LITR 4333: American Immigrant Literature

Sample Student Final Exam Answers 2001

"Supersize" question & sample answers on influences of the Exodus narrative on American Immigrant Literature

Supersize question

Required: Bread Givers; Exodus narrative in Bible; Of Plymouth Plantation;

At least two of the following: Sonia Pilcer, "2G" (VA 201-206); Eva Hoffman, from Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language (VA 219-228); Mikhail Naimy, "His Grace" (IA 111-116); Tahira Naqvi, "Thank God for the Jews" (IA 222-229); Anton Shammas, "Amerka, Amerka: A Palestinian Abroad in the Land of the Free" (VA 291-300); Jonathan Raban, from Hunting Mr. Heartbreak: A Discovery of America (VA, 344-356)

Other texts: Freely refer to other texts from the semester or your larger acquaintance as examples of the "standard" American immigrant narrative or of minority experience comparable to the Palestinians or Canaanites.

Assignment:

• Trace the various influences or impacts of the Exodus narrative on American Immigrant Literature.
• In what ways does it model or conform to the standard immigrant narrative, and how does it diverge or differ from the standard?
• What are its social impacts on other peoples and on the people who live out the Exodus narrative?
• In these contexts, perhaps as a conclusion, discuss the significance and development of narrative in human culture. (Most midterms dodged this subject.)

[complete answer from email exam]

The Hebrews immigrated, as a nation, to the land of Canaan because "the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob" (Exodus 2:23-4). The Hebrews were able to escape from Egypt because their forefather Abraham had made a covenant with God, and they were his chosen people. They left a life of bondage with God’s promise that they were headed for the land of Milk and Honey. While the Smolinskys did not immigrate to America as a nation, they did so for just about the same reasons as the Hebrews. The mother explains why they had to leave Russia: "’Because the Tsar of Russia! . . . He wanted for himself free soldiers to make pogroms. He wanted to tear your father away from his learning and make him a common soldier . . . . And when everything was gone from us, then our only home was to come to America, where Father thought things cost nothing at all’" So, like the Hebrews, Reb Smolinsky thought that he was coming to a land of milk and honey. He was also coming because, like the Hebrews did not want to be slaves in Egypt, he did not want to be in bondage in the Russian Army.

On the same issue of immigrating as a nation, Sonia Pilcer, a child of holocaust survivors, describes how she and her relatives vacation: The survivors and children vacationed en masse, sometimes, fifty families or more, at places with names like Kozy Kottages or Blue Paradise, greener pastures, where they organized theme parties, beauty pagents, and mock weddings . . ." (202). Therefore, Sonia’s family travels like the Hebrews do, in a huge group, even though vacationing is a very temporary kind of immigration. To have fifty families converge on one place at one time takes a huge mobilization of people, effort, and money.

When the Hebrews get to the Promised Land, God does not want them to assimilate to the way of life of the peoples who are currently living there. He tells them: "When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan: Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures . . ." (Numbers 33:51-52). When the Pilgrims get to Holland, they obviously cannot get rid of all the Hollanders, so they end up having to leave because they do not want to get assimilated into the Dutch culture:

Like the Hebrews, the Pilgrims saw themselves as being a chosen people. Therefore, when their children started getting involved in the evil pursuits that the locals were involved in they decided that it was important to get out of there, for fear that they would fall out of favor with God and lose their chosen status. They came to America, and along with all of the other European immigrants, took over the American Indians land.

The same thing happened to the native peoples of the Promised land that God gave to the Hebrews. Anton Shammas tells the following story of happened to a Palestinian, Abu Khalil: "Imagine a fortysomething Palestinian . . . whose West Bank homeland was, once again in his lifetime, caving in on him in June 1967 after what the Arabs called the Defeat of Hazieran 5 and the Israelis and Americans call the Six-Day War" (291-92). Like the American Indians and the Europeans, the Palestinians and the Canaanites were run over/pushed out by the Jews/Hebrews.

The model of immigration narrative in Exodus is similar to the standard immigrant narrative in that most of the immigrants are immigrating for the same reasons. They are either in some sort of bondage in their "Old World," or they want to improve their situations in what they see as "the Land of Milk and Honey." The standard immigrant narrative conforms to the Exodus immigrant narrative in that some minorities and people of the majority "white" race feel like they are being displaced by the new immigrants who are coming in. There has always been a sort of xenophobia in America because I think deep down we fear being displaced like we did to the American Indians.

The model of Exodus immigration is different from the standard immigrant narrative in that when a whole nation of people move they are trying to keep their culture intact and not assimilate to the culture of the place they are moving to. While when a family comes to America, it is nearly impossible for them to keep much more than a few little "scraps" of their Old World culture. Standard immigrants may try to resist assimilation, but they usually end up having to assimilate if they want to succeed—like in "The English Lesson." The people who are going to night class to learn English realize that if they want to succeed on a somewhat high level they have to assimilate to American culture and learn the language that the majority of people speak.

The other difference between the Exodus and standard immigration is obvious, when a whole nation moves it is much easier to push the locals off their land than it is when the immigrants are coming over one family at a time. If the new generation of immigrants are going to take this country away from the first generation of immigrants it is going to be in same gradual way that the Europeans came over and just continued to spread and spread until they had completely run over the American Indians.

The impact on the people being displaced is that they are obviously homeless and have to start over from scratch somewhere else. Or, like the Indians, they could also get sick with the new diseases that the new people are coming over with and die in massive numbers. The impact on the people doing the displacing is that they have to go through difficulty of the mass movement. They also have to get used to living in a foreign land. [DT 2001]

The influence and impact of the Exodus narrative resonates significantly in the American Canon of Immigrant and Minority Literature. In terms of the immigrant narrative, the Exodus reflects some of the basic tenets of the American Dream: an escape from oppression, surviving an arduous journey, and settling in a promised land. However, the story of the Exodus is intrinsically one of en masse, national migration based on a collective dream as opposed to that of the individual or group. Led by the strength and conviction of one man, Moses, the Israelites leave Egypt to establish a new nation or homeland and, in doing so, supplant the indigenous population of Canaan. What might be conceived as an act of war in modern times becomes the promised right of the chosen people. The purpose of the Exodus was not to assimilate with the Canaanites, but rather to create an exclusive enclave of shared religion and ethnicity.

Perhaps more than any other narrative, the story of the Pilgrims reflects the national migration of the Exodus and the sense of the Pilgrims being the chosen people of the Lord. The Pilgrims share the same dream as the Jews, one of religious freedom and segregation, and recreate Canaan in the New World in land belonging to the Native Americans. Yet for both the Jews and the Pilgrims, the maintenance of separation and exclusivity becomes a mammoth task as many succumb to outside temptation and an eventual departure from the sects. Another example of national migration occurs in the African American minority narrative. While the Egyptians enslaved the Jews, the African Americans were systematically brought from the old world to the new for the purpose of enslavement. Through the civil rights movement and under the leadership and dream of a new prophet, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, the African Americans were inspired to flee the south in search of freedom in the north.

Both Exodus and the story of the Pilgrims expose a narrative that remains unique in literature. In other instances the immigrant narrative differs as it reflects the gradual assimilation of one culture into another. Breadgivers, for example, projects a combination of the Exodus and immigrant narratives. The Jewish enclave of Hester Street represents the Exodus model as Jews live together, celebrate religion and tradition, and establish Hebrew schools. The sense of religious and ethnic purity is preserved by the discouragement of inter-racial marriage. The second generation, however, resists the old ways to form independent lives. Sara wishes to pursue her dream of becoming a teacher and must move beyond the confines of family and ethnic boundaries to achieve her ambitions. Yet always within the Jewish narrative even beyond the experiences of the heroic generation, a sense of tradition and being chosen survives. Like the Pilgrims, the Jews are people of the book who record history for future generations. As the protagonist in 2G recalls, the Jews are storytellers and, as such, perpetuate a system of remembrance that seeks to enforce their identity.

Other aspects of the Exodus narrative emerge in the experiences of minority groups. Parallels may be drawn between the ousting of the Canaanites and the modern day Palestinians. While historically the Jews represent an oppressed group, the expulsion of the Canaanites and the Palestinians portrays the Jews as aggressors. Moreover, while the Jews were traditionally classed as a wandering tribe, the Palestinians have since resumed this identity. In Amerka, Amerka, the portable, refugee-like existence of the Palestinian is explored. Driven from their homeland into a life of uncertainty and transience, the Palestinians wander the world in search of a homeland in which to speak their language and practice religious and cultural traditions. Similarly, as the Chrystos poem indicates, Native Americans are driven from their land by European immigrants, and forced into a marginal existence similar to that of the Canaanites and the Palestinians.

In other places, the Exodus model of segregation also evolves in Raban’s excerpt. Here the emphasis does not encompass racial or religious separateness, but rather economic and social elitism. Furthermore, the development of the "air" community does not require a physical displacement of a tribe, but rather the denial of admittance to a world where wealth and power become the exclusive commodities of a new minority.

It would seem that in terms of human culture narrative has always existed. From myths and fairytales of old, the extent of human experience continues to survive creating a sense of history and identity. For the Jews and the Pilgrims, the written word was paramount, and as such, we benefit today from actual accounts of historical events. In other cultures, histories are passed generation to generation by word of mouth. Facts may become distorted, but a sense of time and place often remains. The point is that the narrative is history past and in the making. We learn of the human condition depicted in suffering and tribulation. We learn how peoples’ experiences differ, and how they are essentially the same. Hopefully, we gain insight into the complexity of human relationships, recognizing both commonality and separateness. The narrative is the universal story of our lives as they unfold. Though often despairing, it also inspires hope. [YH 2001]

In the standard narrative, most immigrants seek assimilation as quickly as possible, believing that by immersing themselves in the culture and language of the dominant society, they will more readily become part of the mainstream. Many times these immigrants do no teach their children the language or ways of the Old World, seeing them as hindrances to their assimilation and being like everyone else. An example of this total immersion into the new culture is evidenced in Pat Mora’s poem, "Immigrants." The parents in the poem believe that by feeding their children American foods, buying them American toys, and even naming them typical American names, they can better guarantee them acceptance into this new country. It is only when their children are asleep that they dare to whisper in their native tongue of the fears that haunt them. They wonder if after all the right American things they do, will society accept their children or will they be rejected? . . .

This attempt differs greatly from the Exodus narrative as found in the Biblical text where the Jews journey to a new land, but are commanded not to assimilate or take on the characteristics of the people there. In this Biblical account, Moses is ordained by God to take the Jews out of Egypt and into Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey that God has promised them. On the way to Canaan, their journey is interrupted for forty years as they wander in the dessert due to their disobedience to God. Because they had disobeyed Him, they are not allowed to enter the Promised Land. After forty years, Joshua and Caleb take the remaining Jews into Canaan. There the Jews take away that which belongs to them Canaannites and made it their own. Considered to be God’s chosen people, the Jews were ordered not to mix with the Canaannites and were especially forbidden not to intermarry among them. However, after a while many of the Jews disregarded God’s command and intermarried among the people of Canaan. . . .

Another narrative that has some similarities to the Exodus narrative if that of Anzia Yezierski’s "Bread Givers." In this work, the Smolinsky family has journeyed from the Old World to the United States expecting to find milk and honey freely flowing from the street. However, after their arrival here, they find a very different way of life. The patriarch of the family is an orthodox rabbi who considers himself above taking employment. However, his wife and daughters are forced to work at menial jobs in order to survive in their new tenement existence. As a Jew, Smolinsky considers himself to be a chosen man of God, and therefore, above the tasks that ordinary men usually undertake to support their families. Smolinsky does not wish for his family to assimilate into the American culture. In fact, he desires the opposite. He expects his children to live by Jewish tradition and law and not intermarry with those outside of his religion. He is like the people of the Bible in this respect. However, just as in Canaan, it is difficult to remain apart from a society in which you exist.

Another text that parallels the Exodus is William Bradford’s Plymouth Plantation. In this book, Bradford implies that the Pilgrims are a separate or special people chosen by God, just as the Jews were. Bradford himself is even compared to Moses by Cotton Mather. Seeking a land where they can worship in the manner in which they choose, the Pilgrims leave England (Old World) and sail to Holland (New World). In Holland, they have the standard immigrant experience as they display shock and resistance to the new culture. When their children begin to take on the ways of the Dutch, the Pilgrims decide to leave. The Pilgrims, like the Jews, want economic advantages but desire to retain their tradition and religious observances. They do not desire for them or their children to assimilate into Dutch culture. Instead, they wanted to be in Holland and conduct commerce, but remain a separate and different people.

Bradford and the Pilgrims journey to a new land, this time in New England. During the journey, the Pilgrims often grumble and complain of their miseries. Some wish they had stayed in the Old World even if they could not worship as they chose. This complaining is similar to that of the Jews on their journey to Canaan. When the Pilgrims arrive in New England, they find the only inhabitants there to be Native Americans. Initially, they chose to stay together and live in closely-knit communities. Their interactions with the Indians were mostly to trade or learn how to grow food. However, as they prospered and acquired more land of their own, they began to spread out and leave the fold. With the loss of community, the Pilgrims meet other New Englanders who do not adhere to the strict code of conduct that Bradford and his supporters had followed. Out from under the watchful eye of Bradford and the other leaders, they begin to intermarry and participate in immoral acts. Bradford feared it would be the ruin of New England. With the Pilgrims’ new prosperity also came opportunities to partake in things that they had not previously had access to.

In order for the Pilgrims to spread out, they believed it necessary to take the land from its original inhabitants, the Native Americans. This act is similar to that of the Jews in Canaan. The Pilgrims came to New England, took the land from the Indians, and then pushed them out of their surroundings.

The forcing out of the Indians in New England also parallels that of the Palestinians being driven out of their lands by the Israelis. The Palestinians of today are a wandering people as they have been pushed out and displaced or forced into very marginal areas, similar to that of the Native Americans forced to live on reservations.

In Anton Shammas’ "Amerka, Amerka: A Palestinian Abroad in the Land of the Free", the narrator writes of Abu-Khalil, a Palestinian forced from his homeland. . . . [VB 2001]

The first influence of the Exodus narrative on American Immigrant Literature would appear to be in William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation. Bradford had obviously read the Bible and was very familiar with the Exodus. Bradford not only had a similar experience as the Jews did, but he also seems to relate that or make the connection himself in his book. As in Exodus, the Jews were the chosen people of God and the Pilgrims believed themselves to be the chosen people. The Jews were slaves to the Egyptians, and the Pilgrims were, in a way, slaves to England, because they could not practice their own religion freely. I believe this same aspect appears again in Sonia Pilcer’s "2G." She says, "It is our way to tell tales, bug-eyed People of the Book." They were slaves to the Nazis during the Holocaust, not allowed to be who they are or being eliminated for being who they are. [AR 2001]

. . . Exodus means "departure" and therefore could easily be aligned with the immigrant journey to the New World. This similar relationship can be seen when examining the stages of the Exodus in comparison to the stages of the immigrant narrative. . . .

Furthermore, the leaders in these narratives are very similar. In Exodus, Moses is frequently rwriitng the story of his people. He also receives the laws (covenants). In comparison, William Bradford participated in the Mayflower Compact (another covenant or set of laws) and relays his experiences in Of Plymouth Plantation. Also both men are depicted as holy and knowledgeable. They lead "the people of the book," as the Jews are referred to in "2G." Reb Smolinsky in Bread Givers also represents this holy and knowledgeable figure of leadership.

The journeys in these two narratives are also comparable. .. . Furthermore, each journey usually contains wilderness references and the facing of some sort of temptation. . . .

The only major difference that I see in the Exodus and immigrant narratives is the degree of assimilation achieved. It seems that both the Exodus and the Pilgrims advocate the least assimilation possible. In most immigrant literature there is a greater degree of assimilation to the new culture. . . . .

The social impacts of this narrative . . . . With the great degree of similarity between the Exodus and immigrant narratives, the similarity between declining generations is very clear. It seems that in both narratives, as the generations go on, fewer and fewer people participate in the behavior of the pioneering group. . . .

In studying African American history, it is quite evident how the Exodus narrative in particular is often slightly modified to portray their experiences. In fact, narratives such as the Exodus are constantly popping up in contemporary literature, demonstrating its ever prevalent impact on people.

Taking all of these issues into consideration, it is clear that the development of the narrative in human culture is extremely significant. The power of narrative lies in the fact that it is able to organize, shape, and reflect our lives. It is a form of literature that allows us to convey life-changing experiences in terms such as desires, costs, and gains that each person can understand. The components such as characters, symbols, and self-changes speak to readers in a manner that real life may not be able to do. Because art imitates life, narratives are important to study because they give readers the opportunity to study other experiences and reflect on our own. [MG 2001]

The Exodus narrative is often more than just a Bible story. For certain immigrant groups, this timeless tale of escape, struggle, and success provides the backdrop for their own flight from the Old Country. Specifically, for the pilgrims of Bradford’s Plymouth Plantation and the Jewish immigrants in Yezierska’s Bread Givers and Pilcer’s "2G," the Exodus story is the foundation upon which traditions are built. . . .

In order for a national migration to be successful, the people must stay together. One way of accomplishing this all-important unity is by remaining separate and distinct from the ordinary people who surround them in the New World. For the Israelites, there are prescribed rules forbidding intermarriage or interaction. Likewise, the Pilgrims hold themselves apart from the Native Americans and other Europeans who inhabit their new world. For Sara Smolinsky, her father is the gatekeeper between her and the outside world. He chooses the husbands for his daughters and keeps the girls under cruelly strict supervision. The idea of a separate people is slightly different for Pilcer’s Holocaust survivors, as they are subtly aware that only those who have lived through, or with, the Holocaust, can understand its impact. This irrevocably sets them apart. . . .

As the Pilgrims suffer hardships and starvation, like the Israelites did, they start to miss the support structure and plentiful goods they had in the Old World. . . .

The one thing that allows all of these immigrants to carry on despite their doubts is the unshakable idea of the Promised Land. For the Israelites, God has offered Canaan, the land of milk and honey, for their new home. Just the idea of this beautiful place sustains them for forty years in the desert. The Pilgrims, too, seek a Promised Land. They want a place where they can thrive and practice their religion without the distractions and persecutions of the Old World. For the Pilgrims, this is America. America is also the promised land for the Smolinskys. Sara’s father is convinced that America is another land of milk and honey, where it is always summer, and the dishes are made of gold. . . . The Promised Land theme from the Exodus narrative blends into many other immigrant stories as well. In Raban’s Hunting Mr. Heartbreak, the Promised Land . . . is no longer a place but a lifestyle. . . . [KK 2001]

The Exodus narrative serves as a model for Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation and as a reverence for immigration in Yezeriska’s Bread Givers, Pilcer’s "2G," and Shammas’s "Amerka, Amerka: A Palestinian Abroad in the Land of the Free." . . . [LQ 2001]

To live and let live is not the foundation of this society. There is a need for society to make everyone assimilate. For those living out the Exodus narrative these demands are even more difficult because they feel they are doing God’s bidding. There is a conflict between inner beliefs and social demands.

Society demands behavior from us every day. We dress the way we see in magazines, we talk like our favorite rock star, and we buy the car that we see advertised on television. These are external forces that every immigrant in this country faces. Within this social structure there are voices quietly writing about the struggles that most of us who have been here for generations know nothing about. These narratives do not just benefit the writer and other immigrants, but the dominant culture as well. How else do we get to know the new neighbor, or the new friend our child has at school? Unless we are Native Americans, we are all immigrants. [LR 2001]

How on earth can you talk about the experience of migration and not talk about narrative? We are our stories; we are our parents’ stories, and all the generations that came before. I know the stories of my people, even those stories that by my current religious identification I do not honor to the satisfaction of others. We spent a great deal of time focusing on the people of the Exodus and we need look no further for a culture that is a people of story, of the book. Where would the remnants of that people be today without that book and those stories? I can’t fathom a respectable answer to that question, because without those stories there is in fact no such people. I am reminded of the line in 2G "It is our way to tell tales, bug-eyed people of the Book." And we mustn’t forget Reb Smolinsky, "But my books, my holy books always were, and always will be the light of the world." [PK-A 2001]