LITR 4333: American Immigrant Literature

Sample Student Final Exam Answers 2002

"Supersize Question" (at least one hour) on "national migration," Exodus and related texts.

Question:

How has the Exodus narrative from the Bible shaped the immigrant narratives of Jewish America and Anglo-America. In what ways do these group's immigrant narratives conform to or vary from the standard immigrant narrative? Based on the required and optional readings listed above, what are some possible future trends of Jewish American and Anglo-American culture? 

[complete essay from email exam]

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, I am the Lord Your God.  After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, wither I bring you, shall ye not to: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.  Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God.  Ye shall therefore keep my statues, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 18:1-5)

With such implicit directions, the Israelites under Moses knew exactly how to interact with the Canaanites with whom they came into contact in the land which God had given unto them.  And for the future generations of Jews and Christians who viewed America as the Promised Land, these ordinances were strict instructions on how to behave in their newfound land of freedom and prosperity.  For the early Anglo-American settlers from England, by way of the Netherlands, these directions applied to their voyage from England as well as to the “uninhabited” lands of America.  Bradford, in Of Plymouth Plantation, told the pilgrims that they “must rest herein on God’s providence” (32) to point them to the proper place to dwell, and, even through the division of their numbers due to transportation problems and sickness, Bradford decided that “like Gideon’s army, this small number was divided, as if the Lord by this work of His providence thought these few too many for the great word He had to do” (60), proving the depth of his belief in God’s anointment of the Pilgrims as His Chosen People, like the ancient Jews.  Bradford’s ultimate insistence on the direct involvement of God in his people’s journey and settlement in the New World gave his writing a Biblical resonance and informed his decisions on interactions and peace with the “savages of these parts” (90).  Bradford’s repeated quotations from the Bible and correlations between the Puritan Pilgrims and the Exodus narrative from the Bible prove the depth of the connection between the Pilgrims’ journey and the feelings of being God’s Chosen People.

Some of the same relationships can be seen in Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers through the Smolinsky family’s exodus to America from Russia.  Being Jewish “people of the book,”  the Smolinsky family came to America to escape the oppression of the “Tsar of Russia!  Worms should eat him!  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—to […] eat pig, and shoot the people” (33).  As noted in a final exam excerpt on the Spring 2001 website, Reb Smolinsky would have been a slave (conscribed to Army work) to the Tsar in Russia like the ancient Jews were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.  In the same idyllic way as the ancient Jews, Reb saw America as the Promised Land, saying “Don’t you know it’s always summer in America?  And in the new golden country, where milk and honey flows free in the street, you’ll have golden dishes to cook in” (9) when Shenah wanted to bring provisions for the journey.  Reb almost expected Manna to drop from the sky when their family was hungry, like in Exodus chapter 16, epitomizing the Promised Land metaphor.  Bread Givers is intimately shaped by the Exodus story from the Bible as seen in Reb Smolinsky’s comparisons of his family to the Israelites and his reliance on the grace of God through Reb’s status as a Chosen Person.

These two groups, however, represent a divergence from the Standard Immigrant Narrative.  While they both buy into the American Dream of America as God’s Promised Land and their status as a Chosen People, both Bradford’s Anglo and the Jewish immigrants of Bread Givers felt no need to conform to the standards of the peoples already living in the area.  Using God’s words from Leviticus as a standard, the Puritans set the standards to which all other immigrant groups would eventually conform, a deviation from the traditional immigrant narrative.  While encouraging peace, rather than the Old Testament ideas of destruction of the native people, the Pilgrims created a “civilization” in the wilderness of 17th Century America which Bradford related as a 1st Generation Immigrant, also a deviation from the standard immigrant narrative.  And the Smolinsky family, with the exception of Sara, kept to their traditional faith and did not venture out of the ethnic enclave which preserved some of the Old World traditions while incorporating the New World business practices.  Jewish immigrants as a whole also migrated en masse in several waves to America, which gave them more of a “national” rather than individual migration pattern, which varies from standard immigrants.  The intricate structure of the Jewish religion also allowed for less assimilation to American norms, which created an immigrant group that was able to hold on to traditions rather than quickly conforming to American, Puritan ideals.  Though both the early Anglo and the Jewish immigrants saw America as a land of opportunity like other immigrants, they clung to their status as Chosen People of God to keep traditions alive and communities distinct as long as possible.

Based on our texts in class, the future trends in America seem to be the further assimilation of the Jewish nation and the decline of the Puritan influence on American ideology.  In “On the Road to Damascus, Maryland” (UA 141-2), Enid Dame chronicles her personal journey as an American Jew and hints at further change from the traditional model for Jewish women.  The title even suggests transformation, as the story in the Bible chronicles the change from Saul to Paul on the road to Damascus, Syria, though a conversion from Judaism is not suggested in the poem.  In her regression from her current status as a “New York Jew” to her former selves (“a radical teacher, / an Ethical Culturist, / a barefoot breadbaker, / a nice girl/ in knee socks”), Dame realizes the rapid change in American society and her personal changes mirror her partial assimilation in to that aspect of American culture.  Her suggestion of further change, and her parents’ worry over her transient character, note the changes from first to second generation American Jews.  The poem details future change present in not just this one author, but in the Jewish population in America.  This theme is continued in “The Seder,” also by Enid Dame (UA 323-4).  By cataloging the people present at the Seder, which is the traditional Passover Celebration for Jewish people, Dame illustrates the secularization of the religious traditions so long revered for rejecting secularization.  From the varied backgrounds of the participants to the changes in the ceremony, such as the non-sexist Haggadah and the missing hard-boiled eggs, Dame shows why the “orthodox relatives/ would be disgusted/ at our heresies           our bad/ pronunciations./ They’d get up and leave” (324).  The progression of the Jewish ceremony from orthodox to secularized shows the forward progression of time, and I think the progression of the Jewish religion in the future, but the “prophet” tells the writer that the changes are okay and that “we keep going on” (324) indicating that the changes don’t weaken the religion or its chances for the future.

The decline of Pilgrim influence in America can be seen in from Hunting Mr. Heartbreak: A Discovery of America by Jonathan Raban (VA 344).  The narrator notices the changes in America initially as changes in Macy’s from the “IT’S SMART TO BE THRIFTY” sign missing from the store to the old English “rubbish apparently [serving] some alchemical purpose” in the men’s department; he realizes “that homely touch of American Puritanism had been whitewashed over” between the “age of Richard Nixon and the last days of Ronald Reagan,” meaning the economic changes in American government (345).  In his journey through New York, Raban’s narrator notices something else that denotes the slow absence of the Puritan influence as the widening of the gap between the “street people” and the “air people,” whose affluence startles him into realizing the vast inequality of the modified American system.  Though many were considered to be “street people,” by lumping all of the homeless into the term “street people,” Raban argues that “it casually lumped together the criminal and the innocent, the dangerous and the safe,” realizing that some of the homeless people were victims of the American economic policies that left them “fallen short of the appallingly high standards that Manhattan had for staying properly housed and fed” (349).  The inequality of the street and air people led Raban to ponder at length the trend moving from thrift to extravagance that allowed the separation of a people, and made me wonder if the original Puritan notion of community living and neighborly love may not have better fit Raban’s notion of a perfect society.  While the Pilgrims failed to continue their ideal of community living, Raban seems to see a further descent into a world where the caring ideals of the Puritan forefathers seems to be left in the past, a trend which he sees as destructive to the lives of many street people.

The Exodus influence on early Anglo and later Jewish migration to America seems to be losing its hold as the years progress.  While many hold onto the past, as in Sonia Pilcher’s “2G,” most Americans are aiming to become “air people,” disconnected from not only the past, but the present world and people around them.  The connections between the past immigrant patterns and the current social problems identify a increasing shift in the patterns of Jewish assimilation and the decline of the ideological Pilgrim influences on the dominant culture to which immigrants assimilate. [CR]

 

[opening from essay in email exam]

            The Exodus narrative from the Bible has shaped the immigrant narratives of the Jewish Americans and the Anglo-Americans in many ways.  All three communities traveled from their homeland to search out the “land of milk and honey” while wanting to retain their separateness from others.  Through the book Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska the reader feels the hardships of the Jewish persons in the New World.  Like the Exodus story the Jewish community have left their land because of religious beliefs.  They come to America with their culture and traditions of the Old World with the thought of not assimilating, but being segregated and different.  The father, Mr. Smolinsky, feels that he is the chosen one much like the Israelites of Egypt; therefore, he uses the Exodus story to come to America and work his family while he himself studies the Torah.  The narrative of the Jewish Americans also follows the Exodus narrative in that God tells the Israelites to conquer the land of Canaan and not to intermarry or have relations with the people there, in the end the Israelites are disobedient to God.  The father also puts these restrictions on his Jewish daughters through arranged marriages and work; however, the youngest daughter is disobedient to her father and leaves the Old World behind.

            William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647 displays the Anglo-American journey that mimicked the Exodus narrative by coming overcoming a land of savages.  The pilgrims of the story leave England because of religious prejudice and religious freedoms like the Israelites.  They also travel for quite some time like the Israelites to find the land that they would conquer and control.  The Anglo-American narrative imitates the Exodus story in that they come to America without regards for the American Indians who currently inhabited the land.  As with the Exodus story, it is acceptable for them to conquer the land like the Israelites had done to the Canaanites. They felt that God had chosen them to be his people and was releasing them from the bondage of the Church of England.  Like the Israelites who were told not to assimilate, the Pilgrims did not intermarry with the Indians and only used the Indians for trade and labor.  Both the Jewish Americans and the Anglo-Americans like the Israelites wanted the “land of milk and honey” without the will of the people before affecting their traditions and cultures.

            These three stories compare and contrast to the standard immigrant narrative in many ways.  Like the standard immigrant narrative the national migration literature focuses on moving in the pursuit of happiness and freedoms that could not be captured in the Old World for different reasons.  However they differ greatly in that the standard immigrant narrative was the pursuit of one family at a time and their assimilation to different extents into the “American Dream”.  Whereas the national migration narrative is in regard to a whole nation of people moving in the pursuit of some kind of freedom from the Old World without assimilating, as explained by Diane Tincher in her 2001 exam essay.  They come to America to rebuild the Old World and its traditions in the New World. . . . [AB]

 

 

[Nearly complete essay from email exam]

Looking at the immigrant experience in regards to “The Immigrant Narrative,” as defined in the course objectives, is does appear that the Exodus narrative from the Bible has shaped the immigrant narratives of Jewish Americans and Anglo-Americans.  The former due largely in part to their direct ancestral connection with the Hebrews and the Jewish identification as God’s chosen people.  The later seems to be more of a subjective, self-imposed relation.

            Beginning the study of immigration by reviewing the story of the Exodus, in the Bible, puts better perspective on the Jewish and Anglo immigration narratives.  The story of the immigration of the Hebrew people from Egypt to Canaan, in many ways, sets the pattern for understanding the immigration of Jewish Americans and Anglo-Americans.  The move of the Hebrew people from Egypt to Canaan, in regards to cultural objective 1b, fits the definition of a “national migration” in that an entire group of people, as opposed to individuals or families, take part in this migration.  The story of the Exodus begins with one individual, Moses.  Although the Hebrew people are slaves to the pharaoh while they live in Egypt, it does not seem that there was any discussion of revolting or attempts to flee prior to the events brought about by Moses.  Moses, following the guidance of God, with his brother Aaron, approaches the pharaoh on behalf of the Hebrew.  It is upon the insistence of this man that the idea of leaving Egypt is even brought up.  Prior to pharaoh finally letting the people leave Egypt, many of the Hebrew people even pleaded with Moses to stop trying to set them free because of the harsh treatment they subsequently received from the pharaoh’s men.  I think that it is important to realize that this “national migration” was very unique because it was not initially prompted due to any foreseeable benefits to the people that it involved.  In this way, the Exodus story is in opposition to the idea of “socioeconomic migration,” as a reason for “national migration,” as it is defined in cultural objective 1b.  The case of the migration of the Hebrew people is unique because their migration was determined by the will of God; they did not choose the location that they were migrating to, nor did they chose the conditions which they were to live by once they reached the “promised land.”  However, this in no way means that the Exodus story can cease to influence the later migration of Jewish and Anglo Americans based on these restrictions.  Quite to the contrary, this connection with God seems to be the reason that subsequent “national migrations” not only resemble the Exodus story, but they actually seem to model themselves after the migration of the Hebrew people from Egypt to Canaan.

            The mass migration of Jewish peoples from Europe to America is in many ways similar to that of the Hebrew peoples migration from Egypt to Canaan.  Although the Jewish people chose to leave their European homes for their “promised land,” which they believed to be America, they chose to leave in order to escape persecution.  Just as the Hebrew people experienced the persecution of the pharaoh, who tried to exterminate them by means of working them so hard that they would not have the time or means to sustain many more generations of existence, the Jewish people of Europe barely escaped genocide during the Holocaust.

            These European Jews still identified themselves as the same people chosen by God.  Like the Hebrews, they believed that their covenant with God required certain ways of life that were not negotiable.  Because of these beliefs, the immigrant narrative of Jewish Americans differs from the traditional immigrant narrative in many of the same ways as the Hebrew’s immigration does.  Each of these stories diverges from the “immigrant narrative” at stage four.  As discussed in class, neither of these groups felt the need to assimilate to the dominant culture.  The Hebrew people, in fact, were instructed to exterminate all of the peoples of the lands they were to inhabit.  They received explicit instructions to not associate with the Canaanites and they were not to intermarry with these people.  This way they maintained their purity as God’s chosen people.  While the Hebrews received these instructions rather than imposed them upon themselves, the Jews who migrated to America chose to impose these restrictions upon themselves.  

            As seen through the writing of Anzia Yezierska in Bread Givers, Jewish Americans maintained a way of life incredibly dominated by their religion.  This novel gives countless examples of how the Jewish American family was expected to operate.  Quoting the Torah, as well as references to their connection with the Hebrew people, were a way of life.  For example, Reb Smolinsky’s response to the landlady calling for the rent was “Awake! Awake! Put on strength, O arm of the Lord: Awake, as in ancient days, in the generations of old. …” (Bread Givers, pg 17). 

            Under the patriarchal family structure of the Jewish Americans, Reb Smolinsky, like other Jewish men, continued to keep his family immersed in the words and wisdom of the Torah.  Through continual reference to the laws and ways prescribed by the Torah, he was able to keep his family in submission to his authority.  He, like other Jewish fathers, perpetuated the pure covenant with God as a chosen people by choosing “good Jewish men” for his daughters to marry.  Like the Hebrews, this Jewish American family maintained very Jewish traditions through remembering the words of the Torah rather than washing away their differences in an attempt to assimilate to the dominant culture. 

            Remembering is seem as another trait that sets Jewish Americans apart form other immigration stories in the short story “2G” by Sonia Pilcer.  Pilcer describes how Jewish Americans maintain their uniqueness through identification with “a network” of Jews “in lieu of living family” (pg. 201).  These families spend a lot of time together, even vacationing together, telling stories about “during the war.”  Jewish Americans live their past through the telling and retelling of their people rather than trying to wash away and forget their past in order to assimilate.  Pilcer writes, “It is our way to tell tales, but-eyed people of the Book.  We become writers and shrinks because we believe in the power of storytelling.  As if the right arrangement of words could release us,” in describing how important remembering is to the Jewish (pg. 203).  She writes of remembering that, “It gives our life gravity and we cling to it. We would be ordinary without it” (pg.205).  Not only do these people reject the concept of a need to assimilate to this dominate culture, they make a conscious effort to make themselves different.  In “Lost in Translation,” Eva Hoffman writes of the dominant culture, “the Culture – that weird artifice I’m imprisoned in...” the “…collective ideology where I should only see the free play of subjectivity” (pg  221).   Jewish Americans maintain their own culture through a fierce defense of it and a very conscious acknowledgement of the avoidance of it. . . . [NC]

 

[Excerpts from email exam]

The parallel with biblical references is heavily used throughout the national migration story.  Furthermore, the prominent figure, Moses, surfaces in the story of Plymouth Plantation.  Bradford is seen as the Moses of their day.  He was the Puritan leader, lawmaker, and writer.  As Moses was the responsible for the Ten Commandments, he was responsible for writing about their way of life and wrote the “Mayflower Compact,” in which he frequently alluded to the Bible story. 

The journey across the ocean was paralleled to the Jews crossing the Red Sea or the Jordan River, and Bradford wrote, “ (we) humble ourselves before our God, and seek him a right way for us” (49).  Their safe arrival on land was attributed God.  On the land, the observation of the wild and savage created a frightening reality that they were in a land far from the civil parts of the world, separated by the ocean.  Looking to God to sustain them, Bradford incorporated the scripture into modern expression:  “Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness, but they cried unto the Lord…” (71).  He compared the dire situation they landed in to the exodus story of being in the wilderness, and like the slaves, they wished to be back in the old world.  The slaves in the exodus story felt it was better to be slaves of the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.  Needless to say, the Puritans relied on speeches, wisdom, and patience to see them through the challenges.  The trade off for success and the rich abundance in materials consequently led to the impoverished bonds with one another.  This was the trade off of what had to be given up for the growth of commodities.  They eventually dispersed and divided economically.  This change from the tradition created fear that the next change would be a divided church, thus the ruin of New England.  The Puritan’s habitation of the land did not include the Native Americans, which are comparable to the Canaanites.  The pilgrims wanted the Native Americans to “melt away.” 

In contrast to the standard immigrant narrative, the importance of assimilation did not apply to the Puritans.  Modeling the biblical command of God forbidding the intermarrying with the Canaanites and to not to imitate or follow their ways.  Basically the instruction was to get rid of the Canaanites.  The standard immigrant narrative enforces the importance of assimilating and usually by the third stage intermarrying occurs.  However, intermarriages were strictly opposed because it was vital that the pure way of life remained preserved.  When Morton’s people began inviting he Indian women for consorts, much conflict arose.  It angered the pilgrims that the Indians were introduced to equal power when Morton gave weapons and taught how to use.  The dominant culture was angered by the loss of complete control over the Native Americans led to conflict.  Also contrasting the standard immigrant model is the extent of Puritan immigration.  In biblical terms,  “The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot besides children,” so to the Puritan’s move was also on a grand scale.  As quoted on the web, “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” (YH).  The puritans, like the community in the exodus story, traveled in one large group.  This resembled the mass movement of people from Egypt and the Pharaoh to the Promised Land, and also parallels to the mass movement of the Jews from Germany (Hitler) to America.  The Jews and pilgrims share a common story / myth in that both encountered the persecution and sought the land of milk and honey.  Another resembles is that both neglected native groups, the American Indians and the Palestinians.  The Jews encountered Hitler (the holocaust) and sought America as the ancient Jews encounter the Pharaoh of Egypt and sought Israel in Palestine, leaving the Palestinians out of the story.  The injustice of slavery under the Pharaoh’s rule led them to Canaan, the Promised Land of milk and honey, and the Canaanites were left out.  This model shows the immigrant experience paralleled to the story of exodus.  The standard immigrant model enforces the necessity of forgetting the past because success lies in the ability to assimilate to the new world, but different from this is the Jewish community’s ability to remember the past.  The importance to remember is stated, “When you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance.”  . . .

The aesthetics of the dominant culture is in the presentation of an unmarked plainness.  In appearance, Jacob, Mashah’s love interest, was not dressed in flashy attire.  Rather, his clothes “breathed from his quiet things, the solid richness from the rich who didn’t have to show it off” (56).  Away at college, Sara observes the college campus had “plain beautifulness.”   The girls dressed in a simple fashion and the “neat finished quietness of their tailored suits.  There was no show-off in their clothes … the spick and span cleanliness of these people … it smelled from them, the soap and the bathing”  (212).  In her own achievement, she identified her success by her ability to obtain the clean, empty room.  She loved having the cleaning materials and said, “the routine with which I kept clean my precious privacy, my beautiful aloneness, was all sacred to me … a place for everything and everything in its place” (241).  This orderly manner for living meant that she had fully become like the dominant culture.  In the clothes she purchased, Sara “decided on a dark blue.  Plain serge only” (239)!  The American Dream is to get out of chaos and to obtain space for oneself.  It is empty and cold, so Sara wants to reach back to a warm world that is not available in the dominant culture.  Tradition, in a sense, is admired for distinctness, but it can also be a prison.  This is stage five of a partial rediscovery.  Ethnic reaffirmation and connection is in some sense a fantasy.  In the novel Of Plymouth Plantation, the stages of immigration reflect the contrast to the once familiar plainness:  “they heard a strange and uncouth language, and beheld the different manners and customs of the people, with their strange fashions and attires; all so far differing from that of their plain country” (16).  Like the exodus story, stage four, they considered going to the “un-peopled countries of America … devoid of all civil inhabitants” (26).  The lengthy voyage created fear and they considered other options.  This leaves the standard immigrant narrative and connects with the exodus story of going to the Promised Land (and leave Canaan).  They desire to hold on to culture and Englishness.  This is cultural objective 1b national migration.  The immigrant story can take on two directions, the pilgrim story to present the future and the first unbroken English settlement.  They were the only significant community that did not come to America for economic opportunity, but for other values.  They are the most important bases of American liberalism.  Classically, the second generation writes about the experience, this is literary objective 2a, but Bradford is the first generation and stated, “I shall endeavour to manifest in a plain style, with singular regard unto the simple truth in all things” (1).  He uses the Protestant marker of purity in his writing and refers to other written texts, such as Socrates, to reflect they are literate people.  When the puritans saw the catholic churches they noticed it was not simplistic.  Simplicity of the gospel is that of plain style so there is difference in appearance.  In the book of exodus God commands people of Israel not to make images of Him.  There is not supposed to be a lot of decorating.  The emphasis is on plainness.  The word of God speaks and they are the people of the book, so they follow and refer to this often.  They are literate people that read the works of others besides reading the Book.  . . .

Conclusion

The standard immigrant model, either conforming or varying in degrees has already begun to develop trends that will become more noticeable in the future.  The advantage and disadvantage comes from studying the dominant culture.  It is a point of reference for people to become familiar with what they were assimilating to and with what patterns exists.  The theme is in the unconscious things you know as being brought up in America.  The variations lie in the immigrant pattern as the dominant culture sets the theme and standard base.  It is about bringing the unconscious to the conscious level.  Becoming an American means there are social and psychological costs to leaving the traditions in the past.  Patterns of immigration, the pilgrims left England because it was corrupt and now descendents are in America but America is being rapidly changed by vertical immigration.  The old pattern of immigration was the move from the old world to the new world.  The new pattern includes a move between street people and air people.  The air people are increasingly dislocated from where you are because of the availability of things.  These are the people of the internet, air travel, high rises, television viewers, and wired.  This is the world of capital, which is disconnected from the other world.  The concentration is on wealth and rapid change.  Inequality grows in this region.  The street people are the low tech, in the subway, street vendors; they are the delivery and service people, the world of workers.  But, both of these groups are not separated by geography, its where you live in the community or the high rises. 

A trend that has captivated my attention through the semester of immigrant literature is the tendency of the immigrant to reach for the OW in hopes of pulling something untarnished and meaningful back into their lives, only to find the old world became a shimmer in memory, but in actuality, it was not as reviving as lapsed time appeared to make it.  Often, the character most assimilated finds that he or she is drawn to tradition, especially in moments of crisis.  In a new world, where nothing is familiar, what can one do for protection, for comfort, for shelter from the cruelty, from the harsh realities – when no one seems to be available in a world of strangers, how can anyone find comfort, when human compassion is lacking … except to resort to an internal foundation and seek tradition.  This tradition is highly attached to a religious belief.  Compassion, when compassion among humans cannot be found, can only be sought from a higher Being.  People of all cultural backgrounds turn to religion at one point in their life, and this one point is always marked by traumatic experience.  In most of the immigrant narratives, the characters speak of religious tradition.  The relationship between religion and culture are intertwined and the two cannot be separated because culture is defined by religion.  However, the criticism of religion is that it takes power away from people when religion and the powers that be are attributed to a selected group – the dominating group. [DR]

 

            [complete essay from email exam]

The children of Israel traveled to Egypt to escape the effects of famine in their homeland.  Joseph, who had previously been sold into slavery by his brothers, had risen to a position of great power there and extended mercy to his brothers by caring for them during the famine.  After Joseph died, his family’s descendants were “fruitful” and “waxed exceedingly mighty” to the extent that the new king felt threatened by them.  In acts of what today might be explained as “social Darwinism,” the new king began to persecute the children of Israel.  First they were enslaved, working in “hard bondage” and eventually the Pharaoh attempted to eliminate their power altogether by having the first born sons killed.  Finally Moses, a leader chosen by God, rose up to lead the people out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the edge of the Promised Land, which was laden with “grapes of Eschol” and milk and honey. 

The Israelites’ journey from Egypt to the Canaan, however, did not occur without hardship.  The people suffered hunger, fear, internal strife, and years of wandering through wilderness.  Despite these hardships, the Israelites were successful in preserving their ethnic identity by observing religious rituals and keeping the laws of God, which had been delivered to them by Moses.  The survival story of the exodus of the early Jews was incorporated into religious rituals, especially the Passover observance. The story of their success thus became a national narrative that would not only bind the Israelites together for thousands of years, influencing attitudes and behaviors in later hardships, but would also serve as a model for success for Christian gentiles who would also suffer because of their faith.

Throughout history, Jewish people have experienced abuse, persecution, and multiple threats of genocide.  The Old Testament is full of stories that describe their early hardships, and more modern literature depicts their more recent trials.  These texts demonstrate how the original narrative of the Exodus of the Hebrews continues to influence them into the Twentieth Century.  Anzia Yezierska’s semi-autobiographical novel, The Bread Givers, describes the exodus of a group of Jewish people who sought to escape from the oppression of the Tsar of Russia to the promise of freedom in America in the early twenties.  Reb Smolinsky thinks of America as the new Promised Land, describing her as “the new golden country, where milk and honey flows free in the streets” (9).   Clearly the experience of the Jewish forefathers colors the way their migrating descendants think about the prospect of relocating.  Later in this same passage, Reb Smolinsky articulates the continued reverence for the holy books:  “my books, my holy books always were, and always will be, the light of the world.  You’ll see yet how all America will come to my feet to learn” (9).  He believes that the same beliefs that preserved his forefathers in Canaan would hold his family together in America.

Yezierska uses the characters in the novel to demonstrate the familial tension that often surfaces between generations upon immigration to America.  The father demonstrates traditional, Old Word values that first generation immigrants hold dear.  Men in the traditional Hebrew faith are spiritual leaders first, which clearly reflects not only Old World values but the Old Testament concept of God as well.  In the Old Testament, God is a vengeful “jealous God” who judges harshly those who fail to observe his laws, and rewards those that honor him and keep his commandments.  Reb Smolinsky, is a harsh father whose primary concern is the studying and keeping of God’s word.  God is harsh, and fathers are harsh; thus children who learn to obey their strict fathers are better prepared to relate to God. 

Mrs. Smolinsky, furthermore, possesses many of the characteristics that the Old Testament book of Proverbs (chapter 31) teaches that a woman should have.   The heart of her husband safely trusts in her, she gives meat to her household, she clothes them, she is strong, and her children rise up and call her blessed.  Theirs is a traditional marriage.  While Mrs. Smolinsky sometimes bewails her condition and the stresses associated with poverty, she more or less accepts the confines of her traditional role within the family.  Her daughters, however, demonstrate a tendency to embrace New World values.  Sara temporarily breaks away from the family, goes to college, and then finds her own husband.  She lives alone.  Interestingly, however, despite her “rebellion,” she ultimately returns to her father and agrees to care for him despite his harsh treatment of her. Like many second-generation immigrants, Sara finds a way to reconcile Old World and New World values.  The faith of her ancestors will not allow her to completely abandon her father in his old age.  She ultimately adheres to her faith-based values but achieves a certain amount of distance from her father at the same time. The Old World (and Old Testament) values that were instilled in Sara as a child, therefore, prove to be a formidable force that would influence her as an adult.  Despite the fact that the Smolinsky family seems to fit more closely to the standard immigrant narrative because their children begin to assimilate, remnants from the original Hebrew narrative still clearly have impact on the Twentieth Century Jewish immigrant narrative thousands of years after the Hebrew exodus from Egypt.

The Passover Ritual, where Jews re-tell the story of their deliverance from Egypt, remains a “model for remembering” in the Hebrew tradition of faith.  In “Preparations for Seder” the poet, Michael Glaser” says, “I think of Grandmother / as I salvage these tasty cracklings, relish them / for myself, hand them to my children.”  He purposefully exclaims, “I will not forsake the traditions of my ancestors” as he remembers the experiences of his Hebrew ancestors.  (177).  This pattern of remembering worked to bind the Jewish people together, not only after their escape from Egypt, but also in the wake of more contemporary suffering as well.  In the essay “2G,” Sonia Pilcer describes the 1950 Jewish immigration to America in the aftermath of World War II.  Surviving yet another attempt at genocide from Nazi Germany, thousands of Jews migrated to America.  Upon their arrival, they exhibited many of the same behaviors, as did their Hebrew forefathers.  They maintained a “large network of Polish Jews,” who would work and vacation together, often telling stories of the atrocities they had experienced at the hands of Hitler, the modern Pharaoh.  The survivors told stories, and their children attempt to “[forge their] future by remembering [their] past” (VA 205). The ceremonial model for remembering God’s deliverance from bitter suffering, which was practiced first by the ancient Hebrews, is embraced by their descendants to help heal more recent national wounds. 

            Given that Christianity sprang out of the Jewish religion, it naturally follows that the Hebrew survival story would influence the Puritans who experienced persecution in 17th Century England.  In Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford recounts the story of the Pilgrims as they traveled from England, to Holland, across the wilderness of the Atlantic Ocean, and to the Promised Land of America.  Like the Jews, who were called “God’s chosen people,” the Pilgrims believed that their belief in Christ granted them membership into an elect group of people, chosen by God.  Because of the Pilgrims’ dedicated faith and their reverence for Scripture, they were very familiar with the story of the ancient Hebrew exodus from Egypt.  Although their concept of God had changed because of their belief in Christ (from seeing God as merely a judge to one who extends mercy and grace), the Puritans placed themselves in God’s hands, prayed for guidance and deliverance, and consequently viewed circumstances as part of his divine providence.  Like the Jews, who displaced the Canaanites without any sense of guilt or plan for assimilation, the Pilgrims never really worried about the effect of their arrival on the American Indians because they never planned to “mix” with them.  The Pilgrims instead viewed the Indians only in relationship to their own comfort.  Squanto, who helped them in their early days, was not just a kind savage; rather he was “an instrument of God.”  When early explorers explored the new land, they brought back not just corn, but “corn of Eschol.”  Just as the children of Israel piled rocks on the Canaan side of the Jordan River as a monument to God’s deliverance from the Egyptians, the Pilgrims placed a rock (Plymouth Rock) as a memorial to their arrival in America.  Instead of a Seder meal, the Pilgrims held a feast of Thanksgiving.  The Pilgrims used the experience of God’s chosen people, the Jews, as a model for success in the New Promised Land, and this model helped not only to preserve their unity and ethnic identity, but also served to help them survive starvation, harsh weather, and illness in their early years in America.   

            Yet, Bradford notes that as the Pilgrims began to prosper and as their suffering diminished, they began to disperse.  In some cases, people became less dedicated to their faith and less committed to maintaining a sense of Puritan separation.  Interestingly, however, as contemporary American Jews have become further removed from suffering, the same ceremonies and rituals that preserved their ethnic unity begin to reflect their deviation from it.  In “The Seder,” Lyn Lifshin, describes a non-traditional, or rather unorthodox, version of the Passover dinner where some are “Irish, Italian, French-Canadian, / One is Chinese, from the mainland.”  She goes on to say that most of the people at the ceremony are Jews, implying that not all of them are.  They perform a “non-sexist Haggadah” and “forget the hard-boiled eggs.”  Given that the original purpose of the ceremony was to preserve the separation and unity of the Israelites and to remember, rather than forget, Lifshin’s description of the funky Seder reflects a substantial deviation from her Hebrew roots.  Lifshin’s Seder, therefore, demonstrates the effects of prosperity and assimilation on Hebrew ethnic identity just as they did for the prospering Pilgrims.

            While both the Jews and the Pilgrims demonstrated patterns of geographical national migration and separatists’ behaviors that were faith based, some modern immigrant narratives do not seem to have been influenced by the Hebrew narrative.  Modern migrations seem to be economically based and do not involve moving across the globe.  According to Jonathan Raban, the new immigrants, who seek to escape the violence and persecution of poverty, look for relief in the air.  Rather than being heavenly minded in a spiritual sense, they seek physical solace in skyscrapers and airplanes.  They separate themselves vertically from the streets and subways where poorer, often more violent people live.  These air-dwellers rely on technology and “men” from the streets to get food, other groceries and supplies, as well as information about what is happening in the streets below.  Raban’s observations, therefore, perhaps indicate a significant change from those models created by the ancient Hebrews and the Puritans, a pattern of exodus prescribed by wealth rather than faith or national identity. [JS]

 

[complete essay from email exam]

The Exodus narrative of the Bible tells of the Jews fleeing Egypt, en masse, for the Promised Land of Canaan. Willingly, then reluctantly they follow Moses, finally arriving in Canaan, where reality comes face to face with the familiar life that was left behind. According to the Bible, the Jews are God’s chosen people and the entire exodus ordeal was a preordained event. It’s very interesting how other cultures have followed this same pattern, resulting in their own versions of the exodus narrative.  Reb Smolinsky, in Breadgivers, brought his family to America “[…] where milk and honey flows free in the streets” (9), so he could escape the Tsar of Russia and be free to continue his devout studies of the Torah. Although this story is about just one family, the implication is that many Jewish families fled the Tsar for the Promised Land of America. The Puritans in Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647, felt so strongly about their religion that they came to America (by way of Holland) so they could worship, “according to the simplicity of the gospel, without the mixture of men’s inventions” (4). In each of these cases, religious persecution led to the migration of entire cultures to foreign lands, where they attempted to transplant their own cultures in tact, disregarding whatever culture may already be established in the new country.

In the original Exodus narrative, God instructs the Jews to “[…] drive out all the inhabitants of the land [Canaan] from before you, and destroy all their pictures and …molten images” (Numbers 33:52), and “[…] neither shalt thou make marriages with them” (Deuteronomy 7:3). As God’s chosen people and without hesitation, they take over Canaan absolutely disregarding the Canaanite culture. In Breadgivers, Red Smolinsky lets his family virtually starve because he refuses to support them. He hangs onto the reverence given holy men in the Old Country believing American values should conform to his beliefs. He seems oblivious of the work ethic established in America; therefore he is considered lazy, worthless even. In the case of the Puritans, they know they will encounter savages in America, but since they are just savages, so no consideration of preserving that culture is ever made.

Another similarity between these three narratives is the differences between first and second generations. In the Exodus narrative, Judges 2:10 states, “[…] there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.” The daughters of Reb Smolinsky grow to hate him and everything he stands for. For example, Sara defies her culture’s tradition of arranged marriages stating, “I’d want an American-born man who was his own boss. And would let me be my boss” (66). The Puritans originally left England for Holland, but after twelve years they felt the need to move because their young people were beginning to assimilate into the Dutch culture. Therefore they headed for a great wilderness where their own “ways” would be the only thing their children could learn. Lyn Lifshin does an excellent job of revealing the emotions of a second-generation immigrant in her poem, “Being Jewish in a Small Town.” It says, “ [I] will never know / Hebrew   keep a / Christmas tree in / my drawer (l 25-28), which illustrates how separation of cultures is inevitable as the generations progress.

The standard immigrant narrative differs from the exodus narrative because the normal immigrant situation involves one person, one nuclear family, or one extended family where the exodus narrative relates to an entire culture, consisting of thousands of people, relocating en masse, hoping for a better life. While the standard immigrant is leaving poverty and willing to embrace assimilation, the exodus participants are seeking freedom from oppression or freedom of religious beliefs. Although, in both cases, the draw of the Promised Land must be significant enough to justify leaving behind their home, family, friends, traditions, and identities, the people in the exodus narratives intend to keep their culture intact, therefore refusing to assimilate.

These narratives indicate that the dominant culture will always attempt to maintain distance between themselves and “others.”  As the world gets smaller and smaller, the dominant culture is moving up – up into high rises and undoubtedly, eventually into space. Jonathan Raban refers to “street people” and “air people” in Hunting Mr. Heartbreak. The Air People in his story are the elite who isolate themselves from the real world. Eva Hoffman confirms this in a subtle way as she is discussing her reconciliation with her old life and her life with her new American friends. In Lost in Translation, she says, “[…] a world whose social, if not physical, frontiers are still fluid and open and incompletely charted” (225). If our physical frontiers are not fluid, the only thing left is space. [TStJ]

 

[complete essay from email exam]

In studying American Immigrant Literature, we see that the story of the Exodus in the Bible has shaped the immigrant narratives of Jewish America as well as Anglo-America. This historical accounting of a nation’s migration from slavery to freedom, from bondage to the Promised Land, is retold over and over again in different cultures, and even more, this story is lived over and over again by these different cultures. The Exodus story starts with the Jewish people, who have gone to Egypt where they were welcomed and befriended. After years passed, the Jewish nation population grew large and the dominant culture there, Egypt, became nervous and started trying to find ways to control them to assure they did not take over. It was in this time of strife that they were delivered. Moses was sent to lead them out of the bondage of slavery to the “Promised Land.” These Jewish people were prevented from leaving until dire measures were presented against the Pharaoh and his people, and he cast them out. “Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel . . . “ Exodus 12:31. The Jews left and traveled into the desert where they encountered great hardships, and contention grew. The people began to murmur that they should have stayed in Egypt. They persevered however, and finally made it to the Promised Land of Canaan. In Canaan, the Jews were instructed to destroy the inhabitants of the land in order to prevent assimilation into their way of life (Exodus 23:23-33). This was done in degrees, and then only in part.

This same Exodus story is revisited with the Pilgrims. In England, people were being persecuted due to their religion and rising numbers just as the Jews were, and they decided they were led by the Lord to a new place—a Promised Land. As they set about leaving, they also were prohibited by the rulers of the land from leaving. Though no pillars of fire and smoke escorted them from the land, they were able to get passage and travel to Holland. This trip is much like the standard immigrant narrative in that the Pilgrims leave the homeland (England), travel to the new land (Holland), and encountered shock, and resistance at the “strange and uncouth” language, attire, and ways of life they encountered there (Bradford 16). After years spent there, they started the assimilation process, and “drawn away by evil examples into extravagant and dangerous courses, getting the reins off their necks and departing from their parents” (Bradford 25). This assimilation is exactly why the Canaanites were slated for destruction by the Jews. If there were no foreign ways to fall in league with, there would be no assimilation. The Puritans, however, being a peaceful people, decided that it was necessary to seek a new promised land in order to save their people and children from this assimilation and more persecution, which was mounting at the time. So the Puritans decided to go to America where it was “vast and unpeopled. . . fruitful and fit for habitation, being devoid of all civil inhabitants” (Bradford 15). This second migration of the Pilgrims, however, was much more like the Exodus story. The Pilgrims endured many hardships on the journey over the ocean, in which many died. They also began to murmur that they should have stayed in England, and when they arrived in this Promised Land, they found it inhabited by the Indians, which they had to disperse in order to have the land. We see that these Pilgrims were G-d fearing people and that they read the Bible. All through the William Bradford’s book Of Plymouth Plantation, we see the people referring to the Bible, G-d, and the Exodus story itself. Thus we know that the influence of this story of national migration has affected nations that came after it, giving them ideas, hope, guidance, and courage to find their own Promised Land.

The Exodus story has been repeated again more recently with the Jewish people: The persecution of the Jewish people in Europe during the time of Nazi Germany. The people again fled to find safety and a better life. Anzia Yezierska’s book Bread Givers is a beautiful portrayal of this Exodus in smaller scale to a promised land that is America. Though this book is the story of a family who moves to America to escape the persecution of the Tsar of Russia, it typifies the mass Exodus of the Jewish people and the hardships they faced upon arriving at this new Promised Land. The father of this story, Reb Smolinsky, a Torah scholar, feels there is no need to take even the most basic of necessities such as feather beds and linen to America because it is “the golden country, where milk and honey flows free in the streets” (Yezierska 9). They come to America with nothing but his religious books and a few clothes to find that this Promised Land too, is inhabited by people and that these people are not going to be dispersed. The parallelism between the three stories is stark. All three stories have leaders: Moses, Mr. Robinson for the trip and Bradford for the land, and Reb Smolinsky who led the family by mere patriarchal dominance. All stories have the journey, the sufferings, the murmurings, and the arrival in the promised lands. All three stories have the same G-d and the same book, some add a bit more than others, but the basic five books are the same, and they all have a goal: to reach a land where they can worship, live in peace, and be safe.

The Exodus narrative has shaped Jewish America by giving it the focus on what to look forward to and guidance on how to get there. The Exodus story has done the very same thing for the Anglo-America in that the Exodus narrative that guided the people of England to split and find a new life in America. This group of people who read the same five books of the Bible that the Jews do, set the basic foundations that America is built upon today—because they all read and followed the same story. The story “2G” sums up beautifully the Jewish way with words, when is says, “ It is our way to tell tales, bug-eyed people of the Book. We become writers and shrinks because we belief in the power of storytelling” (Pilcer 203). In this tradition of storytelling, the Exodus story has evolved to a story for all peoples in all lands. It is the “universal” story of all times. However, with this fame, comes a different kind of strife in and of itself: A more acute threat of assimilation. The story now belongs to everyone and there is nothing set off, set apart anymore for just you. No longer is America the Promised Land that is for you to inhabit, but it changes around you. America, in its very essence is change and as it changes, the people must change with it. Eva Hoffman states in “Lost in Translation” that “As for me, I want to figure out, more urgently than before, where I belong in this America that’s made up of so many sub-Americas. I want to somehow give up the condition of being a foreigner” (Hoffman 221). America has become no longer a culture in which you must either assimilate, or fight assimilation—it has become a changing culture of sub-cultures in which you must choose to fight or assimilate. I believe that the future of the Jewish-American and Anglo-American culture will be much like the poem “The Seder” by Enid Dame. In this poem, a typical Jewish ritual is being observed and it includes Anglo-Americans, Chinese, French, and Irish among others, who have different religions and still go back to the basic Exodus story to share common beliefs. As the Jewish culture opens its doors to the non-Jews—gentiles—the gentiles will learn and incorporate more and more of the words, foods, traditions, etc. of the Jews and unless the Jewish nation does something fast, they will be assimilated. There will always be those few who remain faithful and loyal to the original tenets of the original religion, and those will be the keepers of the Words—not just the religious words, but the stories as well. [RS]

 

[Complete essay from email exam]

The difference between the Exodus Narrative and the Immigrant narrative we studied the first part of the semester is that the Exodus narrative tells of a national migration, as does Bradford’s Plymouth Plantation. With these immigrant groups, we see a resistance to assimilation and intermarriage and a greater ability to maintain ethnic identity.  The Exodus story in the Bible is more similar to the Anglo-American story than the Jewish-American story in that both the Hebrews and the Puritans believed they were going to areas that were for the most part uninhabited and where the people who were there did not matter because a. they were not the chosen people (Canaanites) or b. savages (Native Americans).  The Hebrews are instructed to reject the ways and beliefs and lifestyle of the Caananites and to take down their altars.  They are forbidden to intermarry.  Until very recently, Jewish Americans were still not partaking in intermarriage.  We see  in Bread Givers that even Sara, our symbol of the New World, did not marry outside the race/religion.  The Pilgrims believe America to be “unpeopled…devoid of all civil inhabitants” (Bradford 26).

Although the Jews moving to America did so for many of the same reasons as the other two groups (for religious freedom and to escape persecution), they knew they were going to a populated, established country.  However, they have maintained their culture better than any other group to move here since the Puritans.  This is due to their large number, their great knowledge of their religion and culture, and their devotion to those things. History and the past are extremely important to these groups. The Pilgrims and the Jews are both people of the book, both write down their stories, both keep their histories, both talk to their children and grandchildren.  We see the important role of these stories in Sonia Pincer’s “2G”:  “During the war’ was how the stories began.  Everyone told them…the stories multiplied (VA 201).

The Hebrews leave Egypt to escape Pharaoh;  the Pilgrims leave England to escape the king. Both groups are going to make the new land their own.  Both believe they are God’s chosen people and incidents occur which could reinforce this belief.  For example, disease strikes the Egyptians but not the Hebrews and an epidemic kills many of the Indians but not the Pilgrims.  The Smolinski’s know that America is inhabited, but they come for the same reason: to escape someone in power, the Tsar of Russia.  These groups also turn the new land into their land.  They do not assimilate; they become the dominant culture.  New England, where the Pilgrims landed, still sets the standard for everyone else.   As Hoffman writes in “Lost in Translation”: “Being American means that you feel like you’re the norm…and the Northeast is the norm that sets the norm” (VA 220).  So we see that the Puritans resisted assimilation and instead set the norm.  In this same paragraph we see the Jewish resistance to assimilation, for all this angers Hoffman; she does not like the American norm; she does not understand how being the norm can mean “demolish[ing] every norm passed on to them from their parents and the culture at large” (VA 220).

The similarities with these narratives and the typical immigrant narrative include leaving a land of strife for a land of equality and opportunity.  We are still seeing the term “milk and honey” from the Exodus story in reference to America in Immigrant literature.  Also, all immigrant groups deal with hardships whether on the way over or once they arrive, whether sickness or discrimination.  We also tend to see some need for the past.  These groups held on to the history and culture, other immigrant groups often “rediscover” a forgotten history and/or culture. 

I believe Anglo-Americans will always set the norm and be the group “assimilated to” in America.  As for what that norm will be, I do not know if the colors will be brighter and the styles bolder as more people immigrate and bring bits of their culture.  It seems that if it were to happen it would have by now, however, things are only now changing with the Jews.  I think we will continue to see the immigrant influence with the bold runway styles, but I also believe that when it comes to Wall Street or any street, people will continue to dress down.

As for future trends with the Jewish-Americans Jews are assimilating more, losing more of their culture or at least sharing it more with others.  As we see in Lifshin’s poem “The Seder” many people now convert to Judaism as opposed to being born into it.  At the Seder she describes, some are Irish, some Italian, French-Canadian, Chinese.  She says “Most of us are Jew” (UA 323).  This leads me believe that some people are just partaking out of curiosity.  I do not believe this is something that would have been acceptable just a short time ago.  We see the breakdown of food laws in the line “She’s forgotten the hard-boiled eggs, but it doesn’t matter.”  But even this is much better than giving up the past.  As Elijah tells her “Don’t worry    my daughter  don’t worry     you see    we keep on    we keep going on.” [NCa]

 

[Complete essay from email exam]

            In the Exodus narrative, the ancient Hebrews were forced from their homeland to a foreign country with no idea as to what they should expect, save the instructions laid down by God (through Moses, of course), which stated that they should ignore the Canaanites and live amongst themselves.  This story has seemingly repeated itself with an almost eerie parallel, given the age and technology during each migration.

            The migrant Jews (Hebrews) always seem to keep to their own, a pattern started with the Exodus story.  There have also been repeated patterns of oppressors, whether it be the Pharaoh from the original story or Adolf Hitler from the Holocaust (or, for added difficulty, the Israeli government for the displaced population of Palestinians).  The migration itself has also been a long and difficult task, which included sets of obstacles and, once they have arrived at the new “Promised Land,” much cultural persecution (racism, discrimination, ridicule, etc.).

            Within the texts, the immigrants give personal accounts at a human level, rather than at an impersonal overview.  In Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers, the Smolinsky family not only separates themselves from the American people, but are themselves marginalized within the ghettos of Jewish New England.  Their struggle to retain their cultural heritage while surviving in the new economic climate of America shows an all-too-familiar difficulty facing many of the non-Western European immigrants of this time.

            Keeping ties to the old ways often presented the migrant Jews with much adversity, especially within the new countries, and particularly those with “foreign” customs and ideals (namely, every country to which they have migrated).  This problem becomes the focus of Yezierska’s novel.  Sara, the main character, who represents the second generation of immigrant families, faces the problem of finding that the American ideal of freedom, liberty, and self-reliance is much more appealing than the Old World customs of her traditional Jewish family; subservience, repression, and sexist ideology as major roles for women.  Sara eventually breaks free and becomes an individual who is very much living the American dream of independence and wealth (whether it be monetary or internal wealth).  This story takes place in pre-Holocaust times.

            Post-Holocaust, we see a shift in only the details, as the Jews have always seemed to be a displaced people (only that their displacement has never been so tragic).  In Sonia Pilcer’s “2G,” the narrator, Pilcer herself, gives examples of the struggles one must face when attempting to “mingle” with the American population (I chose “mingle” rather than “assimilate,” because assimilation suggests joining rather than coexisting).  The narrator shows the difficulty in trying to get even American intellectuals to understand that knowledge is more valuable if experienced rather than learned secondhand.  This suggests that the Jews, though an accepted part of the immigrant population, still faced much adversity in their new surroundings.  Another “detail” of the post-Holocaust mindset was that of reminiscing without suffering.  In Gregg Shapiro’s poem, “Tattoo,” the narrator is feeling a bit of suffocation from his father’s refusal to discuss the tattoo on his arm (numbers from concentration camps).  This is another part of the alienation that occurs with the second generation.  Though they did not experience the Holocaust, there is a resonance of thought and suffering by those who experienced it.  This would be much like the migrants’ memory of the oppression of the homeland, whether it be Hitler or the Egyptian Pharaoh.  There was not much discussion with the new generation on these subjects, only the attempt to live amongst, without losing their heritage, a new people in a strange and often unpleasant environment.  Retention of culture seems to have been the focus of their efforts with the second generation.

            Tying this to the story of the Ancient Hebrews is quite simple, as far as the displacement of culture is concerned.  In Canaan, the second generation Hebrews showed less interest in keeping their traditions and faith in the Word of God.  They began to assimilate and often left their culture for the more “appealing” life of the Canaans, forgetting the suffering and work it took to start a new life in a strange land.  In America, the second generation migrants faced a similar fate, and seem to be conforming more and more to the American way.

With the Puritans, the story is much the same.  With Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation, the migrants undergo a very difficult task of finding a new world in which their lives can represent their beliefs.  Their journey begins with an oppressive force, namely the monarchy of England.  The parallel includes the political powers’ disapproval of cultural/religious practices, and a migration to a freer, more accepting land.  What the Puritans found in Holland was a good place to start with a new life.  They were able to practice their simplified, more “pure” version of the Christian faith (the one for which they were persecuted in their homeland).  What they found, though, was that the next generation, and even the first generation, after a while was that their own were beginning to “mingle” and assimilate into the dominant culture of the Dutch.  Their religious beliefs were starting to mean less to a growing minority of their people.  The difference between the usual narrative and this story, though, is that they were able to see this before it affected the entire population, allowing them to undergo another migration.

            Their journey to the New World was a very arduous trip, involving much pain, suffering, and death.  This move was parallel to the Ancient Hebrews’ voyage through the wilderness (though there was no time constraint, and the Sabbath was not the first thing on their minds), in which they also faced much difficulty.  Once in their new land, the Pilgrims found that there was an indigenous population (the Native Americans, to parallel the Canaan peoples).  Eventually, there were battles and fighting between the people, along with some exemplary forms of diplomacy, leading to the displacement of yet another people (Amerindians, again, to parallel the people of Canaan).

There was also the concern of the original migrants for their children and grandchildren, much like the next generations of Jews, that they would lose sight of the original customs and practices of their people.  This led to eventual revivals which seemed to bring the old ways back into focus (although we didn’t discuss this aspect in this course, I thought it necessary to include at least an allusion).

As far as the immigrant narrative is concerned, much of what these two groups experienced followed closely.  There was the journey, leaving the old world, to a new land, which included shock, resistance, discrimination, and exploitation (stages 1 through 3).  Following this usually resulted in the following generation’s assimilation (or resistance) into the culture of the new land; for example, the next generation’s interaction with the Canaanites.  Typically, with the stories read this semester, about half of the immigrants or their children, reached step 5.  With the Puritans, the later revivals could resemble this step, and, with the post-Holocaust Jews, the memory and education (educating the public about the Holocaust) of the atrocities resembled step 5 as well.

As far as patterns to follow for the future, the immigrant narrative can be applied to many life experiences, not just that of immigrants, but those undergoing a journey of sorts to new lands, new experiences, or new ways of living, thinking, and evolving.  As far as the Jewish-American population is concerned, remembering this pattern seems to be an empowering way of teaching and retaining their culture throughout the generations.  With the Anglo-Americans, it seems, in America and much of the rest of the modern world, that they have taken over as the dominant culture, and, in the eyes of some non-Anglo peoples, the new oppressive force, the new Pharaoh and English monarchy. [WF]