In chapter sixteen of My Antonia by Willa Cather, the Shimerdas friends and family join together to hold a sorrowful funeral for the death of Mr.Shimerda that leads to the development of Jim, post-funeral. When Mrs.Burden and Jim first enter the house of the Shimerda’s, they are greeted by Antonia which brings out happiness in her, “When she saw me she ran out of her dark corner and threw her arms around me”. Antonia runs out of her dark corner which represents the sadness that she is in after her father’s death. Jim is the one person that she was excited to see and made her truly happy. Jim is the light of her life at this moment because he has been there for her in place of her father. In addition, within the chapter Mrs.Shimerdas controlling personality really comes to light and she forcing Yulka to do something that makes very uncomfortable, “Yulka knelt down, shut her eyes, and put out her hand a little way but she drew it back and began to cry wildly”.…show more content… Yulka drawing her hand back demonstrates how apprehensive she is in this situation. Mr.Shimerdas death deeply impacted everyone around him, even the youngest child is feeling deeply affected by his passing. Mrs.Burden then snaps at Mrs.Shimerda since Mrs.Shimerda has obviously disturbed her daughter, “ ‘I won’t stand by and see that child frightened into spasms. She is too little to understand what you want of her. Let her alone.’ “. Mrs.Burden has realized that Mrs.Shimerda’s personality has gone too far and has started to negatively affect her
