Immigration: Is America Really a Melting Pot?

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Zangwill (1908) wrote, “ God is making the American!...the real American had not yet arrived. He will be the fusion of all races, perhaps the coming superman…the glory of America, where all races and nations come to labor and look forward.” This is an exert from the play “The Melting Pot.” Israel Zangwill was Jewish born in England, January 21, 1864 in London, England. Besides the “The Melting Pot,” Zangwill used his pen to defend women’s suffrage, Jewish emancipation, assimilation and Zionism. Zionism is the Jewish liberation movement (Wikipedia, 2012). In 1909, “The Melting Pot” was opened in Washington D.C. It was a hit. President Theodore Roosevelt gave the play high reviews. The New York Metropolitan Playhouse ran the production in 2006. Zangwill married Edith Ayron, who was a feminist and an accomplished author in her own right. He passed away at age 62 in West Sussex, England (Rochelson, n.d.). Zangwill had an idea and vision of what cultural assimilation would become. This idealistic approach of Americas “melting pot” is a multifaceted theory on its own. There are many aspects to the American assimilation. This involves leaving part of ones cultural identification to join a larger American culture in search of work and a means to sustain. Many aspects of this vision have begun to unfold in our culture over the past century. Some of the cultural assimilation examples will be addresses as well as what the Bible might say regarding this vision. There are also some weaknesses or differences that can be found in the “modern melting pot” concept. “Today the trend is toward multiculturalism, not assimilation. The old "melting pot" metaphor is giving way to new metaphors such as "salad bowl" and "mosaic", mixtures of vari... ... middle of paper ... ...metaphor: why coerc, HoHoNu, A Journal of Academic Writing, 4(1) Web. 22 Nov. 2015. http://hilo.hawaii.edu/academics/hohonu/writing.php?id=91 Parrillo, V., (2009) Strangers to these shores: race and ethnic relations in the United States, (9th ed.), Boston, MA, Allyn & Bacon Preston, J. (2011) 11.2 million immigrants in the U.S. in 2010, report says, no change from ’09, The New York Times, Web. 28 Nov. 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/us/02immig.html Rochelson, M., (n.d.) Israel Zandwill, Jewish virtual library, Web. 30 Nov. 2015. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/zangwill.html ThinkQuest (n.d.) The Chinese, Immigration, the Journey to America, Web. 18 Nov. 2015. http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Chinese.html Wikipedia (2012) Israel Zangwill, Web. 19 Nov. 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Zangwill

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