Tuesday, 24 January: Examples of the Immigrant Narrative. Anzia Yezierska, “Soap and Water” (IA 105-110) [handout]; Nicholasa Mohr, “The English Lesson” (IA 21-34); Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, “Going Home: Brooklyn Revisited” (VA 158-169) [handout]

·        Text-objective discussion leader: Mark Chapa

Text-Objectives

Objective 2c. setting(s):  Where does the immigrant narrative take place?

Homeland?  Journey?  America?  Return to homeland?

“Ethnic Enclave” (e.g., ghetto, barrio) as a transition or limbo between 2 worlds.

Objective 2d.  character by generation:  What are the standard associations or identities of distinct generation?

First-generation as “heroic” but also “clueless”

Second-generation as “divided” between traditional identities of homeland or ethnic group and modern identity of assimilated American; bi-cultural and bi-lingual.

Objective 3. To compare and contrast the immigrant narrative with the minority narrative – or, American Dream versus American Nightmare: 

Differences between immigrants and minorities

Objective 5. To observe and analyze the effects of immigration and assimilation on cultural units or identities:

Gender – In the Old World, gender identities tend to be traditional, with division of power, labor and expression.  In the New World, gender may be de-emphasized in favor of equality, merit, and other gender-neutral concepts.

Readings

“Soap and Water”

p. 105 paragraph 1

p. 106 paragraph 6

p. 110 paragraph 4

“Going Home: Brooklyn Revisited”

p. 159 paragraph 2

p. 162 paragraph 2

p. 166 paragraph 2, 3, and 4

p. 169 paragraph 1

“The English Lesson”

p. 21 paragraph 3

p. 24 last line

p. 25 middle of the page

p. 30 top

p. 31 middle

p.  33 middle

Questions

1. The narrator in “Soap and Water” faces a huge obstacle (Miss Whiteside) which she can not seem to overcome until she comes across what seems to be her savior.  What parallels can be drawn between her individual ordeal and the concept of society as a whole?  What is the big picture?

2.  It seems that the neighborhood in Going Home: Brooklyn Revisited is a sort of purgatory between the old world and the Dream.  Why is this?  If you make it, you find the dream; if you don’t there are always reasons why you didn’t.  Is there any validity to this  thinking?  Is there a “they” that keeps us from success and if so can we define them? 

3.   The English Lesson seems somewhat softer in tone than the other two stories, but what messages does it share in common? Think in terms of the various stories told by individuals in the classroom.