Here, we get our first glimpse of the two Russians, Pavel and Peter. Pavel isn’t home when Jim and Ántonia arrive, but Peter greets them jovially, shows them his chickens and his cow, of which he is very proud, and his garden, serves them slices of watermelon, and when they get up to leave, he entertains them by playing tunes on the harmonica because he wants their company. The tunes that he plays are either very happy or very sad. Peter’s comment that they left their country because of a “great trouble” foreshadows Pavel’s wedding party story later in the narrative.
In Chapter VI, Jim contrasts the end of autumn with the approach of winter. It is a day warm enough to be outside without coats, but as the sun sinks lower in the west, a chill sharpens the air. Seemingly, the insects are all dead—except for this green specimen that Ántonia holds in her hands and talks to in Bohemian because it reminds her of her home in the Old Country. When she and Jim get up to go home, Ántonia puts the insect in her hair and ties her scarf loosely over it. This act symbolizes Ántonia’s wish to hold on to summer as long as possible, as well as to hold on to her memory of Bohemia. On the way home, they meet Mr. Shimerda, who notices Jim admiring his gun. In Jim, Mr. Shimerda sees himself as a boy; his promise to give Jim the gun when he is older symbolizes the passing of a legacy from one generation to the next.
An example of Ántonia’s maternal nature has always been her protectiveness toward Jim. In order for them to become good friends, however, they must begin to relate to each other as equals. The snake-killing incident serves to cement their friendship; Ántonia is proud of Jim for killing the snake “like big mans,” and when they arrive back at the Burden farm, she immediately begins telling the story. Her eagerness to make Jim seem important shows her unselfishness, which is also a maternal characteristic—mothers are proud when their children do well. Jim thoroughly enjoys Ántonia’s bragging about him, even though he later realizes that the “big rattler was old, and had led too easy a life; there was not much fight in him.” The snake itself can be seen as a symbol of the complacent settlers who, after having won the battle for their land and built their empires, no longer feel the overpowering need to struggle for survival.
The tale of the wolves, which Pavel unfolds on his deathbed, is another example of Cather’s adding depth to the novel by weaving pieces of the Old World into her New World narrative; she used this technique earlier when she inserted the story of Old Hata in the Bohemian forest. The story of the wolves devouring the wedding party serves as a reminder of how harsh nature can be. Cather sets the tone for the story with a description of the onset of Nebraska winter: “. . . a cold wind sprang up and moaned over the prairie,” “The wind shook the doors and windows impatiently, then swept on again, singing through the big spaces,” “The coyotes broke out again; yap, yap, yap—then the high whine.” Jim and Ántonia keep Pavel’s story a secret, shared only by them, and this bond draws them closer together.
The loss of his Russian friends weighs heavily on Ántonia’s father. While hunting, he goes often to the Russians’ empty log house, where he sits and broods until winter forces him to hole up in the dugout.
