Who Is Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers?

In the biographical essay “Amy Tan” by Karen Stein, she mentions how Tan’s parents pressured her to be both medical physician and pianist. She grew up around California, moving frequently. At fifteen, Amy’s father passed away. This was when her mother, Daisy, took her children to Switzerland and enrolled them in school there, only to return again to California in the late 1960’s. Despite her parent’s wishes, and her mother’s pressure; Tan eventually switched her life course when she changed her majors in college to English and Linguistics (2). As a now successful American novelist, Tan has wrote such stores as the popular Joy Luck Club, a collection of stories involving many Asian-American characters involved in a Mahjong club and the trials and tribulations they face as Old-world American immigrants. Tan, today, is considered and important voice among the groups of “hyphenated Americans.” (Stein 3) “Two Kinds,” in fact, was one of the stories in the short series. As a reflection of her own past, “Two Kinds” itself was largely a piece of Tan’s history written in fictional form. John Updike, on the other hand, is a prolific American writer whose career began by writing about such political issues like the Cold War and the Iron Curtain. As a child of the Great Depression and enduring WWII, in similarity to Tan, Updike was no stranger to uncertainty and hardship (Greiner 195). While Tan and Updike’s style differ greatly,

In this essay I will discuss and analyze the social forces that influenced American women writers of the period of 1865 to 1912. I will describe the specific roles female authors played in this period and explain how the perspectives of female authors differed from their male contemporaries.

These “newcomers” did not deserve to come here and steal their jobs. Mike Trudic’s account from his childhood referred to his father’s hunt in America to desperately find work, “At the end of a week he was taken ill and died. It said he died of a broken heart”(Mike, 188). There were just too many workers and not enough jobs to be filled. Another first hand source provided by Rose Cohen, called Out of the Shadow, depicts the story of a jewish girl in New York and the experiences her family goes through in order to reach a sustainable lifestyle. The struggles included descriptions of harsh working conditions and anti-semitism, which created difficulty for immigrants who were trying to assimilate into the American culture.

In Anzia Yezierska's short story "The lost beautifulness," the protagonist Hanneh Hayyeh scrimps and saves to be able to paint her apartment white to make it look respectable for her son Ady when he comes home from fighting World War I. Hayyeh wants some kind of hope to cling to in her desperate immigrant's life. Although the dialect of the characters is Russian-Jewish and the setting is in an early 20th century urban environment, the idea of immigrant aspirations and the conflict between rich and poor is a common theme in American literature.

(Krantz’s Grand Isle Hotel Picture of painting by Tracy Warhart Plaisance) (Reflechir: Vol.1. Les images des prairies tremblantes: 1840-1940 by Chénière Hurricane Centennial Committee)

The Portrayal of the Plight of Women by the Author, In Their Particular Period of Time

Bell’s story begins with an immigrant named George Kracha, who left behind everything to work in Pennsylvania alongside his brother-in-law in an industrial town. “He left behind him in a Hungarian village a young wife, a sister and a widowed mother; it may be that he hoped he was likewise leaving behind the endless poverty and oppression which were the birthrights of a Slovak peasant in Franz Josef’s empire” (3). Kracha had enough money to get him to White Haven, but his poor judgement and false expectations got the best of him and it was quickly burned through; “unfortunately no one had thought to warn him against his own taste for whisky and against dark women who became 19 years of age in the middle of the ocean” (4). By writing about how much immigrants were willing to sacrifice to come to America and what expectations they had, as well as the harsh realities they faced, Bell is effective and correctly portrays what life was like for a new

Thousands of immigrants moving to America during the turn of the nineteenth century have faced extreme diversity on their quests to fulfill their American dreams. Immigrants faced a multitude of hardships and battled prejudices that were rampant throughout America during this time period. However, for the most part, Hilda Polacheck, an immigrant emigrating from Poland made out fairly well in her life. Hilda experienced what it was truly like to be a poor working immigrant, however, she was able to break out of the poverty cycle and was determined to make the world a better place. With this success she was able to step back and look at the social injustices being committed in the United States clearly, without being blinded by the hardships and the tragedies of being a poor immigrant. Throughout Hilda’s Autobiography, as well as throughout history, an immigrant woman in the United States faced extensive discrimination as well as vast and often unjust limitations on their inalienable rights as citizens of the United States.

This paper deals with the concern of celebrating feminism. The representatives of this act with the causes and effects are discussed in detail with a special reference to the novels of Maya Angelouand Toni Morrison. African American women’s writing and its impact in the society are immense. The twentieth century has been a revolutionary era for the African American literature because many women writers contributed to the growth of feminist writings during this century. These black writers expressed themselves and created a deep impact on the African American, literary arena. The works of these women writers reflect

In the autobiography, “Out of the Shadow”, author Rose Cohen, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, explains the social and economic conditions during the late 1800s and early 1900s for Jews immigrating into the United States. Cohen explains how many Jews fled Eastern Europe and Russia during this time due to the ruling of the tsar, fear of religious persecution, and economic restrictions. Because these restrictions were becoming the norm for Jewish people in their county, Rose’s father, a tailor, began to embark on a journey to the United States of America, in hopes of beginning a new life for himself and his family. Even though her father is captured at the border of Russia and returned home, he managed to get to America. Once in

Anzia Yezierska’s personal immigrant narrative began in Russian Poland. She was born around 1885, and immigrated to America with her family when she was 15 years old. Yezierska’s family were Jews who escaped from the anti-Semitic government that was in control of Russia at that time. They settled in New York’s Lower East Side, along with millions of East European Jews who fled to the United States ("Anzia" 28:332).

The consistent examples of the differing opinions between the Americanized character, Levinsky, and other Jewish immigrants support the thesis. Proved from the novel’s characters, materialism in America creates struggles for the Jews to adapt and fit in, along with making opposing perspectives on what has importance among various

“Here I have been your doll wife, just as at-home I used to be papa’s doll child.” states Nora Helmer (A Doll House, Act 3 pg. 114). The play A Doll House was composed by Henrik Ibsen and is written in first person. It takes place in Norway in the late 1800s. A Doll house focuses on a woman name Nora Helmer who is married with children. After eight years of being married, she decides to end it. Nora ends her relationship to start a new life and discover herself. However; she does commit a selfish act by leaving her children behind with the father. Literary elements such as, plot ,setting, and theme enrich the play and the experience of the reader.

First and foremost, I am overwhelmed as a president of African Young Adult (AYA) to be called upon at this day of July 13th, 16 at the United Nations conference to speak on behalf of African countries on the topic of family and gender violence: women and girls.

In the dolls house Nora one of the main characters makes her life miserable by decepting all she knew. Nora makes a crime in which she forges her fathers singinture, lies to her husband Helmer, and betrayed her children. In the end, Nora decides to leave her home and escape from everything to find her true self.