In the book, “Out of this Furnace” by Thomas bell, three generations of an originally Hungarian family portray the social and economic difficulties of families that migrated to the US in the 1900’s. George Kracha exemplifies the typical first immigrant generation because he doesn’t ever truly assimilate into American society. Kracha is never involved in politics nor attempts to become a fluent English speaker. He just goes to work and does nothing to change the system he lives in. In the second generation the offspring of the migrating parents are educated and are more politically involved. For the second generation, Mike, Kracha’s son-in-law, becomes Americanized through the education he receives which allows him to understand the importance …show more content…
of his vote for the elections. The third generation is a lot more Americanized. Dobie is part of the third generation; he is educated, ambitious and even participates in union strikes. Although the last generations become Americanized, they truly experience the difficulties that impoverished migrant families are exposed to in the 1900’s. The two main causes that caused Kracha to leave his home land, a Hungarian village, behind were the poverty and oppression of Franz Josef’s empire.
The journey from Hungary to New York must have been terrifying as he was leaving behind his wife, mother and sister. Consequently, Kracha traveled alone, he did not bring a lot of money with him and he had to deal with foreign languages. Furthermore, he was afraid of being murdered, robbed, or kidnapped. While on the way to New York Kracha spent if not all, most of the money he had packed with him. Moreover, he walked out off the ship with only fifty cents, which was not enough for the ferry and the train that would take him to Pennsylvania where he planned to meet with his brother. As a result, he had an even more complicated trip to Pennsylvania because he chose to walk to his …show more content…
destination. With so little money Kracha endured to eat foods that were notoriously bad in taste. Not only did he eat unpleasant foods but he also had no place to sleep in, which is why he had to sleep in a haystack the first night. Kracha was basically a traveling homeless person, “Sometimes he got a lift on a wagon, but he walked ten miles for every one he rode” (Bell 8). While he could have arrived to Pennsylvania in six hours through the train, he had to beg for food and wear his dirty clothes. Because he did not speak English, his only way to communicate was through gestures, and an open mouth. He sometimes also had to suffer through extremely cold nights, and rainy days. Not to mention, that he was not even aware of his location for the while trip. Kracha’s life was not near easy during his first years of settlement. Kracha slept on an iron bed and his table to eat was a box. He had to live in crowded apartments and the walls inside the rooms were covered in patches of wood and tin and clothes to prevent the wind from blowing inside because the house had no inner walls (Bell 17). Kracha worked anywhere that did not require skills such as railroad jobs, farming, “He lined and surfaced track, renewed ties, replaced rails, cleaned ditches and culverts, repaired fences…” (Bell 20). Kracha worked a lot to provide for his family left in Hungary but when his family arrived his wife seemed sick she was only meat and bones. Kracha and his wife had issues in their marriage because his wife was never able to fully recover from her sickness. Kracha despised having married Elena because all he could see were skin and bones and he did not lust her anymore, and as a result, Elena’s sickness propelled him to adultery. Kracha and his family had to live with other people in very small spaces. Their family grew in quantities and within time they all had to sleep in the same room. He worked for Carnegie Steel Co. and they required him to move to Plymouth Francka. Kracha became exploited by his job with wage cuts and 12-hour day shifts every single day. Back in the day men were expected to settle down for fourteen cents an hour wage just because you had a job. There was danger and malnutrition inside the jobs of the US during the 1900’s. Andrej, one of Kracha’s friend appeared, “pounds thinner and his face and neck bore the perpetual flesh of one who worked with hot metal” (Bell 28). The working conditions in the 1880’s was so demanding and dangerous that men rarely had time to eat properly. Not to mention, that these men were constantly in contact with hot dangerous machines that would burn their skin just by being near it. While George accepted his daily routine to go to work every day, Mikey does not. Mikey desires and becomes educated. He learns to speak English and is even motivated by Mary who becomes his wife in the story. Unlike Kracha, George does not accept the poverty he was living in and the bad regulations of his job. Mike desires more as he tells Mary “One of these days I’m going to get a good job and then – well, we shall see” (Bell 137). Mike wants to get a better paying job so that he can buy a nice house. Mike also sees the danger of the poor regulations in the mill, this inclines him to consider voting for a better president that will help the lower-class men. As his family grew so did his interest in justice for the working class, “Mary’s second baby – a girl she named Pauline – was born in November, and Mike cast his first vote that same month” (Bell 145). By voting, Mike demonstrates that he is becoming Americanized. Johnny, part of the third generation, also demonstrates how he becomes Americanized. In fact, he is the most Americanized. Johnny was driving by so much ambition that he began working at a very young age. He experienced the loss of a father at that era and realizes the difficulties that his mom, Mary, is going through. After his mother is interned in a hospital with the rest of his siblings he starts living on his own. He makes money to pay for his motorcycle. By purchasing the motorcycle, he shows his ambition for a better future and a more comfortable life. He begins to support the union strikes going on at that time when he realized that the company steals two dollars from his paycheck every week. He believes this is so unfair and even becomes the leader of one of the unions “… when the Braddock lodge was chartered Dobie was elected secretary” (Bell 294). The pregnancy of Julie allows him to believe in greater things as he mentions, “the world my kid grows up in ought to be a little better than the one I was born into, and if it is I think I’ll have the right to say I had something to do with making it better” (Bell 413). $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Elena suffers a lot because she catches a sickness after giving birth to her first son who later died.
When she migrates to the US the relationship between her and her husband Kracha is not the same as Kracha does not see her the same way he even insults her all the time. She spends most of her days at home cooking and taking care of the kids. She had to deal with Kracha who would always come home tired and in a bad mood. Elena would also have to accommodate her waking time to her husband’s so she could cook him breakfast. She also had to make sure he ate lunch and dinner and she had to feed the rest of her children. Franka argues, “your poor wife works herself to the bone making a home for you, washing your dirty drawers, bearing your children…” (Bell 88). Francka knows and understand the workload of Elena as she hyperbolizes the quantity of work that is wearing out Elena. Similarly, Franka had to experience about the same workload as Elena “‘Why not? All he does is eat and sleep.’ Francka poked the fire in the stove. ‘And drink’” (Bell 17). Francka is referring to her husband who also works a lot and only uses her for domestic purposes. Francka is always being brought up in the background as she is cooking or running other house
chores. Mary is part of the second generation, she marries Mike who dies working at the mill leaving her as a widow with four children. Mary is one of George and Elena’s children who is well educated and speaks very well English. In fact, she exemplifies how the second generation of an immigrant family become Americanized in the late 1900’s. When her and Mikey meet she dresses as if she were an American girl “‘You don’t look the same’ he stared at her ‘You look more like an American girl now’” (Bell 128). She dresses very well because of her job. As a more Americanized generation she also has ambitions to have money of her own and to save up to have a better future. Thus, she finds a job as a sewer and nanny. When she gets married to Mike she stops working for the family and gets pregnant. Whit her pregnancy and marriage come a lot more responsibility as she has to care for herself, her husband and her baby. Soon enough she has a total of four children and both her and Mike are lacking currency. During the depression the company was not able to provide mike with a job so he was not making enough money for the family while Mary had to also seek other ways to make money. Mary proposed to Mike to live with boarders putting a greater workload on her because now she had to cook and clean for everyone living with her. The workload brought issues to her las pregnancy which is why they were forced to move out on their own. After Mike’s death Mary could not afford to feed her family. She would continue to sew and the kids would collect money from strangers. Soon enough, she is diagnosed with consumption and has to go to the sanitarium where her and Agnes die. Zuzka was a widowed woman, she’s part of the first generation with Kracha and Elena, who had two children. After her husband passed away she moved to Braddock where she met with George once again and began to have an affair. She would also sew and fix the clothes of customers. However, when she got involved with Kracha she got pregnant. She leaves Kracha after he gives her a beating for stealing his money to make sure that her children were able to survive the poverty. Julie becomes the wife of Dobbie, also known as Johnny, and the caretaker of Kracha and his dog. Similarly, to the other women in the book, Julie’s job as a wife consists of domestic work such as cooking and cleaning. However, Dobbie treats her in a much kinder manner than how Kracha treated his wife. Not to mention, the immense support that she gives Dobbie in his political participation. The only bad part of her marriage is that she spends most of the time alone since Dobbie works and is also involved in the union strikes. As a result, I personally enjoyed this book very much. The book provided me with a mixture of feelings that helped me sympathize for both genders and their struggles as minorities. I would read this book again and I would also recommend to those who enjoy drama and history. “Out of the Furnace,” by Thomas Bell definitely filled me with very implicit information about the lives of immigrants. The book helped me understand the events around the different generations that caused varying reactions. With Kracha, the first generation, I can understand why he would be mortified to be involved in politics and social standards that are foreign to him. Unlike Kracha, the second and third generation are born and raised in the U.S, which is why they should be more inclined in participating in their country’s economy as it can change the future of their children and the children of their children. I would definitely recommend this book because it provides the reader with the lifestyles and situations of different immigrant generations that can definitely influence a different perspective on today’s immigrants and their following generations.
Differences present between immigrant and non-immigrant families in terms of opportunity, social inclusion and cultural acceptance is a prominent issue in the world today. In the novel, Brother, David Chariandy shows how these inconsistencies affect the opportunities present for second-generation migrants. Francis, Michael and Aisha are all children of migrants residing in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough or “Scar-Bro” as Michael refers to it (Chariandy). This suburb is home to immigrants of colour struggling to raise families on minimum wage jobs and the institutional racism present. This essay will first examine how the opportunity of second generation migrants is affected due to the preconceived idea of what opportunity is from the first
Many Guatemalan immigrants who arrived north to the United States, like Antonio, were fleeing from the danger and persecution of the Guatemalan civil war. Although they hoped to rebuild their lives and possibly better them. The reality was that they would continue to face hardships such as poverty, unequal rights, and discrimination. For example take this excerpt from one of our course readings, “The Reagan and Bush admissions, obsessed with stopping Communism in the region, refused to assist the thousands streaming across the Mexican border to escape that terror” (pg. 131). Even though a very large majority of Guatemalan immigrants that came to the U.S. were a result of the civil war that was caused by the by the United States, our government refused to assist. Antonio is forced out on the street because he does not make enough money as a dish washer to pay his rent. Although this occurs in the novel, it was a harsh reality for many Central American immigrants. With the refusal of assistance from the government, Guatemalan immigrants had to take jobs in coffee shops, dishwashers, field workers, and manual laborers. For example,“Good neighborhoods were defined as white, and whiteness was defined as good, stable, employed, and
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.
Typical American by Gish Jen demonstrates the different struggles that a traditional immigrant family encounters. The book being discussed will be explained by means of historical influences and biographical influences during Jen’s life that affected the novel. This essay will also contain a critical analysis of the book and an analysis of the critical response from others.
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.
Because my family sacrificed everything and came to America, I was able to be married and have children relatively easily. My husband has never had to leave us for a long period of time, or move us across the country. We were born into America, living a life full of luxuries that we do not even realize are luxuries, all because my ancestors moved here long ago. My children do not have to worry about what the next day holds, or whether they will be able to eat at dinner time. They get to go to college at a young age without any terrible sacrifices. My oldest daughter will have her associate’s degree right out of high school, and will become a doctor, something my ancestors never had the chance to do. It is crazy to think that my ancestor’s barley got the opportunity to go to school, and yet my youngest daughter is the youngest person to attend college here in Ashland. I am the first one in my family line to go to college, and am blessed with the opportunity to choose my occupation, something my ancestors didn’t get to do. This is the same for Junot, who was able to choose his own occupation here in America. Unfortunately Junot’s mother “never did become a nurse…Immigration got in the way of that horizon—once in the United States, my mother never could master English, no matter how hard she tried, and my God, did she try.”(Diaz 1). But because she wanted so much more for her son, she strongly encouraged
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.
Sheetz 1 Sarah Sheetz Ms. Rosenberger English 4 October 17, 2016 Faulkner’s Self Help Book In “Barn Burning,” Faulkner illustrates a boy’s coming to age story, including his struggle in choosing whether to stand by in the midst of his father’s destructive cycle of spiteful burning or stand up for his own belief in civic duty. While most readers do not relate to having a father that habitually burns others’ belongings in a strange power scheme, readers relate to the struggle between blood ties and their own values. Taking the theme even broader, readers relate to any struggle with making a decision. Through imagery, reoccurring motifs, and diction, Faulkner creates an intense pressure which enhances readers understanding of Sarty, his struggle,
Moving from the unpleasant life in the old country to America is a glorious moment for an immigrant family that is highlighted and told by many personal accounts over the course of history. Many people write about the long boat ride, seeing The Statue of Liberty and the “golden” lined streets of New York City and how it brought them hope and comfort that they too could be successful in American and make it their home. Few authors tend to highlight the social and political developments that they encountered in the new world and how it affected people’s identity and the community that they lived in. Authors from the literature that we read in class highlight these developments in the world around them, more particularly the struggles of assimilating
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...
...eam to “fit in” to American society. The dream is vividly depicted by Dreiser in Mr. Gerhardt. William drives Jennie out because he thinks that she is acting immorally not only from religious point of view, but according to social codes as well. The case is that during the end of the nineteenth century immigrant offsprings were criticized more abruptly than American children for their behavior. Discrimination was inevitable and most of the members of immigrant communities realized that if there was any young man or girl who misbehaves, it would harm the reputation of others too. That’s why they did their best in order to adjust to the American way of life. The only way of reaching this goal was to bring the next generation up better that Americans. This is one of the reasons that make Mr. Gerhardt become furious when he gets the news of Jennie’s condition.