America and I

In terms of genre, the author’s work is considered difficult to classify; it features qualities of both Romanticism and Realism, both of which were popular during the beginning of the 20th century. Her essay here does, like Romanticism, focus on the narrator’s emotional journey and inner world, highlighting the importance of the creative spirit and even, briefly, as in her talking to the stars, an interest in nature. This desire for connection to nature and the broader American experience is truncated by time (the fact that she must toil to make a living, working far more than the present-day accepted norm of 40 hours per week) and location (tenements in New York City). At the same time, some major elements of Romanticism—such as an interest in the supernatural—are clearly missing. This containment of Romantic elements in her narrative mirrors immigrants’ inability to live the Romantic ideal of America—one where they can choose their vocation and find success in “the land of plenty.” Her subject matter, focusing on everyday life and true situations with accuracy and a lack of embellishment, more resembles Realism. It also could be said to criticize the upper classes, as Realism does, and to use the kind of color palette indicative of the real world.

In “America and I,” Yezierska narrates a life defined by poverty, where many immigrants are packed into dense areas in the Lower East Side and work is hard to find. Styled the “Cinderella of the Tenements,” no Prince Charming gets Yezierska out of her situation. Her transformation is self-styled. The people she encounters on her journey towards success in America actually provide stumbling blocks to her journey. They assume immigrants are without higher consciousness or desires, better relegated to accept their current vocations rather than strive for their aspirations. When Yezierska says, “I want America to want me” (Paragraph 89), the vocational counselor chides her that she must prove she is deserving of America. This causes the narrator to point out that criminals in prisons have a better life than poor immigrants in some ways. She says, “Here you see us burning up with something different, and America turns her head away from us” (Paragraph 94). When Yezierska pleads with the reader to see talent and promise in her, one wonders whether there is any cross-section of immigrants for whom America opens its arms. In the beginning of her essay, Yezierska describes a family whose origin mirrors hers, yet who have been Americanized enough to take advantage of her needy position. This suggests that there must be a path towards success in America, but it may only be open to males, families, or a select lucky group.

Yezierska relates in this story how she begins reading American history, and it is this knowledge that helps her understand America better. She realizes, “But the great difference between the first Pilgrims and me was that they expected to make America, build America, create their own world of liberty. I wanted to find it ready made” (Paragraph 103). She seems to say that she needed to understand American history to situate herself in the American present. America will not hand success out to any individual arriving on her shores, but instead asks those arriving to carve out ways to make themselves indispensable. If Americans don’t understand or sympathize with her, she can “build a bridge of understanding between the American-born and myself” (108) and tell them of her life—of the immigrant’s life, using her need to express herself to also create a useful narrative that can help one group to develop compassion for the other. And thus, though she feels guilty for reaping the rewards of her self-expression, her essay ends on a hopeful note—that she can help create the America of her dreams; America will be formed by both immigrants and Americans together to be “wise,” “open-hearted,” and “friendly-handed” (Paragraph 110) in its mature state.

In crafting this essay, the author draws upon a diverse range of imagery, some of which may be purposefully discordant. She juxtaposes imagery of prison, the physical body and its wounds and privations, a sea of sand, living waters, and the spirit and the soul. Her dominant motifs are therefore contrasts, likening her physical body and surroundings to a prison holding in the vast promise of her soul. The main images she uses have to do with light (flames, fire, sunshine, shining objects and ideas, stars) versus dark (the tenements, the garment factory), again illustrating her physical surroundings and imprisoning her creative spirit and disbarring her from contributing what she feels are her core talents to American society. She channels the conflict between silence and language, using these various high-octane contrasts to highlight the melodrama of her situation as an immigrant who cannot speak the way she would like to—a willing participant in society who is stripped of the agency to participate. She focuses upon the promise of America versus her actual poverty-stricken life and her search for the bright new world against the oppressiveness of reality.

Her essay is strong in metaphor; she uses many similes and comparisons to make the essay a striking piece; these comparisons add color to the dramatic language she uses, which includes colloquialisms as well as her natural dialect. This serves both to stress the “otherness” of her experience and the diversity of the American population, where differences are folded into the melting pot of assimilation. Some critics have called her style overwrought and emotional, but like many expressive differences, her intensity should be seen in the context of the time, culture, and Yezierska’s social situation. Her Yiddish cultural background set up certain social expectations, and in some ways she was breaking from them by exploring her emotions in such a metaphorical way.

Yezierska’s longing to express herself leads her to feel that she is unusual. She says, “I only feel I’m different—different from everybody” (Paragraph 68). Yet her very status as “outsider” helps her personal story offer universal themes and a contemporary quality, which can still inform and entertain today’s readers.