Kate's Writing Portfolio

Essay Draft Two

May 15, 2007

Was Shadrach Cohen Americanized?

In the late 19^th century, a large number of people moved from their hometown to another place, which is called the mass immigration. During this period of time, many Jewish in the ghettos of Russia fled to America with little money, and they had to struggle to survive. However, in the story of “The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen” by Bruno Lessing, the mass immigration serving as the background, the father of the family moved to America five years later than his two sons, Abel and Gottlieb, did, but had a conflict with his sons in the first few months after his arrival, since he was “clinging to the habits and customs of his old life” (47), which made his sons feel strange and ashamed, and it leads to a conflict between the family. But Shadrach gradually gained respect from his sons. The story seems to present that the conflict-solving is the result of Americanization of Shadrach Cohen. In my point of view, however, it is the result of Shadrach’s learning, acceptance, and adaptability to the American culture and his genuine capability in handling a business. And he was not really Americanized at all.

When Shadrach first came to America, he was greeted by his two sons at the moment the ship landed. Just from that time on, Shadrach discovered a series of differences between his sons and himself. His sons were “dapper-looking” and “wore a flaring necktie with a diamond in it” (46), while he “wore a gabardine-the loose, baglike garment of the Russian Ghetto-and had a long, straggling grey beard and ringlets that came down over his ears” (46) as a typical Russian Jew. And his sons “had never been demonstrative in their affection for him” (46), or meet him with “an effusive greeting” (46). The word “never” indicates that Abel and Gottlieb’s manner towards their father was no way the same as they did before in Russia. What’s more, when Shadrach “began to recite the grace after meals” (46), Abel pointed out that prayer at meals was not quite American. We can deduce it from the above that their dressing style or many behaviors used to be similar, and the family used to get along well with each other, as they lived together and could easily understand others’ ways, but Shadrach, at the day of his arrival at America, felt a “wall” between him and his sons then. Abel and Gottlieb, having been in America for five years, were more or less influenced by the American people around them. They made themselves look like American and did no long do what was “not quite American” (47) such as prayer at meals. They urged their father to go to a barber, because Shadrach presented like a “perfect type of the immigrant whose appearance they had so frequently ridiculed” (46). Though Abel and Gottlieb were “as children compared with their father” (50), their suggestion of a change in appearance was not unacceptable, since Abel and Gottlieb could not possibly be the only two young men in America that made jokes about newly landed Russian Jews, at least first impression is necessarily considered when two strangers first meet, thus to make himself more like an America would be helpful with Shadrach’s new life in this country. But at the end of the story, Shadrach was still “with a long, straggling beard, and ringlets of hair falling over the ears, and clad in the long gabardine of the Russian Ghettos”, and also “donned his praying cap, and with bowed head intoned the grace after meals”. These descriptions, the same as the ones at the beginning of the story, reveal that Shadrach was not Americanized by appearance or behavior, and he had his reasons.

Shadrach was a persistent person. So many times did his sons suggest him to make himself more “like the other men of your (Shadrach’s) age in this country” (47), but his reaction was “clinging to the habits and customs of his old life with a tenacity” (47). “The more they (Abel and Gottlieb) urged him (Shadrach) to abandon his ways the more eager he seemed to become to cling to them” (47). Shadrach had his own way of life, and his strong inner world made it hard to change. If anyone shows his doubts or gives an advice about alternation, he would firmly respond that it was just right in keeping his old ways, like once when his sons told him “no one wears a beard like yours except the newly landed Russian Jews”, indicating that he should trim his beard, he replied “then I will keep my beard as it is. I am a newly landed Russian Jew”. To Shadrach, it is alright to demonstrate uniqueness in this foreign country, never considering keeping a ringlet or prayer as problems, believing it not needed to give up old habits as long as they were proper and there was no interference in others’ daily life. It was his own business. He did wear a beard, and who would care? Others might recognize that he was a Russian Jew, and then he was. It was Shadrach’s certain identity, which he was firmly maintaining. What he said to Abel and Gottlieb represented his deep thought about religion: “the religion is the worship of Jehovah, who has chosen us as His children on earth” (47). Because of these, Shadrach kept his ringlet and the prayer at meals, which are “references to the Jewish religion” (45). However, appealed by “the charm of American life, of liberty, of democracy” (50), he admits that “when life is light and free from care, religion is quick to fly; but when the sky grows dark and life becomes earnest, and we feel its burden growing heavy upon our shoulders, the we welcome the consolation that religion brings, and we cling to it” (50). But he taught the tenet of life to Abel and Gottlieb that “they were earning their bread by the sweat of their brow” (50)--he always deeply believed that “life was earnest”, rather than “light and free from care”, thus he “welcomed the consolation” and “insisted upon a strict observance of every tenet of their religion” (50).

However, as he gradually “became more and more in contact with American business men” (50) and more involved in this new life, he peered into the American culture and was “undergoing a change” (50). ”He became broader-minded, more tolerant, and, above all, more flexible in his tenet” (50), and he also learned “faculty of adaptability” (50). These are good things to learn; having been in a new environment, a change is unavoidable, and the “faculty of adaptability” is needed. After all, he was doing business with those American people; he should conduct himself to American appetite in order to make profits and prosper his business. But before these changes, Shadrach already was “the true money-maker spirit” (50), and the rich experiences that he already gained from his previous business “failed him some instinct” “to guide him aright” (50). Being an outstanding business man, learning from experiences is welcome and admirable. We can imagine that from the first time Shadrach stepped into the business world, there would be a lot to learn, like how to deal with other people of various characteristic, or what to do under such and such circumstances. The process of learning is the path to grow, get mature, gain experiences, and achieve success consequently. Shadrach was a man of principle, and these principles were accumulated from numerous issues he had confronted before and was confronting then. Learning should not be stopped at any time. Every certain time, he learned certain values of success, and applied them to the next battle of business or issue in usual life. So, in this experience in America, Shadrach felt freshness, and learned a lot, becoming “broader-minded, more tolerant”, and “more flexible in his tenet”.

By these comparatives, the author indicated what Shadrach had been like primarily—broad-minded, tolerant, and flexible in his tenets. Moreover, from the former half part of the story, these can also be reflected from the way he acted. Though distressed and puzzled about the differences that had happened between him and the sons, and was urged to go and have a change of appearance, or was told prayer at meals was not quite American, which offensively annoyed him a lot, Shadrach never lose the temper. Every time at such a moment, he would keep his lips “shut tightly” (46), or “looked from one to the other, and went on with his prayer” (47), or “listened patiently” (47), or again “looked from one to the other and keep his lips tightly pressed together” (47). Shadrach had such a tolerant attitude towards Abel and Gottlieb’s opinion, which strongly resisted his belief in religion, because he very much treasured this relationship. And when facing other valuable relationships with people, he would equally show his tolerance to maintain them. Yet he was not tolerant to everyone. When met by that “pale-faced clerk” (49), who spoke to him “in a sharp tone” and “frown impatiently” (49), he perceived with his shrewdness that this man was not worth to hire in his store. He had not the least tolerance to this unqualified clerk and “sent him away at once” (49). It is his flexibility of tolerance. So the change of being “more” is not a real change, but an enrichment and an enhancement of his character.

“The faculty of adaptability” (50) is also what Shadrach learned from the business men he contacted with. But this does not prove his change as an Americanization, for adaptability can not represent the character of American, yet this is an essential while in a different culture, or he would also learn this faculty of adaptability if he immigrates to another foreign country.

What Shadrach learned in America and the changes he had undergone benefited him a lot. However, these changes can not be called the Americanization. To this persistent Russian Jew, he would never have a think about Americanizing himself. Though there were changes, “it was the same Shadrach Cohen”. The most distinctive features that tell him apart from Americans by no means diminished. He sternly carried on his old way of life, while what he learned in America enriched and strengthened his life principles.