The Inability To Provide For His Family, And Why It Drove Mr. Shimerda

The Inability to Provide for His Family, and Why it Drove Mr. Shimerda to Suicide My Antonia, by Willa Cather, is a novel about Jim Burden and his relationship and experiences growing up with Antonia Shimerda in Nebraska. Throughout the book Jim reflects on his memories of Nebraska and the Shimerda family, often times in a sad and depressing tone. One of the main ways Cather is able to provoke these sad emotions within the reader is through the suicide of Antonia's father, Mr. Shimerda. His death was unexpected by everyone and it is thought that homesickness is what drove him to take his own life. Homesickness was surely felt by Mr. Shimerda, as it was by many, but it was the failure to adequately find a way to provide for his family that sent Mr. Shimerda into a depressing downward spiral that left him no foreseeable alternative but to take his own life. The first descriptions of Mr. Shimerda are that of a successful businessman that had always provided well for his family. I noticed how white and well-shaped his own hands were. They looked calm, somehow, and skilled. His eyes were melancholy, and were set back deep under his brow. His face was ruggedly formed, but it looked like ashes - like something from which all the warmth and light had dried out. Everything about this old man was in keeping with his dignified manner (24) Mr. Shimerda was indeed a prosperous man in Bohemia, but had made his living in the business world, not by running a farm to provide for his family's needs. His hands show that he rarely performed hard manual labor, but that he did work hard with his hands to weave. His face however shows signs that he was already having doubts about the welfare of his family and their survival. The apparent glow that he must have once had was now replaced by the look of heavy thoughts. This came from the burden of providing for his family by way of very unfamiliar and difficult means. He had already lost a great deal of money in the family's traveling expenses and overpaid for their property. They paid way too much for the land and for the oxen, horses and cookstove (22). Mr. Shimerda must not have thought that he would have to support his family by means of plowing fields for food and actually building a home from materials gathered from the earth. He was a businessman and made a life for his famil y in Bohemia by working. He was a weaver by trade; had been a skilled work man on tapestries and upholstery materials (22). There was no work for him in this new country and he did not have the money to relocate his family. Certainly before he left Bohemia he believed that they had more than enough money to get by. The reality of his family's circumstances was just beginning to show their impact. Antonia points out to Jim that Mr. Shimerda looks ill My papa sick all the time Tony panted as we flew. He not look good, Jim (36). It is obvious that Mr. Shimerda was terribly stressed and was staring to show it physically. Most likely he looked ill due to not sleeping and eating. Nevertheless, Mr. Shimerda wanted desperately do the best that he could for his family. He moved his family with the hopes of finding good husbands for his daughters and wealth and land for his son. He calls onto Jim to teach Antonia to read. He does so in a very pleading, helpless way which leaves an unforgettab le memory in Jim's mind. Jim takes on the task, but unfortunately Mr. Shimerda gets little help from anyone else in the town for anything. Mr. Shimerda never really understands why he receives virtually little help from neighbors getting the farm going. He knows nothing about running the farm, and didn't even have the appropriate tools necessary. He and his family on the other hand are very trusting and would give the shirts off their backs to anyone who needed anything from them. There never were such a people as the Shimerdas for wanting to give away everything they had