The articles focusing on diverse theories of assimilation being a natural element in the immigration process such as Milton Gordon’s “Assimilation in America: Theory and Reality” which will contribute the concepts “Anglo-conformity” and “cultural pluralism” as they assist Yezierska’s directive of assimilation in America. “Spatial Patterns of Immigrant Assimilation” written by James P. Allen and Eugene Turner will propose the significance of “cultural assimilation” constructing Sara’s identity through a culture that expresses a wealthy lifestyle in terms of success. Joane Nagel’s argument of “invented traditions” will allow Sara a character created by Yezierska to assimilate into educational norms as she believes it will allow her access to the label “educated American woman”. These theories support Yezierska’s strategy to highlight the difficulty of a complete assimilation using Sara as a representation of overcoming religious barriers and cultural inequality for Jewish immigrant women as they are left unsatisfied when their culture still lingers in a constructed American identity. Judaist values were targeted in Yezierska’s novel to centralize the patriarch nature and dominance on gender roles and so Sara’s resistance emphasizes one step in the assimilated process; equality between genders. Yezierska wanted to anger outsiders as well as make a relatable connection to current Jewish immigrant women facing the same issue. Her method to “villainize” the religious father Reid and his dominance over her sister’s marital status reveal Sara’s protest and “Americanized Identity” and how opposing hegemony as an ideal formulated from American culture. Focusing on martial traditions, Rudavsky’s highlights: Marriage will not be about the transfer of women or the sanctification of potential disorder through the firm establishment of women in the patriarchal family, but the decision of two adults- any two adults- to make their lives together, lives which include sharing the sexuality…This redefinition of the legal framework of marriage is based both on rejection of institutionalization of heterosexuality and on the important principle that sexuality is not something we can acquire or possess in another (45) This redefines Sara’s outlook on love as the opportunity of equal partnership in marriage and the escape from a male-controlled system that is expressed in Jewish customs. Rudavsky reflects a dominance-free life in which heterosexuality is not reverent to women’s choice in an American marriage. She identifies that her sexuality or choice to love will not be possessed by her husband or her father’s decision but a choice that she embraces unlike her sister’s decisions to allow patriarchal control. This opportunity for freedom is essential to Yezierska’s main message to the immigrant population. Alice Kessler-Harris redirects, “A woman’s virtue was measured by how well she helped her husband to live a pious existence, free from daily worry and encouraged by her orthodox observance of ritual in the home. To serve her husband and father should be a woman’s highest wish and …her only hope of heaven” (vi) This was a religious practice Sara found to be restricting on her sexuality as well as her individuality as a woman. To serve a man meant to degrade a woman to a lower status than men. Harris introduces this tradition in Jewish culture and how Jewish men felt entitled to dominate women as a religion that allowed them to be
The articles focusing on diverse theories of assimilation being a natural element in the immigration process such as Milton Gordon’s “Assimilation in America: Theory and Reality” which will contribute the concepts “Anglo-conformity” and “cultural pluralism” as they assist Yezierska’s directive of assimilation in America. “Spatial Patterns of Immigrant Assimilation” written by James P. Allen and Eugene Turner will propose the significance of “cultural assimilation” constructing Sara’s identity through a culture that expresses a wealthy lifestyle in terms of success. Joane Nagel’s argument of “invented traditions” will allow Sara a character created by Yezierska to assimilate into educational norms as she believes it will allow her access to the label “educated American woman”. These theories support Yezierska’s strategy to highlight the difficulty of a complete assimilation using Sara as a representation of overcoming religious barriers and cultural inequality for Jewish immigrant women as they are left unsatisfied when their culture still lingers in a constructed American identity. Judaist values were targeted in Yezierska’s novel to centralize the patriarch nature and dominance on gender roles and so Sara’s resistance emphasizes one step in the assimilated process; equality between genders. Yezierska wanted to anger outsiders as well as make a relatable connection to current Jewish immigrant women facing the same issue. Her method to “villainize” the religious father Reid and his dominance over her sister’s marital status reveal Sara’s protest and “Americanized Identity” and how opposing hegemony as an ideal formulated from American culture. Focusing on martial traditions, Rudavsky’s highlights: Marriage will not be about the transfer of women or the sanctification of potential disorder through the firm establishment of women in the patriarchal family, but the decision of two adults- any two adults- to make their lives together, lives which include sharing the sexuality…This redefinition of the legal framework of marriage is based both on rejection of institutionalization of heterosexuality and on the important principle that sexuality is not something we can acquire or possess in another (45) This redefines Sara’s outlook on love as the opportunity of equal partnership in marriage and the escape from a male-controlled system that is expressed in Jewish customs. Rudavsky reflects a dominance-free life in which heterosexuality is not reverent to women’s choice in an American marriage. She identifies that her sexuality or choice to love will not be possessed by her husband or her father’s decision but a choice that she embraces unlike her sister’s decisions to allow patriarchal control. This opportunity for freedom is essential to Yezierska’s main message to the immigrant population. Alice Kessler-Harris redirects, “A woman’s virtue was measured by how well she helped her husband to live a pious existence, free from daily worry and encouraged by her orthodox observance of ritual in the home. To serve her husband and father should be a woman’s highest wish and …her only hope of heaven” (vi) This was a religious practice Sara found to be restricting on her sexuality as well as her individuality as a woman. To serve a man meant to degrade a woman to a lower status than men. Harris introduces this tradition in Jewish culture and how Jewish men felt entitled to dominate women as a religion that allowed them to be