My Antonia Essay: Mr. Shimerda's Suicide

Mr. Shimerda's Suicide Willa Cather uses the character`s in My Antonia to portray certain messages throughout the novel. Every story Willa Cather tells in My Antonia has a message behind it. For example, Willa Cather used Mr. Shimerda's suicide to present the hardships immigrants encountered when coming to America. The reason Mr. Shimerda commits suicide is because he feel like a failure to his family and to himself. Mr. Shimerda felt he had a better life back in Europe, and when he came to America he had little to nothing. The Shimerda's lived in a cave house, and they had to work hard for the little money they had. Willa Cather tells through Antonia how sad her father really was, “My papa sad for the old country. He not look good. He never make music any more. At home he play violin all the time; for weddings and for dance. Here never. When I beg him for play, he shake his head no. Some days he take his violin out of his box and make with his fingers on the strings, like this, but never he make the music. He don’t like this kawn-tree.” (Cather 102). Through Mr. Shimerda, Cather presents

Shimerda's suicide, because she wants to illustrate how much he cares for Antonia. Antonia is deeply moved by the death of her father, and Jim is there for her through that. This creates a much stronger bond than they had before, because he had been with her through the good and the bad. Jim and Mr. Shimerda both equally cared for Antonia and wanted the absolute best for her. They both shared the interest in educating antonia, and that gave them a connection. Shortly after Mr. Shimerda dies, Jim states he feels Mr. Shimerda's spirit in their house, “Surely, his exhausted spirit, so tired of cold and crowding and the struggle with the ever-falling snow, was resting now in this quiet house.” (Cather 116). The death of Antonia`s father was just another way for Willa Cather to present the close bond between Jim and