What stood out to me the most in How I Found America was that America was more than just a place, it was a symbol, whether it be hope or defeat. In Part One, America was the light at the end of the tunnel for all Jews, being referred to as “sunshine” on multiple occasions. The desperation for a new place, a salvation, bleeds from the text. Yezierska makes it very easy to hear her voice, see her views and logic. The fact that this part of the story is being told from a ten-year-old’s point of view helps bring out the innocence in the tone as well. The reader can see how naïve Yezierska and her family thought by showing how they were willing to sell everything they owned to reach this escape. Yezierska foolishly makes the same sacrificial mistake later on in the text when she chooses to leave her job to go to Immigrant School. Again, this is the result of hope and wanting. She believed that if she was provided with an education she would be happier, that an education is why she wanted to go to America. However, both instances are met with defeat and hardship. The reader can feel the heart-sinking disappointment Yezierska and her family experienced when they found America was not the place of their imagination and dreams. There were a few instances when Yezierska preferred to be back in Russia. Disappointment reappeared at the Immigrant School where Yezierska learned that it was a school to teach trade and not an actual education. And that, I think, is the biggest downfall of hope: that when your expectations aren’t met, you let down is that much more intense. But that’s what I liked most about the reading. Not the fact that Yezierska was met with such trials, but that she makes the reader feel what she felt, see what she saw. I was entertained and interested in continuing reading and learning more about her story because she made me put myself in her shoes. I could felt like I knew exactly what she was talking about when she was distraught by feeling betrayed by her fellow sweat shop workers or when she realized the sun doesn’t shine in the rooms in America. And the same goes for when she’s elated. My emotions were right next to hers on the rollercoaster they were riding.
Hailey Dolan
ReplyDeleteWhat stood out to me the most in How I Found America was that America was more than just a place, it was a symbol, whether it be hope or defeat. In Part One, America was the light at the end of the tunnel for all Jews, being referred to as “sunshine” on multiple occasions. The desperation for a new place, a salvation, bleeds from the text. Yezierska makes it very easy to hear her voice, see her views and logic. The fact that this part of the story is being told from a ten-year-old’s point of view helps bring out the innocence in the tone as well. The reader can see how naïve Yezierska and her family thought by showing how they were willing to sell everything they owned to reach this escape.
Yezierska foolishly makes the same sacrificial mistake later on in the text when she chooses to leave her job to go to Immigrant School. Again, this is the result of hope and wanting. She believed that if she was provided with an education she would be happier, that an education is why she wanted to go to America.
However, both instances are met with defeat and hardship. The reader can feel the heart-sinking disappointment Yezierska and her family experienced when they found America was not the place of their imagination and dreams. There were a few instances when Yezierska preferred to be back in Russia. Disappointment reappeared at the Immigrant School where Yezierska learned that it was a school to teach trade and not an actual education. And that, I think, is the biggest downfall of hope: that when your expectations aren’t met, you let down is that much more intense.
But that’s what I liked most about the reading. Not the fact that Yezierska was met with such trials, but that she makes the reader feel what she felt, see what she saw. I was entertained and interested in continuing reading and learning more about her story because she made me put myself in her shoes. I could felt like I knew exactly what she was talking about when she was distraught by feeling betrayed by her fellow sweat shop workers or when she realized the sun doesn’t shine in the rooms in America. And the same goes for when she’s elated. My emotions were right next to hers on the rollercoaster they were riding.