My Antonia

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My Antonia

William Cather showed a great amount of information about the "old wild
west" and the expansion of the United States. In My Antonia, Jim Burden
told a story of his childhood, the people in his life, and the struggles he and
his surroundings faced during this time. At age ten, Jim Burden was sent by his
relatives to be raised by his grandparents in the Nebraska prairie after his
parents died. When he arrived at his new home, he was introduced to a Bohemian
family that just immigrated to America; the Shimerdas. Jim and Antonia, the
Shimerda's daughter, quickly become friends. They traveled a great distance to
meet each other. As immigrants, the Shimerdas were not very wealthy and getting
on their feet was difficult. They were cheated into buying their home for more
than it should have cost. The family got by on what they had, but ended up
needing help from outside families. Mrs. Shimerda ended up getting many useful
tools for their home from Mrs. Burden. The first major hardship the Shimerdas
faced was the death of Mr. Shimerda. He shot himself in the mouth and committed
suicide. This hurt the family tremendously. Antonia was given the
responsibilities that her father had and growing up for her changed in a matter
of seconds. She could not join her fellow classmates in school because she had
to tend to the work around the house. She became the head of the house. After
time, the Shimerdas had a new log home built for them by the neighbors. The
family continued to get their necessary items from outside sources and started
to build a new life. Later, the Burdens moved to a town called Black Hawk. They
now lived further away from the Shimerdas. Mrs. Burden gets Antonia a temporary
job helping their neighbors around the house. Antonia learned English much
faster and Jim met many new people. This is where we meet Lena. Lena was a
Norwegian girl who later becomes a dressmaker, but distracted men with her
flirtatious act and planned never to marry. As Jim met new people and attended
the dances put together in the city, he noticed the segregation and the
generalizations made about specific people. He didn't like it one bit. The hired
girls were the girls that worked for their large families after they immigrated
to America from foreign countries. The boys didn't have the courage to marry
these girls. These girls were taken advantage of as ...

The complete article is about 778 words and 3.11 pages long.

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