Instruction
Think about the judgments that authors like Eaton, Cahan, and Yezierska make on the immigrant experience. However, we haven’t discussed the ways these narratives allow readers also to glimpse America—the cause of all the fuss.
A narrative, especially one as long as Yekl, gives an author the space to explore specific places, people, and experiences in detail—whether or not they’re integral to the main plot. Cahan gives us memorable portraits of the Lower East Side sweatshop, the streets of the LES, the dance hall on Suffolk Street, the tenement rooftop, and, perhaps most rich of all, the “kitchen of Rabbi Aaronovitz, on the third floor of a rickety old tenement house” (p. 82). Eaton and Yezierska are no less vivid—the first time young Eaton and her brother see Chinese men, and the remarkably smug and conniving Americanized Russian family for whom Yezierska’s narrator works.
Using two or three class texts (at least one of them must be Yekl, . . . And the Earth Did Not Devour Him, or Comfort Woman), investigate the attraction and fascination of America that the authors portray. Why would their characters leave behind family and traditions to come to a place that was often less than welcoming and brought so many hardships? Overall, would your texts encourage or discourage potential immigrants to join “ethnic America”? (It’s not entirely clear whether the migrant workers in Rivera are immigrants, but they presumably have ties to Mexico and could return if they so desired.)
Be sure to focus on a few specific examples from your texts to support your claims, and you’re welcome to argue that one or some of your authors are ultimately ambivalent—that he, she, or they argue for and against America.
Your essay should be 1500-1800 words.