American Studies Blog Post 7

What are the moral lessons in each story and how would you account for their meaning to immigrants?

Anzia Yezierska – The Lost “Beautifulness” and Soap and Water in hungry hearts [short story collection] 1920

Interestingly, both stories were written in 1920, which is referred to as the ‘roaring twenties’. A phrase, which developed from Presidential candidate, Warren G. Harding, who promised the ‘return to normalcy’ in the election of 1920. During this time, the economy was moving away from the recession after the war to a more beneficial economy thriving on consumerism. However this didn’t affect everyone. Farmers, low wage earners and a lot of black Americans suffered through this ‘roaring’ era. Around 2 million people were unemployed and the top 5% of the population earned 33% of the income, with 40% of Americans living below the poverty line. Some women were able to enjoy more independence especially through fashion, however they were still paid less and expected to work within domestic roles. These two short stories by Anzia Yezierska, demonstrate the struggles that immigrants faced when arriving within America. 

(Statistics from: http://www.johndclare.net/America4.htm)

The Lost “Beautifulness” is a short story written by Anzia Yezierska, which focuses on a passionate mother, Hanneh Hayyeh, who is waiting for her son to return home from the military. She devotes her life, up until her self-destruction; on making her families house a home.

The moral of the story is the reality that immigrants faced upon arrival within America. Hanneh represents the individuals who arrived in search of the American Dream, and instead found poverty; “I’m sick of living like a pig with my nose in the earth.” Hanneh saves up her own money in order to buy paint, in attempt to make her house grand for her sons return. However, once this is completed the landlord raises “the rent five dollars a month”. This leads to further problems within the Hayyeh household. Hanneh has to learn to cut back on spending money by not buying as much food, ultimately starving herself. However her pride and ambition are much greater than the landlord.

In stark contrast to Hanneh’s life is the character Mrs. Preston, who portrays the successful outcome of the American Dream within society. Intriguingly, Hanneh states that Mrs. Preston makes her feel like a “person” implicating that Hanneh does not feel whole without her influence. This is reinforced when she has no rights against the landlord when he increases her rent. She is almost portrayed as a slave to the system.

In reference to the title The Lost Beautifulness, implicates a sense of Americans becoming lost within the consumerism market and their ambitions and therefore people are not appreciating their surroundings and opportunities provided by the land of America.

Soap and Water is again a short story by Anzia Yezierska, who focuses on a student who is denied her diploma due to her appearance. However, the student is working to support herself through school in hope of becoming a teacher.

The story again portrays a character that is struggling to adapt to her new life as an immigrant in America. The dean informs her that “she could not recommend me as a teacher because of my personal appearance”, insinuating that she is judging a book by its cover. However, her character not only completes her studies, but also completes “eight hours of work a day” and therefore lacked in strength to keep herself well kept. Again, very much like Hanneh’s character focusing on the kitchen, she focuses on her ambition of becoming a teacher.

“The idea of going to college was like the birth of a new religion in my soul. It put new fire in my eyes, and new strength in my tired arms and fingers.”

The character questions where America is, “America! Ach, America! Where is America?” Which indicates that she felt abandoned by the dreams that America once presented itself too, reinstating Anzia Yezierska’s point that immigrants did not all receive a positive lifestyle. The story closes with the sentence “I found America” which demonstrates how the American Dream is different to everyone. The protagonist of the novel, feels as if she has made it after a simple meeting with an old teacher to make her feel better.

Both Stories follow the same idea of the struggles, which presented themselves to immigrants arriving in America in the 1920s. The main differences between Anzia Yezierska stories are that Hanneh is left “dumped ... in the rain”, “broken”. Where as the protagonist in the second novel feels like she has found America and is portrayed as over joyed. Neither woman in the stories present a positive outcome of the immigration movement that America saw, however looking at statistics this is not unusual, especially as they are women.

Six Shooter City – Bruce Harris

The story follows a little boy and his father who live out in the West. They are both about to go and purchase a drink from the bar, when a stagecoach arrives carrying three “dirty looking men”. They cornered the sheriff and when threatened say “we aren’t looking for no trouble”. However, later when the father and boy are at the bank taking money out, they are caught in the mix up and arrested and put in prison. They are then informed they are to be hung, although the situation turned out to be “one big joke”. Unfortunately, the little boys father “never hit the floor” when the box collapsed under his feet. The sheriff covered up the mistake by informing the Six Shooter City that the boy’s father committed suicide. There are many different morals portrayed within this story. The first is suggested that wrong people are caught in the cross fire, as the little boy and father never did anything wrong, but also that people higher up within society have the power to cover up and over look certain events.

(Source from: http://www.ropeandwire.com/FullStories/Six_Shooter_City.html)

There are similarities which can be drawn from Anzia Yezierska stories as within The Lost “Beautifulness, Hanneh is ultimately made homeless due to a higher power and the protagonist within Soap and Water, is not provided the same opportunities due to her dean not listening or helping as to why she may not be clean, which limits her career ambitions.