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America and I: Tones of Identity and Belonging
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Published: Aug 31, 2023
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America & I by Anzia Yezierska – Summary
In “America and I,” Yezierska recalls her experiences finding work that expresses her creativity and thus the America of her dreams. She comes to the United States with hopes of building a new life, the kind of life that she and her ancestors were unable to achieve in Russia. She believes that in America, freed from the need to work constantly just to survive, she will have time to voice her creative self-expression.
She soon discovers she is mistaken. Unable to speak English and with no job skills or training, she is forced to work as a maid for an Americanized Russian family. Although they will not tell her how much she will be paid, she works hard for the family, grateful to have the chance to live with Americans and start to learn English. She also looks forward to receiving her first month’s wages so she can buy new clothes and look like an American herself. The family, however, makes no move to pay her. When Yezierska asks them for her wages, they tell her that she should be paying them for the opportunities they are giving her; without knowing English, she is worthless. Yezierska leaves the family immediately, without a penny and having lost her trust for any Americanized immigrants.
Yezierska returns to the Lower East Side, where the Jewish immigrants live. She gets a job at a sweatshop sewing on buttons. She only makes enough money to live in a room that she shares with a dozen other immigrants. She is always hungry, but she likes this job better than working for the family because she has her evenings to herself. When the shop gets busier, however, Yezierska is asked to work longer hours. Eventually, she complains, which gets her fired.
This employment experience, however, allows her to get a job in a regular factory. She has more free time and better pay, but she still feels discontented because she does not speak English well enough. She begins to attend an English class at the factory and confides to the teacher her desire to work with her head and her thoughts, not her hands. The teacher tells her that learning the language will solve her problem, so after Yezierska has mastered reading and writing English, she approaches her teacher again. She follows the teacher’s advice of joining a social club run by American women to help immigrant girls. The Women’s Association holds a lecture about how to be a happy, efficient worker. However, Yezierska questions how she can be happy when she is not working at a job she loves. The next evening, she goes to see a counselor at a vocational center and tells the woman that she wants a job that will allow her to express her creativity. The counselor advises her to become a shirtwaist designer. Yezierska begins to think that the America of her dreams—the America of self-expression— does not exist.
Frustrated, Yezierska begins to read about American history and the country’s first settlements. She realizes that as the Pilgrims had to create a new world, so must she. Unlike the Pilgrims, when confronted with adversity, she has always lost heart and faith in America. She has the epiphany that America is not a finished product but rather a world that is still being created. As a newcomer to America, she too can contribute to the country’s development. She decides to write about the life that she and her fellow immigrants experience in America. In doing this, she finds a job she loves and the America she has been seeking. At the same time that she revels in her success, she cannot help but feel sympathy for all the other immigrants who have been unable to achieve their dreams in America.
Source Credits:
Carol Ullmann (Editor) Short Stories for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context & Criticism on Commonly Studied Short Stories, Volume 15, Published by Gale, 2002.
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Introduction & Overview of America and I
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America and I Summary & Study Guide Description
Anzia Yezierska, known as the "Queen of the Ghetto" or "The Immigrant Cinderella," became a literary sensation in 1920 after the publication of her first volume of short stories, Hungry Hearts. Despite this instant celebrity, her career was erratic: her work had fallen out of popular favor by the 1930s, but she had a resurgence in 1950, with publication of the autobiographical Red Ribbon on a White Horse. Almost thirty years after Yezierska's death, Alice Kessler-Harris reintroduced her to the English-speaking public when she published The Open Cage: An Anzia Yezierska Collection.
"America and I," originally appearing in 1923 in Children of Loneliness, is one of three autobiographical articles in the book. While all of Yezierska's work takes as its most important theme the immigrant' s creation of her place in America, in "America and I," she addresses these issues in a more direct manner. Her difficulties are multifold: not only must she learn to communicate with Americans, she must convince them that she has something worthy to say. Yezierska's experiences also take on a deeper, more universal meaning; in sharing the hard road to fulfillment of her creative goals, Yezierska chronicles the challenges that face all aspiring writers.
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America and I
26 pages • 52 minutes read
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Throughout her first-person writing, author Yezierska uses colloquialisms to make her words distinctive, often peppering the dialogue with exclamations such as “Ach” and “Gottuniu” (“Dear God” in Russian), along with variations on “Oi weh” (a Yiddish expression and variation of “Oy vey”). This type of interjection emphasizes her otherness in multiple languages with a varied background, stressing her identity as a foreigner who is not fully assimilated into American culture. It also adds emotional intensity and heightens the immersive effect, helping contemporary readers better understand the world she comes from.
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Published: Aug 31, 2023. America and I - these words evoke a sense of complex identity and the myriad of emotions that accompany the experience of belonging to a nation as diverse and dynamic as the United States. In this essay, we delve into the multifaceted tones that shape the relationship between individuals and America.
Summary: "America and I". Anzia Yezierska introduces her immigration story by outlining why she came to America—to find hope, romance, and freedom to express herself. When she arrives, she says her body is strong and her "heart and soul pregnant with the unlived lives of generations clamoring for expression" (Paragraph 4).
America & I by Anzia Yezierska - Analysis. In a Literary Digest issue from 1923, Yezierska shared her view of America as "a new world in the making, that anyone who has something real in him can find a way to contribute himself in this new world.". At the same time, she noted, "But I saw I had to wait for my chance to give what I had to ...
Analysis: "America and I". In terms of genre, the author's work is considered difficult to classify; it features qualities of both Romanticism and Realism, both of which were popular during the beginning of the 20th century. Her essay here does, like Romanticism, focus on the narrator's emotional journey and inner world, highlighting ...
America and I by Anzia Yezierska
As one of the dumb, voiceless ones I speak. One of the millions of immigrants beating, beating out their hearts at your gates for a breath of understanding. Ach! America! From the other end of the earth from where I came, America was a land of living hope, woven of dreams, aflame with longing and desire.
The American population of people born in Europe stands at 4,350,000 in 1990. 1900s: By the turn of the century, reformers, primarily women, are attempting to achieve women's suffrage at a state ...
Summary. In ''America and I,'' Yezierska recalls her experiences finding work that expresses her creativity and thus the America of her dreams. She comes to the United States with hopes of ...
Discussion of themes and motifs in Anzia Yezierska's America and I. eNotes critical analyses help you gain a deeper understanding of America and I so you can excel on your essay or test.
America and I. Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1922. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. Download PDF.
Autobiographical Essay "America and I" is one of three autobiographical pieces that Yezierska included in Children of Loneliness. All of these pieces explore the immigrant's preconceived notions about America, the inevitable disappointment, and finally the reconciliation of illusions and reality, which leads to the creation of a pragmatic, more helpful way of looking at life in this new ...
Show Section Navigation. "America and I" is Anzia Yezierska's short essay about her struggles with assimilation into her new country and the activation of her emerging talent as a writer. The author notes that she is one of millions of people who have entered America with the hopes and dreams of a fresh, new life.
As an essay, Yezierska's piece is told from the first person point of view, which means that the reader knows everything that the author experiences, both factual activities and thoughts and feelings. One of the techniques used by the author is the insertion of her natural dialect and culture. When Yezierska is frustrated and disillusioned, she ...
Their writing deals with similar themes concerning the experiences of African-Americans. After analyzing the poem, "America," explain how the tone and theme of Claude McKay's poem is similar to that of the Langston Hughes's poem, "I, Too, Sing America.". Use support from the diction and imagery of the poems to support your thinking.
In a Literary Digest issue from 1923, Yezierska shared her view of America as ''a new world in the making, that anyone who has something real in him can find a way to contribute himself in ...
America and I By Anzia Yezierska 1923 Anzia Yezierska (1880-1970) was a Jewish American novelist known for her writing on immigration, assimilation, and Jewish American lives. As a child, she and her family immigrated from the Russian-Polish border to the United States. The following text is an essay about her struggles adapting to living in ...
In the following essay, Korb explores the development of Yezierska's concept of America and her fulfillment of her creative goals. In a Literary Digest issue from 1923, Yezierska shared her view of America as "a new world in the making, that anyone who has something real in him can find a way to contribute himself in this new world." At ...
Throughout this essay Yezierska draws upon the contrasting images of dark and light to illuminate elements of her story. Darkness, or blackness, represents despair, while light, fire, gold and sunshine are positive, passionate and life-giving. She calls the country a land of hope, "aflame with longing and desire" (Paragraph 2).
In "America and I," Yezierska recalls her experiences finding work that expresses her creativity and thus the America of her dreams. She comes to the United States with hopes of building a new life, the kind of life that she and her ancestors were unable to achieve in Russia. She believes that in America, freed from the need to work ...
The tone of the short story "America and I" changed dramatically over the course of the narrative. The author, Anzia Yezierska, started the story with a hopeful and anxious tone. She was so enthusiastic about arriving in America and finding her dream. Yezierska felt her "heart and soul pregnant with the unlived lives of generations ...
Almost thirty years after Yezierska's death, Alice Kessler-Harris reintroduced her to the English-speaking public when she published The Open Cage: An Anzia Yezierska Collection. "America and I," originally appearing in 1923 in Children of Loneliness, is one of three autobiographical articles in the book. While all of Yezierska's work takes as ...
Important Quotes. "As one of the dumb, voiceless ones I speak. One of the millions of immigrants beating, beating out their hearts at your gates for a breath of understanding.". (Paragraph 1) Yezierska's melodramatic style is apparent within the first sentences of her essay, where she also focuses immediately on one of her themes: the ...
The American Civil War and Its Impact on the United States The American Civil War, fought from 1861 to 1865, was a pivotal moment in the history of the United States, shaping the nation's future in profound ways. Rooted in longstanding tensions over slavery, states' rights, and economic disparities between the North and South, the war was fought between the Union states, known as the North ...
Get unlimited access to SuperSummary. for only $0.70/week. Subscribe. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of "America and I" by Anzia Yezierska. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.