Suicide In Willa Cather's My Antonia

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Not being able to provide for His family is undoubtedly the catalyst that made Mr. Shimerdas to commit suicide in My Antonia, by Willa Cather. The novel is about Jim Burden and his relationship and experiences while growing up with Antonia Shimerdas in Nebraska. Throughout the book Jim reflects on his memories of Nebraska and the Shimerdas family, often times in a sad and depressing tone. Life after the death of a loved one is often hard to overcome. We as readers can undoubtedly see the three important choices that Antonia made were influenced by the untimely passing of her father. The American frontier shaped how America is today. These early settlers paved the way for us to have the things that we do now. They taught us how to farm, tend to our animals, and I believe how to appreciate the simple things that we have in life. They were our forefathers that paved the way for every generation to come after them (Turner). Antonia and her family had to endure long hot days and extremely cold winter. They had to work twice as hard to earn a living just to make end meet (Prairie). Antonia Shimerdas was born in Bohemia, which is located Czech Čechy, German Böhmen in central Europe (Bohemia). Antonia moved from Bohemia to Nebraska with…show more content…
They sent her to school and she started going out of the evenings to the “tent” (Cather).The tent was like a dance hall for all the unmarried ladies and gentleman. This is where she met Wick Cutter. He was not very well liked in Black Hawk. He was known as a shrewd business man. Mr. Harlings because upset with Antonia one evening because all sorts of young men would come to see Antonia while she worked. He told her to that she must stop going to the tent or find another place to live. Mrs. Harling told “Antonia, if you got to the Cutter’s to work, you cannot come back to this house again. You know what that man is. It will be the ruin of you”

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