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Jim Burden is the narrator of Willa Cather’s novel My Ántonia. He is a lawyer in Nebraska who is looking back on his childhood in the late 1800s. He was raised on a farm near the town of Black Hawk, where he met Ántonia Shimerda, a Bohemian immigrant girl. Jim and Ántonia become friends, and Jim is fascinated by her hardscrabble life and her strength in the face of adversity. As they grow older, their relationship changes, and Jim eventually leaves Black Hawk to go to college. He doesn’t see Ántonia again until many years later, when he visits her on her farm in Nebraska. By this time, she is a widow with children, and Jim is a successful man. He has never forgotten her, and their reunion is a bittersweet one.
1. Introduction
2. Childhood and youth
3. The years with Antonia
4. The years after Antonia
5. Conclusion
“The whole world seemed to be composed of these little beings, their conflicts, their loves, their appetites, their brave rallies against misfortune, their playfulness when happy.”
“I wanted to roll myself up in it like a scroll, and drift down the river of sleep.”
“For the first time, I felt I was getting close to the West of which I had always heard, but had never really imagined.”
“There was always something new out there to see and to think about, some new drama in the sky, some new game to play.”
“The great fact was simply the land itself, which seemed to overwhelm the little beginnings of human history. Man was an incidental player.”