My Antonia

Through the mostly sympathetic eyes of Jim Burden, the novel examines the plight of immigrants on the Nebraskan frontier. Jim experiences the strangeness of a different state, which enables him to form a bond of discovery with Ántonia as they explore the new environment. However, Jim does not suffer from the same disadvantages as those experienced by the newcomers from Europe. The immigrants face prejudice from Americans, a language barrier, cultural misunderstandings, and a sense of tremendous distance from their homelands. When Jake Marpole travels with Jim on the train from Virginia to Nebraska, he warns Jim against talking to the Bohemian immigrant passengers because “you were likely to get diseases from foreigners” (5). As Jim matures, he thinks the American townspeople’s attitude toward the immigrant hired girls is stupid. The American townspeople do not distinguish between immigrant girls whose fathers and grandfathers were educated and respected in their homelands (such as Ántonia and Lena) and the foreign girls who had less lofty backgrounds (such as the three Marys). To the Americans, distinctions between the immigrants did not matter because “all foreigners were ignorant people who couldn’t speak English” (200-201). Jim angrily observes that despite the young American-born men’s attraction to the beautiful, vigorous immigrant girls, the townsmen would never marry them: “Their respect for respectability was stronger than any desire in Black Hawk youth” (202).