Personality Quiz - Ashley C. and Cathryn

[Mrs. Patterson]

Ashley: Mrs. Shimerda
Cathryn: Jim


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

The Shimerdas' material need and the Burdens' limited aid, and Mrs. Shimerda's pride and boastfulness (and at times, her seeming ungratefulness)

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

[Ashley (Mrs. Shimerda)]

Mrs. Shimerda is a woman that wants the best for her family. Everything she does is for the benefit of her kids and husband, even though it may come out the wrong way sometimes. To start, Mrs. Shimerda moved over to America because she thought it would benefit her kids. The rest of the family did not want to move to America, but she left everything and moved to America to help her family. Mrs. Shimerda knows that she is living in poverty, and she does not like to accept that. She needs material things so that it does not look like she is living in poverty. Having materical things makes her feel better about her life. Since she has all these material needs, she feels good about herself which comes off as ungrateful. It comes off as this, but she needs to feels this way to get her mind off of how she is living in poverty. "There never were such people as the Shimerdas for wanting to give away everything they had. Even the mother was always offering me things, though I knew she expected substantial presents in return."(31)Mrs. Shimerda is very generous, and would give things away becasue she wants to think that she was rich enough to do so. She would then want things in return because she knows that she cuold not afford to give to much away. Mrs. Shimerda is a woman that is willing to do anything she can to benefit her family, and to make it seems as though she in not living in poverty.

[Cathryn (Jim)]

The Burdens, Jim especially, understand that the Shimerdas are struggling to adapt to life in America. Jim does not appose to giving aid to the Shimerdas. However, Jim knows that his grandparents have worked hard to get their wealth and he wants Mrs. Shimerda to appriciate that fact. For Jim it is hard to understand why she will not swallow her pride and be grateful for the aid they are given. He knows the Shimerdas would not be able to survive had it not been for his families generous work. "After I(Jim) watched Antonia and her mother go over the hill on their miserable horse, carrying our iron pot with them, I turned to grandmother, who had taken up her darning, and said I hoped that snooping old woman wouldn't come to see us any more."(58) Although Mrs. Shimerda may be doing what she sees as best for her family, to Jim she just seems to be ungrateful of the Burden's aid.