Colored by Jim’s feelings and imagination, the first chapter sets the tone of the story. Jake buys young Jim a copy of Life of Jesse James, a book which he remembers as “one of the most satisfactory books I have ever read.” Jesse James was a romantic figure who became the legendary Robin Hood of the West—robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Jim illustrates how deeply this book has affected him when he comments that on first seeing Otto Fuchs, “he might have stepped out of the pages of ‘Jesse James.’” He goes on to describe him as though Otto were a romantic, reckless character of the Wild West.
As they drive out to the farm through the darkness, Jim feels totally isolated. “There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made.” Initially, Jim feels desolate, “erased, blotted out”; not even the spirits of his dead parents are watching over him. His destiny is in the hands of fate.
Jim is especially in awe of Otto Fuchs, listening intently to stories of his experiences and prodding him with questions. Jim compares the prairie country of Nebraska to the sea: “The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains.” This passage suggests Homer’s “wine-dark sea” in the Odyssey and implies that Jim is on a journey of discovery as was Odysseus. Cather will allude to literary classics many times throughout her novel, as if to remind us that this story has a greater significance than merely being about homesteaders settling the West; its meaning is timeless, larger than any of its characters, and of epic proportions. Jim alludes to the days of Homer and of the Bible, when the world was believed to be flat, when he says “I wanted to walk straight on through the red grass and over the edge of the world. . . .”
In his grandmother’s garden, Jim is happy and wonders if people feel like this when they die and “become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge.” He feels as if he is a part of nature, as human beings originally were in the Garden of Eden before Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge.
The Shimerdas buy their land from fellow countryman Peter Krajiek, who cheats them because they don’t understand English or the value of goods. Mr. Shimerda is neatly dressed and seems to be a melancholy Old World gentleman, whereas Mrs. Shimerda complains about the shed-like house that fronts their cave, and Ambrosch displays interest in the food that the Burdens bring. Only Ántonia seems truly vital and alive, untouched by the hardships.
We see the special relationship between Ántonia and her father when the girl kisses his hand, and when Mr. Shimerda gives Grandmother Burden a book and asks her to teach Ántonia to speak English. Mr. Shimerda has great hopes for his daughter in this new world; to give her a chance at a better life is one of the reasons he came to America.
Jim explores the grassy, treeless prairie. “[T]here were no fences in those days,” he says. Keeping in mind that the novel is told from the vantage point of Jim’s adulthood, the phrase “in those days” takes on a metaphorical meaning. As a child, Jim had more options open to him; his life could have taken any one of many directions. As an adult, however, his life has been restricted by an unhappy marriage and other disappointments.
Jim recounts Otto’s story about the origin of the sunflowers, which he said were brought to this country by the Mormons. Although Jim acknowledges that botanists currently claim the sunflower is native to the plains, the story has taken root in his mind, and in the phrase—the “sunflower-bordered roads always seem to me the roads to freedom”—we can almost detect a tone of regret.
Ántonia enjoys helping Jim’s grandmother in the kitchen, and thereby we learn that Mrs. Shimerda’s wretched housekeeping is in sharp contrast to Grandmother Burden’s careful planning. During their first several months on the prairie, the Shimerdas never go to town, because Krajiek has convinced them that in town they will “somehow be mysteriously separated from their money.” They hate Krajiek, but cling to him because he is the only one whom they can easily talk to—and because they don’t know how to get rid of him.
