FREE ESSAY ON MY ANTONIA

MY ANTONIA

The Inability to Provide for His Family, and Why it Drove Mr. Shimerda to Suicide
My Antonia, by Willa Cather, is a novel about Jim Burden and his relationship and
experiences growing up with Antonia Shimerda in Nebraska. Throughout the book Jim
reflects on his memories of Nebraska and the Shimerda family, often times in a sad and
depressing tone. One of the main ways Cather is able to provoke these sad emotions within
the reader is through the suicide of Antonia's father, Mr. Shimerda. His death was
unexpected by everyone and it is thought that homesickness is what drove him to take his
own life. Homesickness was surely felt by Mr. Shimerda, as it was by many, but it was the
failure to adequately find a way to provide for his family that sent Mr. Shimerda into a
depressing downward spiral that left him no foreseeable alternative but to take his own
life.
The first descriptions of Mr. Shimerda are that of a successful businessman that had
always provided well for his family. 
I noticed how white and well-shaped his own hands were. They looked calm, somehow, and
skilled. His eyes were melancholy, and were set back deep under his brow. His face was
ruggedly formed, but it looked like ashes - like something from which all the warmth and
light had dried out. Everything about this old man was in keeping with his dignified
manner (24)
Mr. Shimerda was indeed a prosperous man in Bohemia, but had made his living in the
business world, not by running a farm to provide for his family's needs. His hands show
that he rarely performed hard manual labor, but that he did work hard with his hands to
weave. His face however shows signs that he was already having doubts about the welfare
of his family and their survival. The apparent glow that he must have once had was now
replaced by the look of heavy thoughts. This came from the burden of providing for his
family by way of very unfamiliar and difficult means. He had already lost a great deal of
money in the family's traveling expenses and overpaid for their property. They paid way
too much for the land and for the oxen, horses and cookstove (22). Mr. Shimerda must not
have thought that he would have to support his family by means of plowing fields for food
and actually building a home from materials gathered from the earth. He was a businessman
and made a life for his family in Bohemia by working. He was a weaver by trade; had been
a skilled work man on tapestries and upholstery materials (22). There was no work for him
in this new country and he did not have the money to relocate his family. Certainly
before he left Bohemia he believed that they had more than enough money to get by. The
reality of his family's circumstances was just beginning to show their impact. Antonia
points out to Jim that Mr. Shimerda looks ill My papa sick all the time Tony panted as we
flew. He not look good, Jim (36). It is obvious that Mr. Shimerda was terribly stressed
and was staring to show it physically. Most likely he looked ill due to not sleeping and
eating. Nevertheless, Mr. Shimerda wanted desperately do the best that he could for his
family. He moved his family with the hopes of finding good husbands for his daughters and
wealth and land for his son. He calls onto Jim to teach Antonia to read. He does so in a
very pleading, helpless way which leaves an unforgettable memory in Jim's mind. Jim takes
on the task, but unfortunately Mr. Shimerda gets little help from anyone else in the town
for anything. Mr. Shimerda never really understands why he receives virtually little help
from neighbors getting the farm going. He knows nothing about running the farm, and
didn't even have the appropriate tools necessary. He and his family on the other hand are
very trusting and would give the shirts off their backs to anyone who needed anything
from them. There never were such a people as the Shimerdas for wanting to give away
everything they had (38). He loses more hope for help when Krajiek tells him that even
going into town for anything would be risking what little the family had left. 
The burden of not providing for his family only gets worse. His family has to bear the
cold winter in a dugout with no food. This is when his family starts to lose hope and he
feels the pressures of ultimate failure. Mrs. Shimerda certainly put a lot of this
unneeded pressure on him as well. She was use to being taken care of and now shows little
love or compassion towards him. She constantly whines and reminds him how miserable they
all are. Also, the burden of having no one to lean on for support, such as for advice and
to borrow equipment, leaves Mr. Shimerda feeling helpless. His two Russian friends that
were his main source for information about running the farm are gone. One dies and the
other moves away. This leaves him with no one for advise and help but the Burtons.
Everything for Mr. Shimerda is a failure. He has proven to himself that there is nothing
more that he can do for his family. Perhaps he believed that if he sacrificed his own
life, maybe then people would show compassion and come to the needed assistance of his
family. In this new country Mr. Shimerda came to the realization that no one was really
going to help them. It was as if all immigrants stuck with their own nationality and only
helped there own kind. Jim recalls how this wore on Mr. Shimerda. I suppose in the
crowded clutter of their cave, this old man had come to believe that peace and order had
vanished from the earth, or existed only in the world he had left so far behind (71).
Unfortunately the Shimerdas were the only Bohemian family for miles. Something as tragic
as his suicide would surely bring at least some compassion from someone in the community
towards his family. Mr. Shimerda had run out of options to choose from and decided that
he could do nothing more and finally gave up. And of course it was not until his suicide
that neighbors, such as the postmaster and the father of the German family, did finally
come out of the woodwork, most likely out of shame for not doing anything about a known
family in need. The news of what had happened over there had somehow got abroad through
the snow-blocked country (88). And that spring, neighbors helped build a new home for the
family and helped get the farm working. The Shimerdas were in their new log house by
then. The neighbors had helped them build it in March (95). Mr. Shimerda's suicide
ultimately was a determining factor with getting the help he needed for his family's
survival. This could have been something he thought about when he took his own life.
Regardless, if it were not for his inability to provide an adequate life for his family
in the new country, Mr. Shimerda never would have committed suicide.
Bibliography
My Antonia (novel)
If you have any questions, please ask. I got an A on this paper for English 402. I
actually wrote it myself, but know what it is like to cram!