Yezierska Anzia, Bread Givers, and Immigrants essays

Yezierska Anzia, Bread Givers, and Immigrants essays Over the years, many people have been under the impression that the "America" of the twentieth century was a haven for "the tired" of the world. Indeed, many have accepted the historical propaganda surrounding the myth of Ellis Island, the old "cosmopolitan" New York, and the "simpler days" of life for those fresh off the boat. Unfortunately the actual lives of those "fortunate" enough to cross the ocean in hopes of making new lives on American shores was quite differentespecially for European immigrants as a whole, and Jewish immigrants in specifica fact that the writer Anzia Yezierska demonstrates There is quite a bit of controversy surrounding the writing of twentieth century Anzia Yezierska. Although today, many consider Yezierska to be one of the greatest immigrant-genre writers of the twentieth century, many in previous years considered most of the merit of her work to be of historical, rather than literary value. Indeed, many critics have flatly stated that her writing was "not very good," (Ebest) a statement that, even her supporters echo, "Yezierska's partisans have responded by seeing her stories as fictionalized memoirs and by extolling her ability to document the immigrant woman's experience." (Ebest) Of course, the danger in using Yezierska's texts as "historical material" is significantafter all, her daughter characterized her mother as being "incapable of telling the plain truth." (Henricksen, 255). Therefore, it is absolutely essential to keep in mind the "fiction" of the storyline, while absorbing the historical and social "essence" of the immigrant experience as communicated in Yezierska's writing. Mary Dearborn wrote of Yezierska in her work, Anzia Yezierska and the Making of an Ethnic American Self, "As a writer, Yezierska believed "her mission was to mediate between her culture and...