Sacrifice In My Antonia

The sacrifices we make every day determine what we value in life. In the novel My Ántonia by Willa Cather, the Shimerdas are a Bohemian family who comes to America for a better life. They speak no English when they first arrive and struggle to get on their feet. Over time, with help from the Burdens, the Shimerdas find their way in Black Hawk, Nebraska. All throughout, Mr. Shimerda makes sacrifices for his family. Mr. Shimerda’s sacrifices show his value and love for his family, but while the strain of the sacrifices he makes are too strong for him to handle, Antonia learns from her father and uses her sacrifices to better her future for her family. When they first move to Black Hawk, the Shimerdas grow extremely homesick. They miss the place they call home, but they know that moving to Nebraska has much more opportunity for their children. The homesickness hit Mr. Shimerda hard. He is not the same person he once was, and Antonia notices it. She says to Jim, “At home, he play violin all the time; for weddings and for dances. Here never” (Cather 59). Jim soon catches onto Mr. Shimerdas sad atmosphere too. Jim notices, while Mr. Shimerda
Shimerda to handle. One night, in the dead of winter, “[Mr. Shimerda] put on a clean shirt and clean socks, and after he was dressed he kissed [Antonia] and the little one and took his gun and said he was going out to hunt rabbits” (Cather 63). He ends his life that night. Everyone in Black Hawk hears the news and they all have their own thoughts about what happened, but Jim thinks that “Mr. Shimerda had not been rich and selfish: he had only been so unhappy that he could not live any longer” (Cather 67). The sacrifices he makes for his family are weighing too heavy on Mr. Shimerda’s shoulders, and Jim believes the only way Mr. Shimerda can free himself is taking his own life. Antonia believes this too and has to take over the roles her father leaves