Discussion Topic
Differences in Jim Burden's and Antonia Shimerda's arrivals in Nebraska
Summary:
Jim Burden and Antonia Shimerda's arrivals in Nebraska differ significantly. Jim arrives with his grandparents, who are well-established and provide a stable, supportive environment. In contrast, Antonia arrives with her immigrant family, who face immediate hardships and struggle to adapt to their new life, highlighting the stark differences in their initial experiences.
In My Antonia, what three differences marked Jim Burden's and Antonia Shimerda's arrivals in Nebraska?
Jim Burden and Antonia Shimerda arrive in Black Hawk, Nebraska at the same time, but their situations are different in a number of ways. First of all, compared to Antonia, Jim has come a relatively short distance. Jim has come to Nebraska from his childhood home in Virginia, half a continent away, while Antonia is an immigrant to the country, having come from Bohemia, a country in Europe, near Czechoslovakia, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Jim has no problem communicating with the people in his new environment, but because of the differences in their countries of origin, Antonia and her family are isloated in their new home by language. Antonia is the only one in her family who speaks even a little English, and her command of the language is elementary at best. Because the family does not understand the language spoken in the area, they are at the mercy of the only other person there who speaks Bohemian, an unscrupulous man named Krajiek. Krajiek takes full advantage of the Shimerdas, cheating them out of their money, and the Shimerdas can do nothing about it.
Perhaps one of the biggest difference between the circumstances surrounding Jim's and Antonia's arrivals in Nebraska is the nature of the environment into which they enter. Jim is welcomed into a friendly place; his grandparents love him, and their home is cozy, established, and welcoming. Antonia, in contrast, is placed in a hostile environment; Krajiek, the family's only contact, does not have their best interests at heart, and, in addition, Antonia's own mother is more concerned about her own problems than those of her children. The differences between Jim's and Antonia's situations is emphasized by the houses they initially move into - Jim's grandparents' home has three stories, along with furniture, amenities for a hot bath, and the smell of gingerbread being made in the kitchen, while Antonia's house is nothing more than a shack, a dugout built into the side of a hill, and her bed is sadly not unlike an animal's cave.
In My Antonia, how do Jim Burden's and Antonia Shimerda's situations differ upon arrival in Black Hawk, Nebraska?
Jim and Antonia travel to Black Hawk for the first time on the same train, but their lives are shown to be quite different even before they arrive. An orphan at the age of ten, Jim travels to a new home where he will live with his grandparents; he is escorted by Jake Marpole, who had once worked for Jim's deceased father. In another train car, Antonia is surrounded by members of her family, Bohemian immigrants seeking a new life in a strange land.
Once they arrive in Black Hawk, their living situations are quite different. Jim lives with his grandparents in a comfortable frame house on a farm with a stable and a fruitful garden. He enjoys the advantages of his grandparents' home and financial security.
Antonia, however, lives with her family in abject poverty. Arriving in Black Hawk with few worldly possessions, her family barely survives in a structure dug into the side of a hill. The little money they had with them upon arriving in Black Hawk is gone, since they had been cheated when they bought their "house." Speaking little English and knowing nothing about farming, the Shimerda family's situation, including Antonia's, is quite bleak, very different from Jim's comfortable and secure life with his grandparents.
Jim Burden arrives at Black Hawk when his family is already entrenched because grandfather has a farm there. He is white, and speaks the language. Antonia’s family does not, and they are shy and at a disadvantage.
Jim Burden, an orphan, arrives at night. He is asleep when they get there, and he travels with his father’s hired hand. As he continues through the night, he sees nothing around him on his way to his grandfather’s farm.
No, there was nothing but land…I had the feeling that the world was left behind, that we had got over the edge of it, and were outside man's jurisdiction. (Ch 1)
His grandfather’s farm is comfortable by pioneer standards. He begins to enjoy farm life.
Unlike Jim, Antonia has a family at first. Antonia’s family arrives to find the house “no good.” The family has been cheated, as Antonia is well aware. There is really no house. It is a sort of shack dug into the side of a hill.
Presently, against one of those banks, I saw a sort of shed, thatched with the same wine-coloured grass that grew everywhere. Near it tilted a shattered windmill frame, that had no wheel. (ch 3)
The Shimerdas have trouble communicating because they do not speak English. Antonia speaks only some. They have lost all of their money, and have few possessions. They are frightened and frustrated.
In "My Antonia," how are Jim's and Antonia's situations different upon arriving in Black Hawk?
Although Jim and Antonia arrive in Black Hawk at the same time, their situations are entirely different. Jim has been sent to Nebraska to live with his paternal grandparents because his parents have both died in Virginia within the past year. Jim's grandparents, the Burdens, have been on the prairie for awhile, long enough to have built a comfortable "white frame house, with a storey and half-storey above the basement (and a) windmill close by the kitchen door". Their farm is thriving, and Mr. Burden has bought a pony for Jim to ride, and as he enters the kitchen, Jim is greeted by "the pleasant smell of gingerbread baking" (Bk.I,Ch.II).
Antonia Shimerda has come with her family across the ocean from Bohemia to start a new life. They do not speak English, and are met at the train station by a countryman who is "shouting and exclaiming", and who, taking advantage of their dependence, manages to cheat them out of their money. Upon arriving on the land they have purchased at an inflated price, the Shimerdas have nothing, and are forced to live in a cave-like dwelling dug into a rough red hillock, and to subsist upon little more than meager portions of corncakes and sorghum molasses (Bk.I, Ch. III).
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