How Does Jim Burden Change In My Antonia

Optimistic Orphan

It’s not often that throughout their lifetime, a person stays the same. As humans, most of us tend to grow and learn from influences that surround us, whether it be family, friends, or strangers, and when this happens, often times our judgement and our opinions are changed. I say “most”, because in Willa Cather’s My Antonia, Jim Burden doesn’t quite show these changes. Jim is the narrator and main character in the book and he portrays a static character, who seems very advanced as a child, and his thoughts on the world never seem to change. While Jim’s physical appearance changes, his intellectuality never seems to stray from what he believes when he first moves to the Nebraskan countryside as a 10 year old boy.

When Jim first moves to Nebraska as a 10 year old boy, he takes the train from Virginia with Jake who is to look after him. Riding on the train, Jim is blown away by the stunning beauty of the plains and the landscape of the cornhusker state. He has never seen so much freedom and opportunity when looking at the world. When he is on the farm with his grandparents, his love for the land grows even stronger. Jim absorbs things and takes them in like he never has before, and truly

appreciates the beauty in it all. It’s remarkable that a 10 year old boy can have such knowledge and love for something so small and seemingly pointless. This is Jim Burden. An erudite young man whose love for others never fades. Jim is a thoughtful kid, who is always thinking of others, but would never mind being by himself. Jim’s introspection of himself and observations of others help him become a perfect fit to narrate such an immensely thoughtful novel. He says, “There seemed to be nothing to see; no fences, no creeks or trees, no hills or fields. If there was a road, I could not make it out in the faint starlight.There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which a country is made.”(page 7) A 10 year old orphan is saying these words, and looking at the world with such optimism. Jim takes a situation no one ever wants to be in, and sees it as an opportunity to grow and become more educated with the world.
After a long three years on the countryside, Jim’s grandparents retire from the hard work of operating a farm, and decide to move into Black Hawk, the town that their farm had been just outside of.

This is an important and relatively disappointing move for Jim, because this takes away his opportunity to go out and help work and admire the land like he loves to do. He will also miss Antonia dearly, and fears he won’t see her as often. The only thing he has to hold on to, is looking out the window of a room upstairs. He says, “Our own house looked down over the town, and from our upstairs windows we could see the winding line of the river bluffs, two miles south of us. That river was to be my compensation for the lost freedom of the farming country.”(page

94)
After Jim finishes up school in Black Hawk,he wants to further his education. While Jim is at college, he makes friends with his instructor, and he learns a lot about life and the importance of scholarship in life. Even while Jim pursues his degree and his career in law, he never forgets Antonia and the farm. He lets himself drift apart from her in order to help himself grow, but he always preserved an important place for her in his heart and in his memory. During college Jim stumbles upon a quote in his book; “Optima dies...prima fugit,” meaning “In the lives of mortals, the best days are the first to flee.”(page 169) This quote sticks out to Jim so much when he reads it is because it is so relatable. The best days being the first to flee, means quite literally, the best of our days are the first ones to go. Most interpret this as it meaning that our childhood days were the best days, therefore they are the first to flee. In Jim’s case, his childhood days were his best days. We always have certain things from our childhood in our memory, like Jim has his memories of the farm and everyone he met and grew fond of when he first got there.
Though Jim Burden grows from a boy into a man, developed at a young age, his intellectual curiosity for the world, and thoughtfulness for others never change. Jim always had interest in others, but was always happy even if he were alone. His character is static throughout the novel, and he constantly reminisces about the unforgettable times he had on the countryside of Black Hawk, Nebraska. It is human nature to mature from a boy to a man, putting the days of childhood behind and taking on the responsibility of adulthood. Even after we grow up, we never forget. The childhood days are ephemeral, but the memories are eternal.