Who Is Jim Burden In My Antonia

Willa Cather’s My Ántonia narrates childhood stories from the perspective of Jim Burden, and focuses on his relationship with his close childhood friend Ántonia. Both of the characters move to Nebraska at the same time, and influence each other's lives greatly. Jim Burden grows up to have a deep connection and longing for his past and repeatedly renews the relationships between close friends and hometown. My Ántonia shows the stages of life for a character around the 1900s, starting at 10 years old to around the age of 20. The story is narrated by Jim Burden that is talking about his past self and childhood. In the beginning of the novel Jim and an acquaintance talk about their most treasured memory of Ántonia. “More than any other person we remembered, this girl seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood... Jim had found her again after long years, had renewed a friendship that meant a great deal to him, and out of his busy life had set apart time enough to enjoy that friendship” (5). Jim’s connection to her was so important to him, that after many years of separation he goes back to his hometown to see her again. In the story he became a lawyer and moved out of Nebraska to New York. Then twenty
years passed and he visited again, to reconnect with his past. This shows how much he cherishes the memories he holds dear.
The novel shows how much of Jim’s past influenced his future and decisions. Throughout his life he always kept the thoughts of his past with him, and used it in everything he experienced. “...My mind plunged away from me, and I suddenly found myself thinking of the places and people of my own infinitesimal past… But whenever my consciousness was quickened, all those early friends were quickened within it, and in some strange way they accompanied me through all my new experiences” (158). This shows how he grows and uses the past for the future, instead of getting stuck in his past. Jim doesn't find any of his memories to be a burden, but as a strength. Unlike two of the characters in the book, Peter and Pavel. Both are immigrants from Russia, running away from their past. During a wedding in Russia, wolves attacked and to save themselves, Peter and Pavel sacrificed the bride and groom. This past followed them everywhere they went, so they traveled to America to escape their sad past. These two characters are important in this novel, because they show another view of the past.
The whole novel of My Ántonia gives the feeling of nostalgia and life of Jim Burden.
Ántonia was a significant part of his childhood and by the end of the book he saw their friendship as destiny. “For Ántonia and for me, this had been the road of Destiny: had taken us to those early accidents of fortune which predetermined for us all that we can ever be. Now I understood that the same road was to bring us together again. Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past” (222). Jim’s meeting with her did seem like destiny, because they were on the same train heading to Nebraska, and then became neighbors. While he grew up, it seemed his friendship with Ántonia kept him grounded and
balanced. In My Ántonia, it shows how the past can intertwine with the future and make one grow like it did with Jim. He grew up and wished he could experience his childhood all over again, but he still continued forward in his life. He moved away and made a new life but still came back to renew relationships with Antonia and the town. Jim wrote the story about how significant Antonia was to his life, and what she was to him.