Jason W.  Bollich
Literature 4333, Immigrant Literature
22 April 2002
Dr. Craig White 

Education as the Primary Stepping Stone to Achieving the American Dream

Imagine coming to a new land where everything was completely different than what a person or people had always known from their previous land.  Where would they go?  What would they do?  More importantly, would they survive what must be, to most, a devastating culture shock?  Many would come to realize that there would be only one weapon with which they could arm themselves with in order to do battle and survive, an education.  During the last two hundred years or so, especially in the later 1800's and the next forty plus years, as people immigrated from the "Old World", the country from which they were coming, to the "New World" or America, immigrants have had to pursue an education in order to assimilate into the dominant culture as a means for survival.  The importance of an education was in no way lost to immigrants as they were aware that without one, their hopes of achieving the American Dream were slim to none.  Sadly enough, it was difficult for many first generation immigrants to comprehend this, as their idea of education may have been learning to work the land or take up household chores, but there were many in the generations to come that knew an education would be important if they were to make their way in the New World.  There were some immigrants, however, who did come with an education, but they had to learn English, which for them was as if they were receiving a completely new education.  Several immigrant authors have written works that describe either themselves or fictional characters that go in search of the American Dream, or as a matter of assimilation, and an identity through the pursuit of education while also establishing a connection with their heritage. 

            Education can be acquired through many forms rather it be a formal education or simply going out on one's own and learning by reading books in a library.  One such writer who knew the importance of an education was of Italian descent, Mario Puzo.   Italian immigrants held such strong family ties that most were unable to break free to pursue an education (American Education 66).  Most Italian immigrants were said to have not had a positive school experience as they could not understand the new ways they were being introduced to especially since children's parents held so firmly to the old traditional values and believed in simply going out and working (74), as did Puzo's mother, yet Puzo shattered the mold through his reading and determination.  Puzo realized at a very early age he wanted to become a writer which was his own American Dream as he wrote in a personal narrative "Choosing a Dream: Italians in Hell's Kitchen" (Visions 48).  Although he felt it was an impossible dream, Puzo set out to achieve this task on his own.  His parents were both illiterate, worked very hard to earn what little they could, and possessed the views of the Old World.  They were merely peasants as were most immigrants that entered the New World between the years 1820 to 1920 (American Education 3).  Many immigrants simply assumed their children would follow them and lead a life as they had.  Puzo's mother was very unsure if he could achieve such a feat as she believed only an aristocrat could be a writer, and so at the young age of sixteen, Mario Puzo began learning what he could of the art and began writing in pursuit of his dream and to break away from the old world and forge his own identity. 

   The dream would be a challenge as it was for so many immigrants, as the need to help support the family became top priority.  Unfortunately there was great difficulty for many of the new Americans trying to fulfill their dreams, and Puzo was no different.  At the age of fifteen, he found himself working on the railroad, and he stated, "I was hopelessly trapped by my family, by society, by my lack of skills and education" (Visions 55).  The only way to fulfill his dream was to not lose hope, not give up, and sustain the drive and determination.  Without these, one would surely follow the steps of their parents, a destiny that they so desperately wanted to avoid.  Puzo knew he must keep focused and concentrated on learning and writing.  He also kept reading anything he could acquire.  Many immigrant writers followed this same pattern, as they absorbed each morsel of literature they could obtain.  This was part of the transformation process that would take them from the Old World into the New World, a journey of sorts that opened new doors to step away from poverty and assimilate into the dominant culture.  Puzo's mother was still very skeptical of all his reading and learning, for she did not truly understand.  She symbolized the old world that was ignorant of the new world while Puzo had begun to see the light shining from the new world.  Furthermore his mother could never believe her son would become more than her.  Her American Dream was to come to America to "earn her daily bread" (Visions 57).  His dream became reality as Puzo vigilantly pursued it for he wrote and wrote, and the learning and the practicing of his writing, which eventually paid off as his novels were published and several later to be made into movies.  His most famous novel was The Godfather, which stayed on the New York Top Ten List for sixty-nine weeks and sold more than fifteen million copies in the United States alone.  In this epic story, Puzo wrote about the struggles of a family from Italy, representing the Old World, who came to America for a better life all the while the main character is trying to balance the ways of the Old World while assimilating into the New World.  The characters hold on to Italian traditions, but begin taking on new ones, which follows the immigrant narrative.  For the Italians, balancing such views of learning the ways of the New World and understanding their cultural background was an important part of their beliefs for education (American Education 63).  Puzo's mother finally came to admit that her son achieved his dream and had become a writer, or poet as she called him (Visions 50).  Puzo was able to break free of the restraints such as family that he felt so captured by and hindered.

Another immigrant author who understood how vitally important acquiring an education was, especially in order to assimilate, yet hold onto her culture was Paule Marshall.  Born of Barbadian parents, Marshall was a first generation American.  Like Puzo, she read all the materials she could acquire, and through a love of reading, she pursued a higher education and graduated from Brooklyn College.  She later completed graduate courses at Hunter College, and went on to work in libraries, give lectures at various colleges, and write for magazines, winning several writing awards (American Women 87).  In "The Making of a Writer: From the Poets in the Kitchen", Marshall wrote that education can be acquired in formal or informal settings.  "The process of education included a wide range of activities outside the formal school system-not only in museums and libraries, but also in the family, the church, the workshop, and even loose associations of the neighborhood and the peer group" (American Education 3).  In her short story, she explains how as a young girl she would be sitting near her mother and her mother's friends who would have been gathered around a table sipping tea and gossiping and sharing stories of the news and events of the time (Visions 84).  Here was the one of the greatest opportunities Marshall had as she was receiving an invaluable education by not only hearing the news but also hearing stories about family values and their culture.  Learning about one's culture is not always best learned by reading about it in a book, but rather it must be taught and learned through experience by one who possesses experience.  This was the beginning for Marshall, for she was able to begin building a foundation of information on her culture and life in general that would inspire her to seek further knowledge which she later did in libraries.  For Marshall, advancing from the kitchens with the "poets" as she called her mother and her mother's friends to the library was representative of her moving from the Old World, the kitchen where stories of old were told, to the New World, the library where books presented new discoveries to be gathered. 

While adventuring through libraries and a wealth of books, Marshall came by a book written by Paul Laurence Dunbar, a black author (88).  She had discovered other writers she could relate with and still she read classics by white authors as she had first began to while visiting the libraries.  The fascinating aspect concerning the discovery of the black authors was that while Marshall could be seen as seeking an education by reading, and attending school, she rediscovered her culture as is part of the immigrant narrative process in which one journeys to the New World, assimilates, and later rediscovers Old World culture, values, and traditions.  Even after achieving success of graduating from college and becoming a published author, Marshall still gives credit stating her best work comes from the nice blending of storytelling and language from the poets in the kitchen (89).

Immigrants became educated by various means, but some immigrants already had an education, and they had to achieve a different type of education, which was working through the process of learning the English language.  While learning the English language, immigrants were receiving an education on American culture and the dominant class while trying to sort out how they were to assimilate into the culture.  Many immigrant authors wrote fictional stories depicting immigrants struggling with the language and trying to "fit in".  One such author was Nicholasa Mohr who wrote the short story titled "The English Lesson".  In the story there is a white teacher who symbolizes what the dominant culture is.  The teacher, Mrs. Hamma was a dominating figure in the classroom full of immigrants who were trying to learn English.  She was the tallest person in the room, which could be seen as the teacher at the top that everyone was looking up to, trying to reach that height where she was (Imagining 23).   It was the immigrants trying to climb the hill where sat the dominant culture. 

The character of Stephen Paczowski was representative of the immigrants who came to America already educated especially the Jewish, as was Paczowski, but needed to learn English and American ideals to find a better life.  He had been a professor in the history of music, teaching at the University of Krakow, as did his wife (23).  By American standards, with those jobs, they would have been part of the dominant class in Poland, yet in America, as educated as they were, fitting into the dominant class was far away for them without being educated in the English language and American ways.  Mrs. Hamma and the class were awkward toward Paczowski because he had an education and was learning the English language very well.  He was hoping to reclaim his position as a professor in America, and his chances of assimilating were far better than in anyone else in the class because they were so far behind.  Many immigrants success would not only depend on learning the language but on their expectancies of America as well as their background, social and personal (Migration 185).  Paczowski already having a formal education, and just needing to learn the language chances of assimilation into the dominant culture were greater than the other students.  Not only would the other students need to learn the language, but they would also need to acquire a formal education if they wanted a decent job.  Of course many of the characters would have to find a way of stepping out of the Old World and into The World.  The character of this mold, and who was the opposite of Stephen Paczowski, was Diego Torres.  In study of assimilation, many immigrants came to America not wanting to give up their countries and their beliefs, along with their language (183).  He came to America, as did many immigrants, for economical reasons, yet he did want to become an American citizen.  He stated he would "not give up my country, Santa Domingo, for nothing, nothing in the world" (25).  He simply wanted to make money and go back home and by some land and be content.  Many immigrants did make a little money and go back to their native countries and purchase property, and these people could not be considered to have assimilated, due to lack of knowledge and learning of the American culture.  But there were those like Paczowski who were fully aware that if one was to make it in America, achieve the American Dream, then one simply had to learn English and how to climb the ladder to the highest rung where sat the dominant culture. 

Not only was the receiving of an education, formal or informal, a key to assimilation and claiming the American Dream, but also was learning the English language.  These were the key ingredients to reaching the status of the dominant culture.  Acquiring an education and learning the language would become for so many immigrants a means for survival in the New World.  An immigrant would need to have these acquisitions in order to assimilate and have hope in reaching their American Dream.

Works Cited

Benbow-Pfalzgraf, Taryn, ed. American Women: A Critical Guide From Colonial Times to the Present. Vol. 3. Farmington Hills: St. James Press, 2000.

Brown, Wesley, and Amy Ling, eds. Imagining America: Stories From the Promised Land. New York: Persea Books, 1991.

Brown, Wesley, and Amy Ling, eds. Visions of America: Personal Narratives From the Promised Land. New York: Persea Books, 1993.

Jackson, J. A., ed. Migration. Cambridge: University Press, 1969.

Weiss, Bernard J., ed. American Education and the European Immigrant: 1840-1940. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1982.