The story of Hilda Polacheck is an inspiring story that motivates us to persevere in any condition. Analyzing Hildas Polacheck’s life will give us insight into what it was like living as an immigrant during the Gilded Age. Hilda’s life was not an easy one, rather it was filled with many obstacles. However, through her dedication and with the help of Jane Adams , she opened many doors of opportunity. Jane Adams worked in the Hull-House and proved to be a key figure in Hilda’s development. When Hilda arrived in America in 1891 from Poland as a Jewish girl, she was overwhelmed by what she had seen in America. When her father died in 1894, she was forced to work in a factory that produced “shirtwaist” dresses to provide money for her family. Even …show more content…
though Hilda was a female jew, immigrant, and member of the working class, she closely associated herself as foreign immigrant. Hilda's choice to emphasize her identity as a foreign immigrant due to the Hull-House draws upon the mass migrations to the United States from 1870 to 1900 that shaped American culture. In 1880 Hilda and her family were escaping from “a wave of violent pogroms, or persecutions, in Russia and Poland that prompted the departure of more than a million Jews in the next two decades” (Roark, et.al. 552). Hilda Polacheck lived during a time where there were mass migrations to the United States. Many immigrants from Europe and other parts of the world would migrate to major industrial cities for work. It was a vicious cycle for immigrants trying to make a living because of “Big business relied on political corruption to keep the wealth and power in the control of owners . . . It was a system that worked well for both parties, but which required the exploitation and suffering of the very people who ran the factories and businesses” (Gilded Age). The author of Understanding the American Promise states, “between 1870 and 1900, eleven million people moved into cities. Burgeoning industrial centers such as Pittsburgh, Chicago, New York, and Cleveland acted as giant magnets, attracting workers from the countryside.” (Roark, et.al. 519) Hilda and her family were part of this mass global migration that was shaping American culture. This migration happened in two waves, but I will only mention the wave that Hilda Polacheck was part of. Hilda came in the second wave of immigrants “After 1880, the pattern shifted, with more and more ships carrying passengers from southern and eastern Europe. Italians, Hungarians, eastern European Jews, Turks, Armenians, Poles, Russians and other Slavic peoples accounted for more than 80 percent of all immigrants by 1896” (Roark, et.al. 551). As discussed in class, the main cause of migration are push and pull factors that influenced migration patterns (Adler, Jessica.
Class Lecture. 17 September 2014). For Hilda Polacheck, these push factors included “anti-semitism and Russian oppression” (Brown. Victoria.78) The pull factors included, religious freedom and economic opportunity that influenced their migration from Poland to the United States. Many children, such as Hilda had to take “low paying, backbreaking factory jobs” which was barely enough for survival (Brown. Victoria. 81). As we discussed in class lecture, “the living conditions for many immigrants was poor and they had a lack of services and regulation. In addition, many of these immigrants were forced into slums which led to overcrowding” (Adler. Jessica. Class Lecture. 17 September 2014). In the case of Hilda, she was living a monotonous life as a working girl sewing cuffs onto dresses until she was able to educate herself through the help of Jane Adams and the …show more content…
Hull-House. Hilda Polacheck identified herself strongly as an immigrant.
We see Hildas attitudes in the statement she says in “I Discover Hull-House”. “and we were all having a good time at a party, as the guests of an American, Jane Adams.” (Brown. Victoria. 88) After reading this statement, we can see clearly that Hilda does not associate herself as an American, she identifies herself as an outsider that lives in America. Hilda tried to make the lives of other immigrants better in response to her own life struggles as an immigrant. For example, she usually tended to care for the older immigrant adults that were struggling to learn English. She took the initiative to help them since she was at one point in their shoes. As Hilda Polacheck worked her way up from blue collar work to white collar work, she experienced different sentiments from those around her. When she came to the United States, the only opportunity she had was working in a factory with no education. It wasn't until she was offered admittance as an unclassified student to the University of Chicago when her life really took a change. It was because of her education that she was able to work as a
typewriter. The Gilded age is known as a period where massive amounts of expansion, immigration and technological innovation had taken place. However, we only got to see a glimpse of the life of a female immigrant. Hilda Polacheck is one of the few immigrants who was able to surpass the limitations that were indirectly imposed upon the immigrants of the time. The Gilded Age promised opportunity, but for immigrants, it sometimes led to a vicious cycle of poverty and subsistence. She associated herself closely as an immigrant despite being a number of other identities. Very few women had the opportunity of going to the University of Chicago to become educated. Furthermore, she was an immigrant with no high school degree who was given the opportunity to become educated. Her life is an inspiration to women who are self made and those who had humble beginnings.
In the Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett, Homer and Mother Maria both display straightforward, hardworking, and stubborn character traits. Firstly, Homer and Mother Maria both display a straightforward personality by being brutally honest about their opinions. For example, when Mother Maria asks Homer to build a chapel, Homer speaks his mind by telling her he does not want to build it. Mother Maria shows her straightforward behavior during Homer’s stay at the convent. One morning, when Homer sleeps in late, Mother to becomes extremely upset and is not afraid to show how she feels about him. Secondly, both Homer and Mother Maria display a hardworking spirit. Homer is a hardworking man because after finally agreeing to build the chapel,
The novel Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska examines the roles and experiences of Jewish immigrants in America roughly after the years of WWI in New York City. The novel follows the journey of Sara, a young Jewish immigrant, and her family who comes to the country from Poland with different beliefs than those in the Smolinsky household and by much of the Jewish community that lived within the housing neighborhoods in the early 1900s. Through Sara’s passion for education, desire for freedom and appreciation for her culture, she embodies a personal meaning of it means to be an “American”.
According to Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life, between 1880 and about World War I, the vast majority of Eastern European Jews and Southern Italians came to the United States populating neighborhoods in New York and the Lower East Side is the best example. One thing, which was common to the immigrant experience is that, all immigrants come to the United States as the “land of opportunity”. They come to America with different types of expectations that are conditioned by their origins and families. But every immigrant comes to America wanting to make himself/herself into a person, to be an individual and to become somebody. In this case, the author showed in Bread Givers, Sarah’s desire to make herself into something and bring something unique to America, which only she can bring. It is an effort to understand the immigrants, particularly Jewish immigrants, from a woman’s point of view. The book shows that it was a challenge for Jewish immigrant children, particularly females, on the account of the intensity of their family’s connections and obligations that was so critical for the immigrant communities. This was true for the immigrants who came to settle in the neighborhoods like the one Sarah and her family settled in.
Out of This Furnace tells a impressive story of a multigenerational family of Slovakian immigrants who comes to the United States in search of a better life in the New World. The patriarch of the Slovak family was Djuro Kracha, who arrived in the New World in the mid-1880s from the "old country." The story tells of his voyage, his work on the railroad to earn enough money to afford the walk to the steel mills of Pennsylvania, his rejection by the larger mainstream community as a "hunkey," and the lives of his daughter and grandson. As the members of this family become more generally acculturated and even Americanized, they come to resent the cruel treatment and the discrimination they suffer.
Despite the desperate attempts to Americanize immigrants, the first and second generations did not let go of all of their traditional ideals and beliefs. Even so, they did not continue unscathed by the process. However, these ideals from the Old Country helped them "meet the challenge" (Ewen, 266). This culture became a mutual protection for immigrants against the scarcity and struggle of tenement life. It also provided a bond for the community and was the foundation for their survival. As the years passed, immigrants eventually succumbed to American ideals, but they have not totally given up their culture now that they are considered Americans. Even so, one can look back on this period and see the significant struggle that women had between customary ideas and the assurance of modernity.
Immigrants come to America, the revered City upon a Hill, with wide eyes and high hopes, eager to have their every dream and wild reverie fulfilled. Rarely, if ever, is this actually the case. A select few do achieve the stereotypical ‘rags to riches’ transformation – thus perpetuating the myth. The Garcia family from Julia Alvarez’s book How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, fall prey to this fairytale. They start off the tale well enough: the girls are treated like royalty, princesses of their Island home, but remained locked in their tower, also known as the walls of their family compound. The family is forced to flee their Dominican Republic paradise – which they affectionately refer to as simply, the Island – trading it instead for the cold, mean streets of American suburbs. After a brief acclimation period, during which the girls realize how much freedom is now available to them, they enthusiastically try to shed their Island roots and become true “American girls.” They throw themselves into the American lifestyle, but there is one slight snag in their plan: they, as a group, are unable to forget their Island heritage and upbringing, despite how hard they try to do so. The story of the Garcia girls is not a fairytale – not of the Disney variety anyway; it is the story of immigrants who do not make the miraculous transition from rags to riches, but from stifling social conventions to unabridged freedom too quickly, leaving them with nothing but confusion and unresolved questions of identity.
They talked about how the came over about 10 years ago, so in 1886 when Russia was just starting to get hit with the industrialize revolution, and Poland was also coming over during this time. They were young adults at the time with no family with them and only their bag that they brought to the US. It wasn’t uncommon for people to travel young to the United States because they were most likely to migrate because they had no children or a family to take care of, and they weren’t part of the older generation in their country. They came to America much like everyone else with hopes and dreams to make it big in their new country. Mami wanted to open up her own dance academy while Jake wanted to get his family from Russia over to America, and make a living out of himself. We also see in this opening scene a new migrant who had just came off the boat, going to this bar where they are at and Mami, Jake, and the others being welcoming to him. You also get a glimpse at what an immigrant looks like when they have just gotten off the boat, this immigrant had his beard, one bag, hat, and he doesn’t speak English at all. Luckily for him, he is in a neighborhood that speaks the same language as
For thousands of years people have left their home country in search of a land of milk and honey. Immigrants today still equate the country they are immigrating to with the Promised Land or the land of milk and honey. While many times this Promised Land dream comes true, other times the reality is much different than the dream. Immigration is not always a perfect journey. There are many reasons why families immigrate and there are perception differences about immigration and the New World that create difficulties and often separate generations in the immigrating family. Anzia Yezierska creates an immigration story based on a Jewish family that is less than ideal. Yezierska’s text is a powerful example of the turmoil that is created in the family as a result of the conflict between the Old World and the New World.
... many immigrants faced discrimination, thus leaving them no choice but to live in the slums of some areas and try fight their way up to success.
As many women took on a domestic role during this era, by the turn of the century women were certainly not strangers to the work force. As the developing American nation altered the lives of its citizens, both men and women found themselves struggling economically and migrated into cities to find work in the emerging industrialized labor movement . Ho...
A well-discussed debate in today’s economy is the issues concerning immigrants and their yearning desire to become American citizens. As displayed in The Jungle, a rather perturbing novel about the trials and ruthless temptations early America presents to a Lithuanian family, adjusting to a new surroundings and a new way of life is quite difficult. To make matters worse, language barriers and lack of domestic knowledge only seem to entice starvation and poverty among newly acquired citizens, who simply wish to change their social and economic lives to better themselves and their families. Such is the case of Jurgis Rudkus and his extended family, consisting of cousins, in-laws, and their multitude of children. Natives to the country of Lithuania, Jurgis and his family decide that, after Jurgis and his love, Ona, marry, they will move to Chicago to find work in order to support their family.
... lived in New York tenements. In Riis’s book, How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York, he uses prolific prose coupled with emotionally powerful illustrations that paint a vivid picture of immigrant families living in tenements in the late 1800s. Throughout Riss’s book, exposes how immigrant children were forced to work in factories and sweatshops. As a result, Riss successfully achieves his goal of educating the middle class regarding the challenges that urban immigrants faced. Lastly, although Riss tact regarding racial epithets of the immigrants he wrote on and photographed are offensive, the importance of Riss’s photographs outweighs the racial insults because his pictures lie not only in their power to enlighten but also to move his readers regarding how immigrant families were forced into making their children work.
Mary went from not even attending school in Russia, to star pupil in America, illustrating the promise that America had to offer immigrants. American afforded Mary with opportunities that were impossible in her home country of Russia. Even though Frieda also lived in America, her circumstances represent the realities of the Old World. For instance, Frieda’s only way of learning about American history was through Mary, as she was not afforded time to read while working. By not attending school, Frieda did not only became stuck in the Old World mentality in terms of education but also in terms of marriage. Her father “had put Frieda to work out of necessity. The necessity was hardly lifted when she had an offer of marriage, but my father would not stand in the way of what he considered her welfare” (Antin, 218). Frieda was not given the opportunity to marry for love, as was the American way, but was married out of necessity for her welfare, reminiscent of the Old World mentality. Public education provided Mary with the opportunity to marry not because she had to in order to survive, but because she wanted to. The stark contrast between the lives of Frieda, representing life in the
Migration in the Early 20th century to America was scary in many ways; mothers feared losing their children to American Institutes. Some mothers felt American education made children, “persons of leisure” (Ewen, 1985). Mother’s felt that schools set their children up to loses; they felt their daughters were needed at home to help with hous...
Sister Lucille. 1951. “The Causes of Polish Immigration to the United States.” Polish American Studies 8:85-91.