The American Dream in Hester Street and Eat a Bowel of Tea Essays

Many years ago, people have immigrated to a refreshing realism where they can hope for a more(prenominal) beautiful existence, for the wealth, for the freedoms, for the better opportunities and nigh importantly, for the American Dreams. As each tender era of foreigners migrate to America, they face up the obstacle of conforming to mainstream America. As Hester Street and Eat a axial motion of Tea portrayed, immigrants come to this land of opportunities with the hopes and dreams of a better life for themselves or their families. In Hester Street, Jake, a Russian Jewish immigrant who lived in rude(a) Yorks Lower East Side for five years, leaving his married woman behind, and taking up with a new woman and earning enough money to tolerate his dance h both ways. On the other hand, in Eat a bowel of tea, Wah Gay is a traditional Chinese immigrant who owns a club in Chinatown, and sends all his money to his wife back in China, who he has not seen in 20 years because of the inequ itable immigration laws that had prevented Chinamen bringing their women into the country. These immigrants fall within a lower social class, as a result they strive to conform to a more facilitating and fitting lifestyle. As they begin to build a new life in America, they face the process of assimilation. America holds an idea of a mainstream society so those individuals not fitting this image atomic number 18 left with feelings of abandonment and insecurity. As a result, they feel pressured in achieving the American dream. Lets mien at the examples the movies give us. In Hester Street, Jake, a self-made Yankee, has toss out the traditions of his culture by cutting off his beard and earlocks, and he has select the mannerisms of his new country, including a new girlfriend who runs a dance hall. When his wife Gitl and son Yossele join him from the Old World, Jake was embarrassed. He looks down his wife because she retains her unearthly ways, wearing the wigs and scarves. He e ven insists on calling their son Joey and arduous to modernize them both. Jake is a typical immigrant who wants to be assimilated as soon as possible, once they gain acceptance and recognition, they begin to look down upon the new immigrants coming into the country, sometimes even family members. Its ironic how quickly one forgets the gone and repeats history in terms of the mistreatment and hostile hospitality a new immigrant once received. In Eat a... ...against foreigners, but the problems of the dislocated immigrants struggling to keep back their culture while adapting to a new one still exist. spic-and-span immigrants who desire to conform still have to deal with the way they talk, dress, and behave. just about immigrants have attempted to learn the English language, with their accents barely noticeable at times. In addition, they are willing to take any job getable to support the family, and they work in many different jobs that are as physically demanding as they are d iverse. The American Dream, is about becoming something, to the take up way to achieve fulfillment of ones life. The dream is and always has been a reality. The more that Americans and immigrants insist on the dream as a right, and pursue it with determination, the more likely it will be to remain a live option accessible to all. The dream does not originate from America it derives from us, the people. If we exert all our efforts, we at any moment in American history are more likely to be what the country had intended to become. With that predicament already visible, every advance we make may very well pass along to another, and every realization of the American Dream will evolve.