Crucial Upbringing

AML 2050-60
15 September 2012

Crucial Upbringings
On his way to the Nebraska Frontier for the first time since he lost both of his parents, young Jim Burden rode the train drained in incomplete mysterious clouds of thought and vivid imagery. “The only thing very noticeable about Nebraska was that it was still, all day long, Nebraska” (Cather 18). Jim Burden was young and filled with confusion as well as excitement. Accompanied along with him, in another train cart was a Bohemian family that was soon to become Jim Burdens new neighbors. Once the train ride to the town of Black Hawk was over, the real unraveling was to take place. After reading, My Antonia by Willa Silbert Cather, a visual assumption of two opposite experiences created similar understanding of the upbringing of two families and a lot of different personalities
As Jim Burden settled into his new home where he was to share it with his grandparents, he started to slowly explore his surroundings. From the long cellar next to the kitchen, to the spacious garden passing the cattle corral, Jim Burden was “entirely happy” with his new location (Cather 42). “I had been told that ours was the only wooden house west of Black Hawk-“(Cather 33).

“The Shimerda’s were the first Bohemian family to come to this part of the country…” (Cather 45). The Shimerda family, which consisted of- Mr. Shimerda, his wife, Mrs. Shimerda, and their four children- two daughters, and two sons; came with high hopes to the new country.
Eager for the children to become successful and help the family raise a farm for crop and business, the family bought a homestead from a countryman that had charged them more than what it was initially worth. “- I hate to think of them spending the winter in that cave-“(Cather 46)
Jim Burden was a boy who was not that easy to please which was followed by his mellow characteristics, but he came to Black Hawk on everything made. His grandparents were successful farmers who knew how to handle...