by Bridget N. Watts

Created on: January 25, 2010

My Antonia is a novel by American writer Willa Cather that was first published in 1918. It is the third book in the Prairie series, and it tells the story of several immigrant families who at the end of the nineteenth century move from Bohemia to Nebraska to start a new life there.

The main focus of the story is on the Shimerdas family and their eldest daughter Antonia. The story is told by Jim Burden, a man who first meets the Shimerdas on the train to Nebraska and he develops a huge crush on Antonia that never completely goes away. The novel consists of five different sections, all of which describe a different phase of Antonia’s life.

In the first section called the Shimerdas, we are introduced to Jim, Antonia and the Shimerdas and it covers the period that Jim lives on his grandparents’ farm. Not long after moving to Nebraska, Antonia’s father starts to suffer from depression and he eventually ends up committing suicide. Apart from the great loss this means for the rest of the Shimerdas, it also means that they now have to work extra hard on the prairie.

The second section entitled the Hired Girls, focuses more on Jim’s time living in town, where Antonia has started working as a maid and a cook for the Harlings, Jim’s next-door neighbors. She later leaves them to go work for a dodgy moneylender. Jim becomes more and more fascinated with both Antonia and another maid of the Harlings called Lena.

However, Jim is four years younger than the girls are and Antonia makes it very clear she sees him as just a little boy. Lena, on the other hand, quite likes Jim, but Antonia makes sure nothing happens between the two of them. 

Jim’s adventures at university are described in the third section labeled Lena Lingard. A few years have gone by when he finally meets Lena again, who is now a successful dressmaker. The two have a romantic relationship for a while, until Jim goes off to study Law in Boston.

While visiting the Harlings in section four called the Pioneer Woman’s Story, Jim learns all about Antonia’s romance with Larry Donovan. The two are engaged to be married and very much in love. At least that is how it seems, until Larry leaves Antonia alone and pregnant.

In the final section of the novel named Cuzak’s Boys, we witness Jim returning to Nebraska after twenty years, and he goes to visit Antonia and her family. She has found a new love of her life called Cuzak, who she married and ended up having ten of his children.

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