A Patriarchal World Essay -- essays papers

A Patriarchal WorldJohn Bodnar says it well when he suggests that the center of everyday life was to be found in the family-household. It was here that noncurrent values and present realities were reconciled, examined on an intelligible scale, evaluated and mediated. This assertion implies that the immigrant family-household is the vehicle of assimilation. I will take this assertion a step further and examine more than specifically the powerful aim of the patriarchal father within Anzia Yezierskas book pelf Givers and Barry Levinsons film Avalon. Yezierskas theme vividly depicts the constraint of a patriarchal world, fleck Levinson illustrates the process of assimilation and the immigrant, now American, family and its decline. In this paper, I will exemplify how the patriarchal father, Sam Kochinsky (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and Reb Smolinsky are the key determinant of the dynamics by which the family assimilates.In assimilation, you are said to conform to your surroundings. A ssimilation is a process by which you reconcile the ideal with reality. Dealing with virtually three generations of an entire Judaic American immigrant experience, Levinson illustrates not necessarily the merging of two cultures, but possibly the tainting of authenticity, clouding (memories of) the familiar-the villain being the television. The happy community of extended family is, in the end, supplanted by the glowing idiot box that kills conversation and turns its suburban audience into zombies. In Yezierskas work, she epitomizes the struggle between the Old World and the New World. The patriarchal father, representing traditional Jewish ways, and Sara Smolinsky, the heroine, struggling against her father with the desire to reconcile with reality. In Bread Givers, Yezierska symbolically depicts Sara as the immigrant parting her ways as she embarks anew on the journey that was accustomed to her when she arrived by which to transform her life-dealing with the daily transform ation as she struggles to hold together the wants of society and her (families) authenticity in these days of deep troubles. The head of the family, Reb Smolinsky is an immovably Orthodox Jewish rabbi, who lives by the Holy Torah, and expects his family to do the same. His reign over the family reinforces Old World, traditional values and beliefs. Reb holds to the Torah belief that if they women let... ...ggested an adaptation in the hopes that Jules would scarce have a better life than that of a wallpaper-hanger. In putting television in place a New World, Levinson portrays how a cheap, gaudy, poor ease somehow seduced and enraptured the family. Perhaps Levinson is saying that although it may be the easier to converge, assimilation is too costly. On the other hand, you have Reb whose stubborn beliefs and male favourable position coupled with a passive wife allow him to claim control over his daughters lives. Resentment is quite damaging and separates families as well. E ither way you brass at it the outlook is favorable for neither assimilation nor isolation. And so I conclude in saying that the patriarchal father has an especially important role and while he needs the strength found in Yezierskas character, Reb, (in order to hold the family together) he must also be willing to adapt to a changing reality. Immigration is neither a call for assimilation nor isolation. Individuality is important, but why resist change when you can better yourself in the process.BibliographyLevinson, Barry. Avalon. 1990.Yesierska, Anzia. Bread Givers. Persea Books New York, 1999.