Why does Jim abandon Antonia to her struggles? Why does he not rescue someone he loves so deeply from these circumstances? After all, Antonia is older than Jim, and she does not seem particularly interested in him as a potential husband. Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves.
At times she seems like a sexual object — especially when Jim describes her strong, physical sexuality. At other times, she seems like a daughter or a mother to him — as when Jim feels proud of her looks or protective of her against creepy guys in town.
So while we don't know the exact nature of Jim's feelings, we can be certain of their degree. They have a great impact on him and they last throughout his entire life.
The point is that he loves her — in whatever form — and that doing so changes his life. You really are a part of me" 4. What Jim lacks in decisiveness and action, however, he makes up in sensitivity and emotional understanding.
Even as a small boy, Jim has an incredible emotional intelligence when it comes to the Shimerdas. He understands the causes behind Mr. Shimerda's death and is even able to find a sublime beauty in the funeral. Jim is reflective, studious, and a "romantic. He isolates himself from boys his own age, preferring the friendship of the older immigrant girls.
For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:. Introduction Quotes. During that burning day when we were crossing Iowa, our talk kept returning to a central figure, a Bohemian girl whom we had both known long ago.
More than any other person we remembered, this girl seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood. Related Themes: The Immigrant Experience. Page Number and Citation : 5 Cite this Quote. Explanation and Analysis:. Book 1, Chapter 1 Quotes. There seemed to be nothing to see; no fences, no creeks or trees, no hills or fields.
If there was a road, I could not make it out in the faint starlight. There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made. Related Characters: Jim Burden speaker.
Related Symbols: The Prairie , Light. Related Themes: The Prairie. Page Number and Citation : 11 Cite this Quote. Book 1, Chapter 2 Quotes. I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge.
Page Number and Citation : 19 Cite this Quote. Book 1, Chapter 7 Quotes. She liked me better from that time on, and she never took a supercilious air with me again. I had killed a big snake — I was now a big fellow. Related Themes: Friendship. Page Number and Citation : 41 Cite this Quote. Book 1, Chapter 10 Quotes. I never forgot the strange taste; though it was many years before I knew that those little brown shavings, which the Shimerdas had brought so far and treasured so jealously, were dried mushrooms.
They had been gathered, probably, in some deep Bohemian forest Shimerda , Mrs. Shimerda , Yulka Shimerda , Ambrosch Shimerda. Page Number and Citation : 59 Cite this Quote. Book 1, Chapter 16 Quotes. The road from the north curved a little to the south; so that the grave, with its tall red grass that was never mowed, was like a little island; and at twilight, under a new moon or the clear evening star, the dusty roads used to look like soft grey rivers flowing past it.
I never came upon the place without emotion, and in all that country it was the spot most dear to me. Related Characters: Jim Burden speaker , Mr.
Related Symbols: The Prairie , Mr. Shimerda's Grave , Light. Page Number and Citation : 84 Cite this Quote. Book 1, Chapter 19 Quotes. Why do you all the time try to be like Ambrosch? Things will be easy for you. But they will be hard for us. Page Number and Citation : 99 Cite this Quote. Book 2, Chapter 8 Quotes. Yet the summer which was to change everything was coming nearer every day.
When boys and girls are growing up, life can't stand still, not even in the quietest of country towns; and they have to grow up, whether they will or no.
That is what their elders are always forgetting. Page Number and Citation : Cite this Quote. Book 2, Chapter 9 Quotes. If I told my schoolmates that Lena Lingard's grandfather was a clergyman, and much respected in Norway, they looked at me blankly. What did it matter? All foreigners were ignorant people who couldn't speak English. Book 2, Chapter 14 Quotes. On some upland farm, a plough had been left standing in the field. Pregnant, Antonia is abandoned at the altar by the worthless Larry Donovan.
Decades later, when Jim returns for a visit, he finds her the mother of a large, loving, demonstrative family. Awareness of differences makes her generally tolerant and concerned. She is contemptuous of Mrs. And when he is at school, she informs him only of those friends she approves of. She does not let him know that Lena Lingard is in Lincoln. Grandfather Burden is reserved, dignified, but occasionally outspoken. Jake is the farmhand who accompanies Jim on his train ride from Virginia to Nebraska.
When the Burdens move to town, he follows his dream there. He impresses Jim with his Jesse James look and regales him with stories of outlaws and desperadoes. Like Jake, he is a hard worker with nothing to show for it. When the Burdens move to town, Otto goes out West in search of his fortune and, except for one letter, is not heard from again.
She gives Mrs. Burden mushrooms, a hoarded treasure brought from Bohemia; but poignantly, what she values has no worth at all to Americans. Typically, when Mrs. It is as Mrs. Shimerda, with his iron-grey hair, well-shaped hands, and silk neck cloth, has a genteel, dignified bearing, a shadow from a different world. He was a musician, older and of higher social rank than his wife, whom he married honorably.
Shimerda would have preferred to remain in Bohemia, where he made a good living and was well-respected, but his wife insisted the family move to America, where opportunity is greater. After Mr. Shimerda dies, Jim imagines his spirit travelling back to his much-loved homeland. While Mrs. Shimerda favors Ambrosch, Mr. Shimerda feels closest to Antonia. Considerate and well-groomed even in his suicide, Mr. The oldest of the four Shimerda children, Ambrosch is ambitious and hardworking.
He works Antonia hard and sometimes rents her out to other farmers. When she goes to work for the Harlings, Ambrosch tries to get her entire salary sent to him.
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