Personality Quiz - Raf and Adannia

[Mrs. Patterson]

Raf: Antonia
Adannia: Mr. Shimerda

Please describe and defend your character's view on the following issue (in the first or third person, as you prefer):

Mr. Shimerda's homesickness and eventual suicide and its effect on Antonia's life

Direct support from the book would greatly strengthen your description and defense.

[Rafi]

Throughout the first Book, there were many moments where Mr. Shimerda would grow nostalgic remembering his past. In Bohemia, he was a man of artistic pursuits, and he loved his homeland very much (he hadn't even wanted to leave it). When the Shimerdas emigrated to the United States, he was already very old and knew very little about farming. His family also knew very little English and they were extremely poor, due to being cheated out of most of their money by Krajiek. He was powerless to help his family. In my opinion, a lot of his personal struggle is not only with homesickness but with his own pride. Being powerless (no money, inability to farm, to speak English) may have lead to his depression.



When he committed suicide, he left his family, in the middle of winter, with no patriarch/father to the family. Later, during farming season, the women of the household had to work in the fields doing the man's jobs and Ambrosch took control of the family estate. Antonia realizes the value of hard-work and its reapings.

[Adannia]

The move from Bohemia to the United States certainly took a toll on Mr. Shimerda. He could no longer do the things that he enjoyed, such as playing music and enjoying artistic pursuits. It was no longer simple for him to provide for his family. Instead, he had moved to America in the middle of winter, at which point everything was hard for him. He didn't speak the language, so of course he couldn't make any friends as he had in Bohemia. Also, having never farmed before, he had difficulty providing for his family and couldn't take time away for any artistic pursuits. All of this combined made Mr. Shimerda a very unhappy man, who resorted to suicide to take away his pain. However, his death left many people in grief, most notably Antonia, whose life was then harder as she had to help provide for the family.