sees a large coiling snake which Jim sees and bravely rushes to kill it by digging into its neck using the spade as it coils around his feet (Cather 185). After killing it he feels irritable and sick but Antonia comforts him and praises him for his bravery. He is proud of the achievement and drags the snake home. He is praised by both Antonia and Otto Fuchs but later realized that he was indeed lucky of having a weapon with him and the snake being lazy and old (Cengage Learning Gale 214).

The story continues with Mr. Shimerda, Jim and Antonia visiting for the second time an ailing Pavel and a financially struggling Peter. Pavel narrates a story that Jim does not understand and that would for the next days be the talk of both Jim and Antonia. Pavel story was a fairytale-like of their last days in Russia. They were groomsmen for a friend and were the only survivors after their sleds were chased by wolves. To survive and maintain control of their sled, Pavel had to kick out both the groom and the bride. This made the whole village to shun them and hence had to save enough to move to America (Cather 178). At the end of the story, Peter dies which makes Mr. Shimerda depressed. Jim often thought about the story before going to bed. The tale also brings Jim and Antonia closer to each other. Pavel’s narration and death emphasized the nature and importance of human relationships. It also made Mr. Shimerda feel isolated having lost one of his friends (Cather and O’Brien 143).

There is snow in December. Jim sees a pattern in the snow where Indians used to ride their horses as a good omen and begins to ride around it in a sleigh made for him by Otto Fuchs. One day he takes Yulka and Antonia for a ride. They become too excited and even prefer that to their home. During the winter period, Jim stays indoors eating and keeping warm while reading to his grandmother “The Swiss Family Robinson”. Despite Jim being an orphan, he is contented and happy to live with his extended family (Cather and O’Brien 154). He admires both Otto and Jake. They are hardworking with Otto having done almost all sorts of works and Jake is soft-hearted despite being illiterate and often violent.

The burdens and the Shimerdas find it hard to reconcile their conflicting values when one day they see the impoverished Mr. Shimerda hunting with the only winter coat of the family. The grandmother wants to help but finds irritating that Mrs. Shimerda acts in a demanding attitude. There is a lot of cultural differences with food being the main catalyst for their conflicts with Jim’s grandmother. This includes their way of preparation of the food, acquisition, and storage. She does not trust the powdered and dried mushrooms given to her by Mrs. Shimerda. Jim is now an adult and is aware of the two families’ misunderstandings. He knows that the lack of understanding showed by his grandmother is as a result of cultural prejudice towards the Bohemian culture (Cengage Learning Gale 167). He is careful not to confront the situation while recounting his childhood memories. At this instance, a high level of maturity is shown of him by maintaining a distant nonjudgmental and reserved tone. He doesn’t criticize his grandmother for misunderstanding the Shimerda customs as well as understanding that they are immigrants struggling to fit in a foreign land. He even goes ahead to reveal his own shortcomings in understanding them too (Cather 211). The narrative present’s Jim as one who shares both perspectives of the situation.

When Christmas arrives, the family have a countryside Christmas. Jake makes gifts for the family and Jim crafts picture books for Antonia and Yulka. Jim has a perception that Otto and Jake looked the same kind-hearted and were very vulnerable despite looking fierce on the outside. There is an element of Naturalism whereby Otto and Jake have been hardened due to the environment they live in which has forced them to be violent, rough and unemotional due to the physical circumstances surrounding them (Cather and O’Brien 166). That Christmas morning, they all listen to grandfather and pray. Jim makes an assertion that his grandfather’s thoughts reflect on present feelings and thoughts and it is through prayers that one gets to identify his thoughts and feelings. Later in the day, Mr. Shimerda comes over to thank the Burden’s family as well as welcoming them to an oasis of peace and order. The Burdens family does not question that Mr. Shimerda actually celebrates Christmas with them instead of his family. It would later be evident that Mr. Shimerda was unhappy in his own home and considered the Burdens’ household as more peaceful (Cather and O’Brien 169).

After Christmas, Mrs. Shimerda visits the Burdens and is envious of the many possessions owned by Jim’s grandmother. She even borrows a pot which grandmother gives her. Jim feels that Mrs. Shimerda lacks humility despite her misfortunes. Jim is excited about the house chores when he is left alone in the house after Mr. Shimerda committed suicide. He is also pessimistic that Mr. Shimerda’s soul will be stuck in purgatory unlike the Shimerda’s who take turns praying over his body. He thinks that Mr. Shimerda was just unhappy with life. He is respectful of Christianity but still thinks that Mr. Shimerda’s soul might be resting in their house (Cengage Learning Gale 167).

As a youth, Jim asks Antonia to accompany him to the country school which she declines. This is because of her increased responsibility on the farm. Jim thinks she is boastful and almost emulating her mother for her strong headedness and outspoken nature. He later attends college and starts a relationship with Lena Lingard who later gets married by someone else (Cather and O’Brien 174). As promised, he comes back to Black Hawk where he finds Antonia married to Larry Donovan. He feels betrayed and thinks that Antonia threw herself away in a cheap manner without consideration of his feelings towards her. At this point and being an adult, he realizes the sterility of his own life seeing Antonia with a big family. He leaves for the next twenty with the realization that he can only become a sympathetic observer and never come too close to Antonia (Cather 214).

Jim Burden comes of age and it is through this that he is able to draw a picture of My Antonia coming of age. In the end, they both gain the knowledge of who they were to each other. They both become emotionally stable and have separate lives but still treasuring and cherishing their childhood memories. In the story, Jim failed in two romantic relationships; with Miss Lingard and Antonia. His childhood is faced with several areas of conflict and struggle with his family while in his adulthood he is faced with disappointments with respect to other people’s lives such as his crush Antonia. Jim finally moves to New York as a Lawyer (Cather 230). The story depicts a clear journey of Jim Burden’s childhood to adulthood and his changes in perception and way of seeing different situations. The coming of age of Jim is seen through tragedy, success, and adoption to change

Works Cited

Cather, Willa and Sharon O’Brien. My Ántonia : authoritative text, contexts and backgrounds criticism. New York: Norton & Company, 2015. print.

Cather, Willa. My Antonia. Vintage, 2018. print.

Cather, Willa. My Antonia. Boston: Overdrive, 1918. print.

Cengage Learning Gale. A Study Guide for Willa Cather’s My Antonia. Farmington Hills: Cengage Learning, 2015. document.