How Industrialization Brings Class Disparities to the Narrative

“Last summer I happened to be crossing the plains of Iowa in a season of intense heat, and it was my good fortune to have for a traveling companion James Quayle Burden–Jim Burden, as we still call him in the West. He and I are old friends–we grew up together in the same Nebraska town–and we had much to say to each other.”

The second chapter of the novel precisely indicates the type of society Jim Burden is a part of, which contrasts to his life on the prairie. The Western Railway is a symbol in the study of sociology as an image of industrialization — otherwise known as when a society goes from being based on agriculture to being based on manufacturing.

The narrative of My Antonia is rich with sociological concepts relating to Capitalism. One may argue that the development of society into an industrialized state introduces class disparities into the novel — particularly seen in the lives of Jim Burden and the Shimerdas.