"My Antonia" by Willa Cather Trivia Quiz

Answer: He is going to live with his grandparents

Jim's parents both die "within a year" of one another at the beginning of the story. Jim's family in Virginia decides it is best for him to go live with his grandparents in Nebraska.

Answer: Her eyes

Jim is quite eloquent in his recollection of the first impression Antonia makes upon him. He says of her eyes: "They were big and warm and full of light, like the sun shining on brown pools in the wood".

Answer: Kills a gigantic snake

Jim states that Antonia sometimes treated him disparagingly, due to the fact that she was at least four years older than him. He wins her whole-hearted respect, though, after he saves both of them from an enormous snake. When the two of them come across the snake, Antonia screams with fear. Jim, however, uses his spade and pounds the beast to death.

Answer: He commits suicide

Mr. Shimerda is described as a refined man, heartbroken over being a stranger in an alien country. He is unable to cope with his reduced circumstances, and is thoroughly depressed at his inability to provide for his family. Otto explains to Grandmother that Mr. Shimerda put the gun barrel in his own mouth and pulled the trigger, killing himself.

Answer: to provide Antonia's family with three fat geese

Antonia is able to escape her farm life of hardship and drudgery when Mrs. Harling hires her to work in her town home. At first, Antonia's brother insists that no money should directly be paid to her. In the end, he allows her to receive $50 a year for clothing and pocket-change. Mrs. Harling promises to pay Antonia "good wages" and protect her feet.

Answer: Dressmaker

Lena, along with Antonia, is a major female presence in Jim's life. Both Lena and Antonia are immigrants, yet the paths they choose are quite different. Lena is able to become financially independent through her success as a dressmaker.

Answer: Jim is sleeping alone in Antonia's bed

Grandmother is correct when she feels uncomfortable about letting Antonia sleep alone at Wick Cutter's house. Keeping Antonia safe in her own home, Grandmother directs Jim to sleep at Wick's house. When the sly old man returns in the middle of the night, his illicit aims are hindered by Jim's presence in his house!

Answer: Lena Lingard

Jim has a strong attraction to Lena, and engages in two short-lived affairs with her. She is beautiful, free-spirited, and enticing. Though he is attached to her, he does not fall truly in love with her. His feelings for Antonia, on the other hand, are somewhat brotherly and wholly chaste.

Answer: She is married with many children

Jim learns that Antonia has married a Bohemian man who is not an able provider. In addition to her poverty, she has a very large family to support. Jim is at first shocked by her appearance--so changed is she due to her hard life.

Answer: She represents his past

Jim's past is forever tied to that of Antonia's. When he arrives to Nebraska as a young boy, he is as much a stranger to the land as she is. His early adventures involve Antonia, and she is the most vivid memory from his childhood. At the end of the novel he states, "Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past".