1.   What effect did the long train ride to Nebraska have on Jim? Do you see the advantage of making him an orphan? Is there any indication that he is grieving at the loss of his parents? Any signs of homesickness for Virginia?

   2.  When you compare the attempts of Jim's grandmother and Mrs. Shimerda to adapt to prairie life, do you get the impression that the immigrants will not make it without help from their neighbors? Why do the Shimerda's keep Krajiek around even though they "hate" him? Why does Otto Fuchs really withhold advice to the Shimerdas?

   3.   Can you find some examples of Jim's keen observations and interest in language and how it is used? He is a reader too. How does Otto Fuchs measure up to Jim's mental image of Jesse James?

4.  What causes Jim to feel "entirely happy" in Grandmother's garden? Can you relate to his concept of complete happiness?

5.  Why does Jim prefer the legend that the Mormons were responsible for sowing the trails of sunflowers to the botanists' insistence that they are native to the state?

6.  After four chapters, do you feel this is Jim's growing-up story, or Ántonia's? At what point does the novel really begin?

7.  What passages do you find especially effective in these four chapters?

1.   Have you ever seen as many metaphors and similes in one paragraph as that describing Russian Peter?  Is he such an important character?  Why does Mr. Shimerda take Ántonia to spend time with these two bachelors?

   2.  How does Ántonia's description of badger hunting compare with Grandmother Burden's attitude towards the badgers?

   3.   The chirping of the grasshopper/cricket prompts both laughter and tears in Ántonia who then goes on to tell the story of Old Hata back in Bohemia.  How is her story connected to other events in the chapter?

4.  Where did Ántonia's father get his rifle?  Did you see any significance in his promise to give it to Jim some day?

5.   What significance do you see in the snake story?  What do we learn about the nature of oral storytelling?

6.  Pavel's story of the night of the wolves is one of the incidents in My Ántonia that readers remember years later.  How is this story told?  Why do Ántonia and Jim keep it to themselves?

7.  Jim and Ántonia curl up together like owls and prairie dogs.  Any thoughts on this comparison?

8.   What explanation do Jake and Otto offer for the circle pattern from Indian days?  What does Grandfather think the Indians were doing? Why does Jim consider this pattern a good omen?

9.   The Burden family's way of coping with winter differs very much from Ántonia's.  What does Mr. Shimerda tell Grandmother about his family's past?  Why does this prevent him from taking better care of his family?

10.   How does the language barrier cause the problem with the dried mushrooms?  What does Grandmother do with this gift from Mrs. Shimerda?  Was this humorous in light of Jim's earlier conclusions about Mrs. Shimerda's reasons for gift-giving?

1.   How does town life in Black Hawk compare with life on the farm to Jim? To the hired girls? Did Black Hawk/Red Cloud appeal to WC from what you read here?

   2.  Do the Harlings seem more clearly defined characters than others in the novel? What was their importance to Jim/WC?

   3.   Why did WC include the story of the tramp in Ántonia's storytelling? What objects do they find in this unidentified man’s pockets? Does this story fit with any of the others? Do you recognize the tune, Old Oaken Bucket? (Be sure to enlarge the sheet music here.)

4.  In the story of Blind d’Arnault, the Negro pianist who comes to town, how many stereotypes of black folks do you find? Who is the narrator? What is the point of this story? Does it tie to other stories?

5.   "The summer that would change everything was coming nearer every day." Does Jim's comment in chapter VIII seem ominous? Did this summer really change "everything?" How?

6.  How did the Dancing Tent disrupt the social order in the town? Why does Ántonia go to work for the Cutters of all people? What expectations are set up, given Wick Cutter's history?

7.  What do you suppose Frances Harling means when she tells Jim his problem is that he is a "romantic?" Do you agree with her? What is your definition of a romantic?

8.  Can you contrast Lena Lingard and Ántonia? Why does Lena say she will never marry? Do you believe her?

9.   At the end of chapter XII, Jim tells of a recurring dream he had that was “always the same.” What observations can you make about this dream? From your own experience, do you think recurring dreams really mean anything?

10.   What additional information do you gain about the hired girls' past experiences when they picnic with Jim in Chapter XV? What do you make of the image of the plow against the sun “black against the molten red” that ends this chapter?

11.   “The Cutters seemed to find their relations to each other interesting and stimulating, and certainly the rest of us found them so.” What does this tell you about the Cutters? About the townspeople? What was Jim's reaction to the near-rape scene in Ántonia’s bed?

12.   What are Jim's observations on married life? What do you make of the relationships between Mr. and Mrs. Harling, Mr. and Mrs. Gardener (who run the hotel), Mr. and Mrs. Cutter, Mr. and Mrs. Ole Benson? Are any of these happy marriages?

13.   Does WC get any advantage out of using Jim as the narrator instead of creating a girl child who was fascinated by Ántonia? Do we need to take the time of writing (prior to 1918) into consideration?

BOOK IV. The Pioneer Woman’s Story

1.   Why is Jim "bitterly disappointed" in Ántonia when he returns to Black Hawk the summer before Harvard? Can you think of other times he felt disappointed in her?

   2.  Isn't it odd that Tiny Soderball's story is presented here? “[Tiny] was like someone in whom the faculty of becoming interested is worn out." Can the same be said of the adult Jim, the narrator of the novel?

   3.   What steps does Antonia take to lessen the likelihood that her advancing pregnancy will be noticed? Why doesn't she at least see a dentist about her abscessed teeth? Shame or the expense? What are her feelings towards the child she is carrying?

4.   How does Ántonia spend her pregnancy? Does Ambrosch's response to the impending birth fit his character? Does Antonia have support from anyone at this time? Do you think she needs it?

5.   Can you explain why, after declaring “I’d have liked to have you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister—anything a woman can be to a man,” Jim does not tell Ántonia he loves her and wants to take care of her?

BOOK V. Cuzak's Boys

6.  Why is “Cuzak’s Boys” the title of Book V, when Ántonia has as many daughters as she does sons? What does Jim think of the Cuzaks' marriage? Is it a happy one?

7.  How is Ántonia carrying on the tradition of Oral Storytelling? How do the oral stories in Chapter II, the murder of Mrs. Cutter and Mr. Cuzak's life history, fit with the others that are contained in the novel?

8.   What has caused Ántonia to return to her Bohemian roots? What happened to immigrant assimilation into American culture? What do you know of Nebraska's "Little Bohemia?"

9.   Jim intends to “play” with the Cuzak boys (going hunting and so forth). Even when they are grown up, there will “always be Cuzak himself to play with." Is this the sort of statement a grown man makes? What is it about little Leo that gets Jim's attention?

10.   Please share your thoughts on the last sentence of the novel: "Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past."