My Ántonia (AmazonClassics Edition) characters

Appears from the start

An orphaned boy from Virginia who travels to Nebraska to live with his grandparents. Thoughtful and observant, Jim narrates his memories of immigrant neighbors, prairie childhood, and the people whose lives remain bound to his own.

Appears from the start

Jim's capable maternal grandmother, who receives him at the Nebraska farm and makes a secure home for him. Practical, warm, and direct, she readily offers help to neighbors struggling with frontier life.

Appears from the start

Jim's quiet, principled grandfather, a Virginia-born farmer and devout Protestant. He leads the Burden household with calm authority and treats the newly arrived immigrant families with patience and dignity.

Appears from the start

The Burdens' Austrian farmhand, a former cowboy with a vivid past and a theatrical appearance. His competence with horses and the land helps make Jim's first journey across Nebraska feel safe.

First appears in chapter 3

A spirited Bohemian immigrant girl a few years older than Jim, newly arrived on the prairie with almost no English. Eager to learn and intensely alive to the landscape around her, she quickly becomes Jim's closest childhood companion.

First appears in chapter 3

Ántonia's gentle, homesick father, an educated musician ill-suited to the family's harsh new surroundings. He treasures learning and asks Jim to help Ántonia acquire English.

First appears in chapter 3

The forceful mother of the Shimerda family. Proud, suspicious, and determined to secure material advantages for her children, she faces poverty in Nebraska with a mixture of complaint and fierce persistence.

First appears in chapter 3

Ántonia's older brother and the principal male worker in the Shimerda household. Strong and severe, he concentrates on making the family farm productive and expects the others to share its burdens.

First appears in chapter 12

A Norwegian immigrant girl from a large, poor farming family. Jim first knows her as an awkward child herding livestock, but she has an independent manner and dreams beyond the farm.

First appears in chapter 20

A prosperous Black Hawk woman who employs Ántonia in her household. Energetic and generous, she draws Ántonia into a lively family life while insisting on trust and sensible conduct.

First appears in chapter 21

A young immigrant woman working in Black Hawk alongside Ántonia and Lena. Small, ambitious, and alert to opportunity, she is one of the hired girls whose independence interests Jim.

First appears in chapter 30

A wealthy Black Hawk moneylender with a reputation for manipulation and vindictiveness. He and his wife employ Ántonia after she leaves the Harlings, placing her in an uneasy household.

First appears in chapter 39

A railway conductor whose confident manners attract Ántonia. He courts her after she has become an independent young working woman.

Also known as Anton Cuzak

First appears in chapter 43

Ántonia's Bohemian husband, a warm, sociable man who once lived a more urban and wandering life. On their Nebraska farm he welcomes Jim and takes evident pleasure in the large household he and Ántonia have built.