The Shimerdas

Chapters two and three of part one, The Shimerdas, of My Antonia, has a tone of happiness, bliss, and freshness. Jimmy goes out with his grandma, a lively intelligent woman married to a quiet yet kind man, to the garden on their Nebraskan farm to pick potatoes. There he stays enjoying the beautiful surroundings and becoming part of the scenery. The image of the farm and the nature creates an atmosphere of peace and happiness. "I sat down in the middle of the garden, where snakes could scarcely approach unseen, and leaned my back against a warm yellow pumpkin…There in the sheltered draw-bottom the wind did not blow very hard, but I could hear it singing its humming tune up on the level, and I could see the tall grasses through my fingers…I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge."

In chapter three of part one, Jimmy meets Antonia, a fourteen-year-old girl of a Bohemian family that moved near Jimmy's grandparents' farm. The pair ran off to the start of a new friendship. They both have a love of nature, and the two children are very curious and like to learn new things. When they are outside together, they feel a blissful connection. "I could hardly wait to see what lay beyond that cornfield; but there was only red grass like ours, and nothing else, though from the high wagon-seat on could look off a long way. The road ran about like a wild thing, avoiding the deep draws, crossing them where they were wide and shallow. And all along it, wherever it looped or ran, the sunflowers grew; some of them were as big as little trees, with great rough leaves and many branches which bore dozens of blossoms." "She clapped her hands and murmured, 'Blue sky, blue eyes,' as if it amused her. While we snuggled down there out of the wind, she learned a score of words. She was alive, and very eager. We were so deep in the grass that we could see nothing but the blue sky over us and the gold tree in front of us. It was wonderfully pleasant." This beginning friendship gives the chapter the sense of freshness, bliss, and happiness.