Christina Holmes: Text-Objective Discussion Leader

“Soap and Water” by Anzia Yezierska

Objective 1:

To identify the immigrant narrative as a fundamental story-line of American Culture, and to recognize its relations to the “American Dream.”

Question: What triggered her quest for the American dream?

A poem , titled “The Machine”

“One day, when I was about sixteen, someone gave me Rosenfeld’s poem, “The Machine” to read. Like a spark thrown among oil rags, it set my whole being aflame with longing for self expression.”

Question: How could she learn self expression?

By attending college-

“Suddenly, there came upon me this inspiration. I can go to college! There I shall learn to express myself, to voice my thoughts.”

Thus began her quest for the American Dream:

 “The courses of study that I had to swallow to get my diploma were utterly barren of interest to me. I didn’t come to college to get dull learning from dead books I didn’t come for that dry inanimate stuff that can be hammered out of lectures. I came because I longed for the larger life, for the stimulus of intellectual associations. I came because my whole being clamored for more vision, more light.”(108)

Inside the ruin of my thwarted life, the unlived visionary immigrant hungered and thirsted for America. I had come, a refugee from the Russian pogroms, aflame with dreams of America.  I did not find America in the sweatshops, much less the schools and colleges. (109)

Question: Was she the only one longing for America? What had been her premise of America?

“But for hundreds of years the persecuted races all over the world were nurtured on hopes of America.”(109)

When a little baby in my mother’s arms, before I was old enough to speak, I saw all around me weary faces light up with thrilling tales of the far-off, “golden country.”(109)

Objective 2: To chart the dynamics, variations and stages of the immigrant narrative

Question: The dynamics, variations and stages of her vision of the American Dream change.  What happens to change her view of America?

She is continually met with negative aspects of America;

“She told me that my skin looked oily, my hair unkempt, and my fingernails sadly neglected. She told me that I was utterly unmindful of the little niceties of the well-groomed lady. She pointed out that my collar did not set evenly, my belt was awry, and there was a lack of freshness in my dress. And she ended with: “Soap and water are cheap. Anyone can be clean.”(105)

“.…I had come to Central Park for the first time. Like a bird just out from a cage, I stretched out my arms, and then flung myself in ecstatic abandon on the grass. Just as I began to breathe in the fresh-smelling earth, and lift up my eyes to the sky, a big fat policeman with a club in his hand, seized me, with”Can’t you read the sign? Get off the grass!”(108)

“The death-blows to all aspiration began when I graduated from college and tried to get a start at the work for which I had struggled so hard to fit myself.” (108)

“I was considered unfit to get decent pay for my work because of my appearance, ad it was the advantage of those who used me that my appearance should damn me, so as to get me to work for the low wages I was forced to accept.” (108)

The stages dwindle;

“It seemed to me the whole vicious circle of society’s injustices was thrust like a noose around my neck to strangle me. (108)

“And so, though my faith in this so-called America was shattered, yet underneath, in the sap and roots of my soul. burned the deathless faith that America is, must be, somehow, somewhere.” (109)

Objective 3:

To compare and contrast the immigrant narrative with the minority narrative.

Question: Despite being an immigrant who desired to come to America, how was her treatment compared to a minority narrative?

Overlap between immigrant and minority identities can be seen:

“She told me that my skin looked oily, my hair unkempt, and my fingernails sadly neglected. She told me that I was utterly unmindful of the little niceties of the well-groomed lady. She pointed out that my collar did not set evenly, my belt was awry, and there was a lack of freshness in my dress. And she ended with: “Soap and water are cheap. Anyone can be clean.”(105)

“The English Lesson” by Nicholasa Mohr

Objective 1:

 To identify the immigrant narrative as a fundamental story-line of American Culture, and to recognize its relations to the “American Dream.”

“William spoke rapidly. I study Basic English por que…because my ambition is to learn to speak and read English very good. To get a better job.(24)

“My name is Joseph Fong…I taking Basic English to speak good and improve my position better in this country. Also to be eligible to become American citizen.”(24)

Diego Torres- “…to improve my economic situation.” (25)

Question: What is it that the majority of the people are looking for in America?

Objective 2: To chart the dynamics, variations and stages of the immigrant narrative

Assimilation-

Mr. Fong, Mr. Fabrizi and Mr. Paczkowski all want to become American citizens; this gives us the premise that they are willing to make the necessary changes to do so.

Mrs. Hamma- gives back to the community through her teaching services and notes that her grandparents were immigrants- Assimilation is evident in Mrs. Hamma

Noted comparisons between the stories

Attractions that motivated them to either come to America and or become American citizens.

·         Better job opportunity

·         Ability to take part in the American dream

·         Desire for education

The cost many had to pay to obtain their desires/American dream.

·         Shock

·         Rejection from the dominant culture regarding their speech, dress, traditions

·         Gained bitterness of the American culture