The Shimerdas

Chapters four through nineteen of part one, in My Antonia, seem to have an up and down cycle or darkness and light. With the darkness there is death, grievances, poverty, hunger, sadness, and winter. However, with the light there is spring, the beauty of nature, friendship, happiness, and peace. The conflict between the two families, the Shimerdas and the Burdens, fluxes between these two halves of darkness and light.

Starting out, Jimmy and Antonia build a happy friendship that seems to benefit the two families. The neighbors come over to visit, share, and take care of one another. Yet as winter comes to Nebraska and cold overcomes the workers and the families, friendship seems to unravel and sadness envelopes the two families, especially the Shimerdas. The Shimerdas try to obtain some of the items of the Burdens through guilt. This succeeds, and the encounter unravels a small piece of string in the families' ties. "In the kitchen she caught up an iron pot that stood on the back of the stove and said: 'You got many, Shimerdas no got.' I thought it weak-minded of grandmother to give the pot to her. After dinner, when she was helping to wash the dishes, she said tossing her head: 'You got many things for cook. If I got all things like you, I make much better.' She was a conceited, boastful old thing, and even misfortune could not humble her. I was so annoyed that I felt coldly even toward Antonia and listened unsympathetically when she told me her father was no well." Mr. Shimerda's suicide added to the struggle of the family, and as Ambrosch, the eldest brother, and the rest of the family pushed along, they became cruel and hardened. Jake and Ambrosch got into a fight over the borrowing and shameful use of equipment; Jake paid his fine with money from Mr. Burden and also sold a fattening pig. The Shimerdas misunderstand and gave him grief about selling the pig to pay his fine. "For weeks afterward, whenever Jake and I met Antonia on her way to the post-office, or going along the road with her work-team, she would clap her hands and call to us in a spiteful, crowing voice: 'Jake-y, Jake-y, sell the pig and pay the slap!'" However, along with spring and the beauty of the farm and of the nature came the re-union of the two families and their friendship. For now, the up and down cycle had come to an end, and all that was left of it was light, happiness, and friendship.