The introduction into My Antonia gave a lot of great information as a forward but just enough mystery to make the reader anxious to find learn about Antonia. The story is told by a first person narrator who is anonymous but telling the story from Jimmy's point of view. The young boy is traveling to Nevada to live with his grandparents. At just ten years old, Jimmy lost both of his parents. He claimed, "I don't think I was homesick. If we never arrived anywhere, it did not matter. Between the earth and that sky I felt erased, blotted out (Cather 11)." Jimmy hasn't showed that much emotion yet, considering the amount of sadness he has endured in his young lifetime. I'm sympathetic to the boy, and I am interested to see how the transition of living with his grandparents will turn out.
Although they lived states away from each other, Jimmy and his grandparents had a close relationship. They gave the boy his privacy, and there were very few awkward moments at their reunion. I thought their meeting to be a little more uncomfortable, but I'm glad it wasn't as I expected. It's good to see that Jimmy is happy and enjoying himself gardening and spending time with his family. "At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great (Cather 17)," he said.
It is already obvious that Jimmy's family is made up of very sweet people. His grandma put together a nice fruit basket to give to the new family in town whom they refer to as the "Bohemian neighbors" (Cather 18). This was very thoughtful of the family, and probably meant a lot to the neighbors, especially because couldn't speak much English. The father in the Bohemian family, realized how nice of a human being Jimmy's grandma was, and asked her to do him a large favor. After handing her a dictionary, he asked if she could teach her daughter English.
[Bibliography]
Cather, Willa. My Antonia. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004. Print.
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