My Ántonia, Book 2: The Hired Girls, Chapter 6 summary

What happens

1. Winter strips the town of its greenery, and the narrator finds comfort in bright windows and the church’s colored glass.
2. The narrator visits the Harlings when Mr. Harling is absent, joining games, dancing lessons, and Saturday music.
3. Ántonia makes treats and tells stories, enjoying a household very different from her unhappy evenings on the prairie.
4. While preparing taffy, Ántonia describes a tramp who deliberately jumps into a threshing machine and dies.
5. The stranger remains unidentified, and Frances recalls the worn newspaper poem found among his possessions.
6. The narrator describes the independent spirits, generous habits, and pleasure in life that Ántonia and Mrs. Harling share.

In this chapter

What to notice

Ántonia’s question places the stranger’s despair beside her own pleasure in summer and work. It also shows the limits of her understanding of his suffering.

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