This short story is about Hanneh Hayyeh, a Russian Jew, who at the beginning of the story has just finished painting the kitchen in the apartment she rents with her husband. She paints her kitchen white in order to imitate the house of the woman she works for Mrs Preston and also as a surprise for her the return of her son, who has been serving in the army. After painting her kitchen, she immediately invites her local butcher and neighbours to come see her newly painted house. However, Hanneh's landlord sees the painting she has done and raises her rent arguing that the apartment is now worth more. Hanneh cannot afford her new rent and therefore begins to starve herself in a bid to raise enough money to pay her rent so that when her son return from the army he will be returning to a home instead of the street. Unfortunately, her landlord only continues to raise her rent month after month and although Mrs Preston offers her money Hanneh adamantly refuses arguing that she does not want pity or charity.
I found it hard to identify the moral lesson for immigrants from this short story, especially since the main character and her son are left destitute and homeless at the end of the story. Like many immigrants of the time Hanneh, is enamoured by the "beautiful" lifestyle that her Anglo-Saxon employee Mrs Preston represents and seeks to imitate this in anyway she can. As a result of this she is unfairly kicked out of her home and is left 'broken'. The only moral lesson that anyone could take from this is that life in America for immigrants at that time was not as expected, Hanneh even says
“Some one who got nothing but only money
will come in here and get the pleasure from all this
beautifulness that cost me the blood from my heart.
Is this already America? What for was my Aby
fighting? Was it then only a dream - all these
millions people from all lands and from all times,
wishing and hoping and praying that America is?
Did I wake myself from my dreaming to see myself
back in the black times of Russia under the czar"
This suggests that Yezierska believes that America is not the land of opportunity as many immigrants were promised and that even though Hanneh and her husband work very hard, this does not guarantee them success or financial security. Therefore America loses its "Beautifulness" and its appeal.
Soap and Water
This short story is about a young woman at college who is told that she cannot be awarded her diploma due to her rough appearance. After refusing to come to terms with this she has an outburst and explains to the reader that her appearance is due to her having to work eight hours everyday before college in a laundry in order to pay for her tuition. The protagonist then begins to explain that after her outburst her attitude towards Americans became negative and even began to hate them as she was continuously turned down for every teaching job she applied for. However, her luck finally changes after meeting an old acquaintance from teaching college who has now risen to become a professor who offers her a job.
Although the protagonist wants to improve her life through educating herself due to her love of English poetry, she is denied work due to her dishevelled appearance. The moral lesson of this story is that in America the hardship that immigrants went through is not recognised, the protagonist is judged by the college dean as being untidy and inappropriate for any position, this could represent a general view held by Americans about immigrants. However, the last lines of the short story suggest that America is in fact a land of opportunity for everyone including immigrants.
“America! I found America.”
This therefore suggests that although Yezierska might have a negative view on the way in which opportunities for immigrants are portrayed, she does not doubt the fact that there are opportunities and that although life for immigrants was filled with its fair share of hardships, the chance for success is what ultimately, what every immigrant works towards and for.
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