Mr. Shimerda's Loss In My Antonia

My Antonia, written by Willa Cather, is a novel about the main character, Jim Burden’s, childhood in Nebraska and his relationship with his dear friend, Antonia Shimerda, who was a Bohemian immigrant. Their friendship was tested by the various events that occurred through their lives and the different paths their lives took them down. After so many years, Jim looked back on his childhood with Antonia and tried to remember everything they shared together. He had trouble remembering but recalled how Antonia was an independent, hard-working, and believable character that dealt with many issues as an immigrant. Antonia Shimerda shows how the experience of an immigrant was hard for her through the loss of her father and the betrayal of her fiancé.
Shimerda, committed suicide. The news of his death was a surprise to the Burdens family, the neighbors, and the grandfather states, “Old Mr. Shimerda is dead, and his family are in great distress” (p. 69). The diction of “great distress” emphasizes how dramatic Mr. Shimerda’s death was to his family. It caused unhappiness and sorrow in the Shimerda family because they were now without a husband and a father. Cather emphasizes how painful Mr. Shimerda’s death was to Antonia when the main character, Jim Burden, came to visit: “When she saw me she ran out of her dark corner and threw her arms around me…It seemed to me that I could feel her heart breaking as she clung to me” (p. 83). The image portrayed from how Antonia “ran out of her dark corner” to Jim represents how Antonia’s father’s death had caused her extreme grief. Antonia metaphorically escaped the deep depths of sadness this death had put her in by the comfort of seeing, her good friend, Jim. The diction of the “dark corner” represents the deep misery Antonia was in because of the death of her father. This is one type of distress Antonia learns to deal with as being an immigrant. The fact that Jim “could feel her heart breaking” as Antonia held onto him emphasizes how hurt she was inside. The detail of “heart breaking” figuratively represents that Antonia was falling apart inside from the misery and agony of her
After the incident had occurred, a friend of Antonia’s, named Frances, described Antonia as, “‘she lives at home, on the farm, and almost never comes to town…I’m afraid she’s settled down to be Ambroshc’s drudge for good”’ (pp. 215-216). The detail in the sentence: “‘she lives at home on the farm, and almost never comes to town,”’ emphasizes how isolated Antonia has made herself become from the misery her fiancé has caused her. When someone isolates him/herself, he/she usually is very upset and do not have the courage and strength to face other people. By Antonia isolating herself from society, she is emphasizing how miserable and hurt she was from her fiancé betraying her and leaving her to care for their baby all alone. She had caused grief and sadness for not only herself, but for the people who cared about her. After hearing the news about Antonia, Jim became annoyed with her: “I tried to shut Antonia out of my mind. I was bitterly disappointed in her” (p. 216). The imagery in the phrase “tried to shut Antonia out of my mind” paints the picture that Jim, one of Antonia’s closest friends, wanted to forget about Antonia and her problems. He was so upset with what she had gone through with her fiancé that he did not want to think about her at all. The diction in the phrase “bitterly disappointed” represents how upset Jim was for Antonia. He