The novel evokes a deep sense of nostalgia, depicting the lost splendor of a once-vast land covered in waving red grass. The characters are imbued with a longing and homesickness as they move through their lives. Ántonia longs for the flowers and woodland paths of her native land. Otto, toughened by his experiences, keeps Christmas-tree ornaments from Austria in his trunk as cherished mementos. The old prejudices brought over from Europe linger as familiar relics, hard to let go of. Ántonia's large box of pictures acts as a treasury of the past, a past she has successfully passed down to her children. "Ántonia herself had always been one to leave images in the mind that did not fade—that grew stronger with time." Jim also cherishes his own collection of memories. He finds comfort in saying, "Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past."