Jewish Portrayal In The Melting Pot

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Recommended: Essay of the myth of the melting pot

Shahad Al-Failakawi
Dr. Angelica DeAngelis
English 406-01
February 16, 2018
Jewish Portrayal in the Melting Pot The Melting Pot, where cultures and heritages are said to be stewed into a new “American Identity”. In Israel Zangwill’s The Melting Pot, the Jewish culture is shown to be making its way into the melting pot amongst other religions and cultures. As much as I would love to point out how the Jewish stereotypes in the story are not considered offensive due to the fact that it was written by a Jewish author, meanwhile Joseph Conrad was attacked due to his explanations and descriptions in Heart of Darkness, this is not the topic I am solely focusing on. The Jewish stereotypes in the story start off in the first act where Quixano is …show more content…

"I could name you many territories where Jews could emigrate, settle, and get complete autonomy, but the trouble is that at the present moment the world Judaism possesses no interest to supply a Jewish territory. From Europe every Jew strives to come to America, and here in America, every Jew thinks, that so long as he sends money to help the suffering Jews in Europe, his duty is completely fulfilled. They are afraid to take up the question of a rest place for Jews on a large scale, a question which must be taken up." In the beginning of the act in The Melting Pot, Quixano is specifically described as a “curious blend of shabbiness, Americanism, Jewishness, and music, all four being combined in the figure of Mendel Quixano, who, in a black skull-cap, a seedy velvet jacket, and red carpet-slippers, is discovered standing at the open street-door. He is an elderly music master with a fine Jewish face, pathetically furrowed by misfortunes, and a short grizzled beard. (Act 1)” Relating this whole Melting Pot movement to the two political cartoons shown below, the cartoons simply exemplify the meaning of how immigrants take over the majority of a nation’s …show more content…

In this case, the “melting pot” comes to life with the love between David, whose family was killed in a Russian massacre, and Vera, whose father arranged the massacre. This whole less complicated Jewish version of Romeo and Juliet gave the melting pot situation a kick start. According to David “the real American has not yet arrived. He is only in the Crucible, I tell you--he will be the fusion of all races, perhaps the coming superman. In this case, the Jewish immigrant takes his place in the American society as a free man and an American, he tends to become all the more a Jew and freer of expressing his culture instead of blending into the other. Instead, as immigrants in the Melting Pot, they became more and more firmly traditional and more sentimental of their own values. Therefore, these marginal groups became more ‘American’ and less ethnic all the

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