My Ántonia: ThemeTracker

The LitCharts ThemeTracker is a mini-version of the entire LitChart. The ThemeTracker provides a quick timeline-style rundown of all the important plot points and allows you to track the themes throughout the work at a glance.

	Intro	An unnamed narrator who grew up with Jim in Nebraska says that Jim has given him a manuscript called My Ántonia, in which Jim’s has written down his memories of his childhood friendship with Ántonia.
	I: ch 1	Recently orphaned Jim Burden leaves his home in Virginia to live with his grandparents in rural Nebraska. When he explores the prairie for the first time, he feels a sense of peace.
	I: ch 2	Jim explores the farm with his grandmother. He lies in the garden under the sun.
	I: ch 3	Jim and his grandparents visit their new neighbors, the Shimerdas. Mr. Shimerda looks weak and lost. Jim meets Ántonia for the first time.
	I: ch 4	Jim begins giving Ántonia English lessons.
	I: ch 5	Ántonia introduces Jim to her neighbors Peter and Pavel, who give Jim gifts of cucumbers and melons.
	I: ch 6	A grasshopper reminds Ántonia of Bohemia and makes her homesick.
	I: ch 7	Jim kills a snake and earns Ántonia’s respect.
	I: ch 8	Pavel is injured and reveals a dark secret from his past, then dies, Peter decides to leave Black Hawk. Mr. Shimerda is depressed from losing his friend.
	I: ch 9	Jim takes Ántonia and Yulka for a ride in his new sleigh, but they are too cold to stay outside long. Jim’s grandmother discovers the Shimerdas do not enough food or clothing to last the winter.
	I: ch 10	Jim and his grandmother visit the Shimerdas and realize they do not have the proper food or clothing for the winter.
	I: ch 11	When everyone is snowed in on Christmas, Jim and his family make the Shimerdas gifts. The farm hand, Jake, trudges through the snow to deliver the gifts.
	I: ch 12	On Christmas morning, Mr. Shimerda comes to thank them, and is so comfortable in their house he does not want to leave.
	I: ch 13	A few weeks later, Mrs. Shimerda comes to visit, but is jealous of Jim’s grandparents’ nice house. Jim gets into an argument with Ántonia about it.
	I: ch 14	On Jim’s birthday, there is another snowstorm. Two days later, Mr. Shimerda commits suicide.
	I: ch 15	Anton Jelinek and other men come from all over the prairie to help prepare for Mr. Shimerda’s funeral.
	I: ch 16	Jim’s grandfather, Ambrosch, and Anton bury Mr. Shimerda, and there is a funeral.
	I: ch 17	The Burdens and other neighbors build the Shimerdas a new house and windmill. Ántonia insists on helping her brother in the fields, and cannot attend school with Jim.
	I: ch 18	Jim and Jake get into an argument with the Shimerdas over a horse collar. Jim’s grandfather settles the dispute.
	I: ch 19	Jim and Ántonia watch a thunderstorm from the roof of Jim’s house.
	II: ch 1	Jim and his grandparents move to Black Hawk, the nearest town. Jake and Otto decide to try their luck in the “wild West.”
	II: ch 2	The Burdens’ neighbors, the Harlings, hire Ántonia as their housekeeper.
	II: ch 3	Ambrosch insists he should be responsible for Ántonia’s wages.
	II: ch 4	Lena Lingard moves to Black Hawk to work for a dressmaker, and befriends Ántonia and Jim.
	II: ch 5	Lena tells Jim she is homesick while buying Christmas gifts.
	II: ch 6	Ántonia tells the Harlings and Jim stories to pass the time in the winter.
	II: ch 7	Blind d’Arnault comes to Black Hawk to play piano. Antonia and her friends are discovered dancing to the music.
	II: ch 8	The Vannis set up a dance pavilion in town and give dancing lessons.
	II: ch 9	Sylvester Lovett falls in love with Lena, but marries someone of his own (higher) class.
	II: ch 10	Ántonia is so eager to get to the dances every night, she becomes irresponsible with her work. She gains a bad reputation for her dancing, and Mr. Harling fires her.
	II: ch 11	Ántonia starts working at Wick Cutter’s house.
	II: ch 12	Jim is lonely without Ántonia living next door, and he starts going to the dances to be with her. But Ántonia refuses his romantic advances.
	II: ch 13	Jim stops going to the dances when his grandmother finds out. He keeps to himself until he graduates from high school, and gives a speech at commencement.
	II: ch 14	Jim and Ántonia visit the prairie together one last time before he leaves. They see the image of a plough against the sinking red sun.
	II: ch 15	Ántonia narrowly escapes a rape by Wick Cutter, and she quits to work at the hotel.
	III: ch 1	Jim begins college in Lincoln and excels in Latin under the mentorship of Gaston Cleric.
	III: ch 2	Lena comes to see Jim, and tells him she has opened a dressmaking shop in Lincoln.
	III: ch 3	Jim and Lena start going to dinner and the theater together. Jim is especially moved by a performance of Camille, because it reminds him of his old love for Ántonia.
	III: ch 4	Cleric convinces Jim to transfer to Harvard. He says goodbye to Lena, but she is happy for him. She tells him she will never marry.
	IV: ch 1	After college, Jim visits Nebraska again before he starts law school.
	IV: ch 2	Jim sees a picture of Ántonia at the photographer’s shop.
	IV: ch 3	The Widow Steavens tells Jim that Ántonia has been tricked by her fiancé Larry Donovan, who has gotten her pregnant and abandoned her.
	IV: ch 4	Jim goes to see Ántonia, who looks thin and tired. He tells her he thinks of her more than anyone else.
	V: ch 1	Jim waits twenty years to go back to see Ántonia. She and her many children show Jim their large store of preserves, the apple orchard, and the photos she has collected.
	V: ch 2	Anton Cuzak, Ántonia’s husband, comes home from a trip, and Jim thinks they have a good marriage.
	V: ch 3	When Jim leaves Ántonia’s house, he promises to visit again. He travels the old prairie road that he took when he first arrived. He is comforted by the knowledge that he and Ántonia will always be bonded by the past.