My Antonis - Shimerdas

My Antonia

The Shimerdas are a Bohemian family of six individuals. There’s Mr.Shimerda, Mrs.Shimerda, Ambrosh, Marek, Ántonia and Julka. They had a stable position in Bohemia and had a lot offriends with whom they played and danced. They were happy. Some Czech people had left their homes because they wanted to have freedom and went to the United States. This was not the case of theShimerdas, they traveled to the United States because Mrs.Shimerda had the idea that it offered great opportunities to make money, especially because she wanted Ambrosh, her oldest son, to be rich. So theydecided to began a journey to Nebraska.

First they had contact someone to get them to the United States. It didn’t take them a lot because a great number of people was leaving Czech Republic andfound someone with a boat that could take them. At the beginning the Parents didn´t tell the children the plans. The children were told the day before the journey considering that Mr Shimerda was nothappy with it but he wanted her wife to be happy. The girls were very sad, they didn’t wanted go. On the other hand Ambrosh was anxious because he had heard life in America was better. They had a sadfarewell with their loved ones. When the ship left, a tear fell from Ántonia’s beautiful brown eyes into her cheeks.

Then on they stayed together, taking care of each other and Mr.Shimerda played theviolin during the journey. When the ship arrived to America and they got down, they knew they needed someone who guided them. After a while a man talked to them in bohemian because he realized thatthis family did not understand English. This man helped them to get train tickets. The tickets were very expensive and Mr.Shimerda spent a lot of the money he carried with him. The train was comfortable;they could eat and sleep but they could not talk to anyone but themselves because the didn’t know English.

When they were finally in Nebraska, a weird man rented them a sod house. It was very...