Anton Jelinek's cousin, Anton Cuzak, enters the novel in the last book. When Jim returns to Black Hawk and meets Ántonia's family, he also meets her husband, Anton Cuzak. Jim was aware she had married because she had signed an earlier letter to Jim "Ántonia Cuzak." Before meeting Anton, Jim is told about him from both Tiny and Lena. Tiny says Ántonia has not "done very well" and Cuzak is "not a man of much force" so Ántonia has had a hard life. But that picture is softened by Lena who says, "There's nothing the matter with Cuzak. You'd like him. He isn't a hustler, but a rough man would never have suited Tony." And so, Jim meets Ántonia's husband with these varying ideas in his mind.
His reaction to Anton is that he is a "crumpled little man" with a curly moustache, black hair, red lips, and a ruddy color. He is immediately drawn to Anton's good nature and humor. Also, Jim sees that Anton completes Ántonia: "she was the impulse and he the corrective." Anton's frankness, his good nature and his humorous philosophy draw Jim closer to Ántonia's family.
