Tuesday, 18 April: The Pilgrims and the Hebrew model of national migration . . .

·        Poetry reader: Jo Lynn Sallee

Poem: Enid Dame, “On the Road to Damascus, Maryland,” UA 141

Biographical Information

Biographical Information:  Enid Dame was born in Pennsylvania.  She lived her life as a teacher, fiction writer, publisher and editor.  Enid and her poet husband, Donald Lev, published and edited the Home Planet News for nearly a quarter of a century.  She also served as the Associate Director of the Writing Program at Rutgers University in New Brunswick and was a faculty member at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Most notable of her published poetry are, On the Road to Damascus, Maryland, 1980, Lilith and Her Demons, 1986, and Anything You Don’t See, 1990.  Her poems examined Jewish tradition and identity, political activism and urban life.  She died on December 25, 2003 from complications caused by pneumonia.

Objective 2

2a.  Basic stages of the immigrant  narrative

Since Ms. Dame was born in Pennsylvania, stages 1, 2 and 3 Leave the Old World and Journey to the New World, Shock, Resistance and discrimination are not relevant.

Stage 4 – Assimilation to dominant culture and loss of ethnic identity –

“I’d already been:

a New York Jew

a radical teacher,

an Ethical Culturist,

a barefoot breadbaker

a nice girl in knee socks,”

Stage 5  - Rediscovery or reassertion of ethnic identity

“ I sat in the back seat

dreamily

making a list

of new names”

2b.  narrator or viewpoint  - who writes the immigrant narrative?

Does not specifically state, but I will assume her parents must be first generation and the speaker their child, second generation.

2c.  setting – where does the immigrant narrative take place?

The family appears to be making a second immigration within the United States.

“On the road to Damascus, Maryland

between the trailer camps and rosebushes”

2d.  character by generation – two generations traveling together with expectations for one another.  Parents -  for child to finally grow up.  Child – to remain in continue searching for her American Dream.

Objective 5

To observe and analyze the effects of immigration and assimilation on cultural units or identities:

Family – assimilated to American culture by traveling in a nuclear, instead of extended family.

Gender – female appears to have many opportunities outside of the traditional.

Interpretation – speaker is living the American dream, even though not completely achieving it.  She has had the opportunity to try different jobs, but does not seem able to settle on one, to the apparent unease of her parents.

“I was relieved 

when they changed the subject

to where we’d eat lunch

in Damascus.”

Questions for discussion:

1.  Why has the author not been able to achieve her American Dream?

2.  What is the significance of “a nice girl/in knee socks.”?

3.  How important is “making a list of new names” to the theme of this poem?

Bibliography

http:users.tellurian.com/wisewomensweb/dame.html

http://en.wilipedia.org/wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Dame