My Antonia Character Development Essay

The novel My Ántonia is the story of a Bohemian girl, named Antonia Shimerda, who immigrates to America with her family in the early 1900s. The story is told through the memory of the narrator’s childhood friend, Jim Burden. Jim has just recently been orphaned and makes the move from Virginia to Nebraska to live with his grandparents. On his second day in Nebraska, he and his grandmother pay a visit to Antonia and her family. During their visit Mrs. Shimerda asks Jim to teach Antonia English and from that day onward, Jim and Antonia become constant companions and friends. As the story progresses, we see the different personalities and development of the characters, especially that of Antonia. Throughout the story, she is seen as a very lively,
Shimerda’s homesickness and unhappiness about their move is very much present and it eventually leads to the problem of what the family will do with his body after is suicide. After his death, the family is not only left with the problem of the local cemetery not accepting his body but also of where the family’s main income will come from. The weight of supporting the family eventually falls upon Ambrosch, as the eldest son and now, man of the family, but it also falls on Antonia, as her other brother is disabled and unable to contribute. She goes through several jobs from working out in the fields to becoming a hired girl, working in town for accommodated families. She grows up to be beautiful and stubborn and Jim grows wanting to become a lawyer. During their developing years, Jim grows a one-side crush on Antonia. Jim eventually leaves to college to pursue his dreams and Antonia becomes engaged to a man who uses her for her money, gets her pregnant and abandons her. Sometime in the future after Jim has become a successful lawyer in New York, he returns to find Antonia married with several children and still the very spirited person he meet when he was 10 years