Shanghai International Studies University
FROM PLOTZK TO BOSTON
—MARY ANTIN’S ASSIMILATION IN THE PROMISED LAND
A Thesis
Submitted to Graduate School and College of English
In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for
Degree of Master of Arts
By
Li Qingqing
Under Supervision of Professor Qiao Guoqiang
November 2011
Acknowledgements
I’m sincerely indebted to many people who have helped with the preparation and
development of this thesis in various ways.
Firstly, I owe profound gratitude to my supervisor Professor Qiao Guoqiang,
who guides me into the world of American Jewish literature, which is unfamiliar to
me at first but later intrigues my great interest. His encouragement, insightful
perspective and instruction contribute to the final accomplishment of my thesis.
I also feel grateful to Prof. Li Weiping, Prof. Yu Jianhua, Prof. Shi Zhikang, Prof.
Wu Qiyao, Prof. Janet Roberts, Prof. Wang Xiaoling, Prof. Wu Gang and many other
professors in the Graduate School and College of English. Their illuminating lectures
on literature present to me not only enjoyment but also enlightenment.
My gratitude also goes to my classmates who share their viewpoints with me,
which inspires me a lot during the thesis writing.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my family for their
encouragement and support.
摘要
同化主题，是美国犹太文学作品中始终探讨的问题。许多美国犹太作家在自
己的作品中思考犹太移民在美国社会所经历的文化阵痛和艰辛的同化历程。自从
十九世纪末期，大批犹太移民进入美国以来，他们的悲欢离合、上下求索，都牵
动着无数犹太人民的心，其中不乏著名的美国犹太作家，他们用自己深邃的视角，
切身的体悟，细致描绘了一段段生动而又艰辛的同化历程。
玛丽·安亭，作为第一代美国犹太移民，经历了从儿时到成年，人生历程的
变迁。她将她的这段所见所闻，所思所想，记录下来，集结成书，该书成为了当
时红极一时的畅销之作。《应许之地》描写了安亭从孩童时期直到青年时期的经
历，展现了犹太移民在美国的同化过程。该书时间地点跨度较大，从俄国的犹太
人聚集区，直到美国纽约的闹市，每一处都充满着安亭记忆的印记。她用自己的
切身体会，述说了一个俄国犹太女孩，如何到达美国，又如何融入美国，在经历
了一段又一段的磨砺之后，努力追求同化。
本文通过对文学作品的文本细读，结合文化研究的方法，试图探寻同化主题
的内因及深层意义。全文共分为三个层面，第一个层面阐述了促成同化的社会历
史条件，反应出俄国社会排挤犹太移民的排斥力以及美国社会吸引犹太移民的吸
引力；第二个层面探讨了安亭在同化过程中思想意识层面上的转变，分别分析了
家庭，社会，宗教等方面对同化进程的影响力；第三个层面，进一步分析了同化
的困境，揭示出同化求索中的种种选择与无奈的深层内因。
本论文以文学研究与文化研究相结合的视角，对同化主题进行了探讨，分析
了社会、历史、家庭、宗教等因素对同化进程的影响，揭示了美国犹太移民所面
临的文化困境。
关键词：应许之地；玛丽•安亭；美国犹太移民；同化
ii Abstract
The theme of assimilation has long been frequently discussed in the works of
American Jewish writers，who have always been concerning about the problem of
cultural shock and other difficulties in the process of assimilation. Since the end of the
19th century, millions of Jewish people have come to America from every corner of
the world. While at the same time, their joy and sorrow, weal and woe have impressed
countless Jewish people, among whom are the American Jewish writers.
Mary Antin, as one of the first generation of Jewish immigrants to America, has
experienced great changes in her life, from her childhood to her adulthood. She
moved to America with her family when she was a little girl and had undergone ups
and downs on her road to assimilation. She writes down what she sees and hears, as
well as what she thinks and wonders in The Promised Land, making this book a great
work talking about a tale of two countries.
The Promised Land tells the story about Antin’s personal experiences from her
hometown Plotzk to her guest country America. This is a story about how she excels
from the other local students, how she tries to achieve assimilation and how she deals
with the difficulties in trying to get involved into American culture.
The author of this thesis uses the approach of textual analysis from the
perspective of cultural studies, aiming to search for the inner reasons and significance
of assimilation. The main body of this thesis is divided into three parts. The first part
writes about the historical environment that induces assimilation, the pushing power
from Russia and the attracting power from America. The second part illustrates the
social and cultural conditions that promotes assimilation, with focuses on the
patriarchal power, social pressure and religious influence. The third part mainly
discusses the reasons and results of assimilation, as well as the choice and
choicelessness in the whole process, so as to dig deep into the theme of assimilation
and unveil the predicament of American Jewish immigrants .By combining the
literary and cultural studies, this thesis presents a creative perspective on the
iii assimilation process of American Jewish immigrants.
Key Words: The Promised Land; Mary Antin; American Jewish immigrants;
Assimilation
iv Contents
Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... i
摘要................................................................................................................................ii
Abstract ........................................................................................................................ iii
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter One From the Old World to the New World ................................................. 9
1.1 The Old World Russia ...................................................................................... 9
1.2 The New World America ................................................................................ 15
Chapter Two
From Jewish Heritage to American Ideology ..................................... 20
2.1 Pushing Power from Antin’s Family .............................................................. 20
2.2 Social Pressure on Assimilation...................................................................... 22
2.3 Judaism with Restriction and Emancipation ................................................... 25
2.4 Formation of American Ideology.................................................................... 29
Chapter Three
From Joy to Sorrow .......................................................................... 33
3.1 The Promised Land as a Visionary Dream ..................................................... 33
3.2 Predicament in Assimilation ........................................................................... 37
3.3 The Choice and Choicelessness of Antin’s Assimilation ............................... 39
Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 46
Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 48
1 Introduction
About the Author
Born in 1881, raised in Jewish ghetto in Russia, Mary Antin managed to blaze
her trail on the road of Assimilation and won herself worldwide reputation as an
English writer. Her book The Promised Land, published in 1912, has aroused the
nationwide attention to Jewish immigrants in America and was once selected as a
textbook for students in American classrooms.
Maryashe Antin was born in Polotzk in the Pale of Russia on June 13, 1881.
Born into a relatively rich family, Antin has enjoyed some coveted opportunities in
Russia back in that time, such as education, which is quite enviable but unavailable in
the eyes of other Jewish girls. In 1891, after the family business was in a slump, her
father moved the whole family to America. Thanks to her linguistic talent, Antin
excelled in her American school. She published some literary works in local
newspapers since she was very young. Several months after the family settled down in
America, Antin wrote a letter to her uncle describing the family’s journey and
experiences. Five years later, this letter was translated from Yiddish to English,
namely “From Plotzk to Boston” (1899). Antin studied at Girls’ Latin School. She got
married with the geologist Amadeus William Grabau (1870-1946) on October 5, 1901.
And later Antin studied at Columbia’s Teachers College and at Barnard College.
Josephine Lazarus encouraged Antin to write her own autobiography after they
became close friends. In 1911, the Atlantic Monthly published The Promised Land. It
turned out to be a big success, with nearly 85,000 copies sold out before Antin’s death.
Some scholars even extols about Antin’s achievement that “Mary Antin has set the
standard for immigrant autobiography.”(Bercovitch: 2005, 440) In 1914, They Who
Knock at Our Gates is published and “The Soundless Trumpet” comes out in 1937.
Mary Antin died of cancer on May 15, 1949.
From 1890 to 1915, millions of immigrants came to the United States, most of
whom were from southern and eastern Europe and about one-third were Jews. Most
Jews, just like Antin’s father, went after the opportunity and freedom that was
1 unavailable to them in their native countries. In 1881 Jewish citizens’ lives were
severely confined to the Pale by Russian government. What’s more, they had to
endure the discriminatory taxation, limited chance of education, and restricted human
rights. In 1881 government-authorized pogroms began throughout the Pale. These
social environment finally coerced the mass migration of eastern European Jews to
America. After the wave of Jewish migration, most of them chose to settle down in
the big cities in the northeastern United States, making a living by finding jobs in
sweatshops, or peddling along the street. However, growing antagonism against
Jewish entry into the United States came from such groups as the Immigration
Restriction League, which was formed the very year when Mary Antin came to
America.
Antin’s autobiography embodies the biblical story Exodus: pursuing her dream
land from the narrowness and hardship of Russian Pale to the freedom and wonders of
American society. Pressure as well as enjoyment comes from the necessity that she
has to adopt American ways and values. She is eager and exited, with her tones
bouncy and enthusiastic. This thoughtful and sustained work is Antin’s masterpiece,
telling the unmediated truth to the curious readers while at the same time prompted
them to think about the significance and real value of assimilation.
Literature Review
The negotiation between different cultures has been at the center of most
scholarly works in both America and elsewhere in the world. In this respect, many
scholars of American studies and American literature concentrate on the interpretation
and realization of assimilation in specific historical periods, in which the topic of
assimilation of Jewish immigrants has played an important role: Assimilation in
American Life : The Role of Race, Religion and National Origins (1964) written by
Milton M. Gordon concerns with the nature and theories of assimilation, the problem
of discrimination and the nature of group life. Gordon identifies the so-called national
society, the subsociety, and the group, and gives suggestions on structural assimilation
2 and cultural assimilation. However, his uniform-like guidelines on assimilation may
overlook the underlying features and psyche of the immigrant people. Temple of
Culture: Assimilation and Anti-Semitism in Literary Anglo-America (2000) written by
Jonathan Freedman combines the assimilation ideology and the relevant narratives at
the time. His accumulating examples of the presence of Jews in literary works have
delineated the trend of cultural hierarchy. Cheng, Anne Anlin’s book Melancholy of
Race: Psychoanalysis, Assimilation, and Hidden Grief. (2000) gives insight in the
problem of assimilation from a new perspective. She detects the melancholy, the
nostalgia and the racial grief from the works of Chinese and African American writers
and sheds light on the narratives of ethnic writers. Her work is critical and profound,
limning a more complicated picture of the lives of the racial other. In Russian
Immigrants in the United States: Adapting to American Culture (2004), Vera
Kishinevsky writes about the cultural assimilation of Russian Americans by observing
the relevant literature as well as the major themes in the process of assimilation. Ofer
Shiff in the book Survival Through Integration: American Reform, Jewish
Universalism and the Holocaust (2004) centers on the issue of integration and
Zionism in American Jewish culture. The author presents the comparative
juxtaposition between Zionism and Holocaust with the perspective of Reform
ideology and social context. All in all, these works concerning the theme of
assimilation, views it through the prism of either social or literary context. However,
the cultural studies within the foregoing issue is somewhat weak in the argument.
Apart from the endless discussion of the theme of assimilation, the American
Jewish culture alone has already attracted many scholars: Nathan Glazer’s book
American Judaism (1974) is one of the early writings that describe the history and life
of Jewish immigrants in America. Jonathan D. Sarna writes about the history and
Jewish life from the beginning of colonial period to the 21st century in American
Judaism: A History (2004). Leonard Dinnerstein conducts research on the
anti-Semitism ideology in a different period of time in the United States in his book
Antisemitism in America (1995), providing a panoramic view of the emergence and
development of antisemitism in history. Colors of Jews: Racial Politics and Radical
3 Diasporism (2007) written by Melanie Kaye Kantrowitz talks about ethnicity,
religious aspects and ethnic relations. Focusing on multiculturalism and Jewish
identity, Kantrowitz explores the true meaning of being a Jew in the multivalent
cultural environment. And her interviews with Jews around the world have add great
value to the supporting evidence to the entire argument within the realm of
Diasporism. Another panoramic view of American Jewish culture and history is given
by Hasia R. Diner in the book Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000 (2004). Melissa
R. Klapper’s Jewish Girls Coming of Age in America, 1860-1920(2005) provides
valuable information of the life of Jewish girls in a particular time period. These bulk
of works, delineating the life and history of Jews, provide a panoramic view of Jewish
culture and society, which serve as valuable materials in searching into the value
system of the Jews.
As for the study of the life of Mary Antin and other Jewish American writers, a
lot of books mushroomed during recent period of time: Sanford Sternlicht’s Tenement
Saga: The Lower East Side and Early Jewish American Writers(2004) gives brief
introduction to almost all of the famous Jewish American writers in the early age.
Elizabeth Ammons assumes a feminist view in Conflicting Stories: American Women
Writers at the Turn into the Twentieth Century(1992), offering new perspective in
each fiction she discussed in the book. Gender, race, sexuality are discussed
concerning the women in fin de siecle. However, Ammons pays too much attention
on the feminist features of the women authors mentioned in the book and their
struggle to strive for their rights. The poignant insight of the book prevents its author
to probe into the profundity with a more objective perspective.
Antin’s famous work has aroused many critics to give their interpretations:
Alison Landsberg’s Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American
Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture (2004) analyzed the exploration of cultural
identity through a typological perspective. Landsberg traces the impact of mass
culture on the common memory of the people, regardless of whether he or she is a
Jew or Anglo-Saxon or black. Thus the prosthetic memory is formed in the social
trend of collective memories. Antin’s work is reviewed within this context. However,
4 in the age of Mary Antin, the question on to what extent that mass culture contributes
to the formation of social ideology needs to be answered. Steven J Belluscio’s work
To Be Suddenly White : Literary Realism and Racial Passing (2006) detects the
incompleteness of Antin’s assimilation , and writes that her wandering between the
old and the new world also illustrates her inner conflict in the assimilating process.
Molly Winter in the book American Narratives: Multiethnic Writing in the Age of
Realism (2007) writes about the characteristics of the assimilation process in terms of
American society, educational system, language, history, religion as well as value
system. Evelyn Avery edited the book Modern Jewish Women Writers in America
(2007). In this book, the author refutes some critics’ views on Antin, acclaiming that
Antin’s understanding of assimilation embraces the humanistic implication. Julian
Levinson’s book Exiles on Main Street: Jewish American Writers and American
Literary Culture (2008) has given an analysis of the novel The Promised Land by
illustrating the structural and character’s features. Alvin H. Rosenfeld edited the book
Writer Uprooted: Contemporary Jewish Exile Literature (2008), using Emersonian
transcendentalism to interpret Antin’s work and her own concepts.
In China, some scholars have made great contributions to the research work of
American Jewish literature studies. Liu Hongyi’s book Toward Cultural Poetics
Studies in American Jewish Fiction (2002) has studied American Jewish literature
through a new perspective, namely the cultural poetics studies. In this book, the art of
fiction, cultural identity, theme, image and literary techniques are discussed. And
many famous literary works are interpreted through poetics theory. Another book
written by Qiao Guoqiang—American Jewish Literature (2008) has become the
must-have of every student of literature who wants to explore further the Jewish
American Literature. This book, providing a panoramic view of Jewish American
literature within cultural and literary context, concentrates on the study of almost
every famous individual writer in different historical periods. Another Chinese
scholar Wei Xiaofei strikes the balance between cultural and literary studies in his
work The Jewishness in Jewish American Literature (2009), making contribution to
the new interpretation of four famous Jewish American writers, Abraham Cahan,
5 Isaac Bashevis Singer, Bernard Malamud and Saul Bellow. The author conducts his
study of literary works through cultural approaches, thus excavating a more
macroscopic understanding of works in a social context.
About the Research Topic and Methodology
The theme of assimilation has long been the distinguishing mark of Jewish
American writing. Amid the surging waves of cultural integration, there’s an urgent
need for the immigrants to fully indulge themselves in the guest country and engage
into the mainstream culture. However, the road to assimilation is not at all full of
beauty and brightness, which, most of the time, promises many immigrants glowing
visions yet rewards them with pains and fears.
As one of the representatives of the first generation of American Jewish writers,
Mary Antin is undoubtedly among the most distinguished ones in American literary
history. Her work The Promised Land has kindled the hope for Jewish American
immigrants and also triggered out intense discussions among critics. The joy and
sorrow illustrated in Antin’s The Promised Land inspires the present study of the
exploration of assimilation in the literary and cultural context.
Although there are many studies on assimilation, there is just a small amount of
them which have conducted systematic research on the theme of assimilation in Mary
Antin’s work The Promised Land, with sporadic papers published home and abroad.
Therefore, by choosing the combination of both cultural and literary studies as its
approach, this research provides a new perspective to the interpretation of assimilation
in Mary Antin’s work The Promised Land.
What’s more, widely accepted as the melting pot, America has long been the
place where multicoloured cultures and peoples coexist. Therefore, there is no
denying the fact that the cultural shock and contrast are inevitable. More and more
immigrants choose to live in America, and meanwhile more and more of them are
experiencing the joys and sorrows, pains and fears in this familiar yet strange country.
How does the process of assimilation begin? What’s the influence of it on immigrants?
6 Is America the real Promised Land for Jewish immigrants? … All these questions
need to be answered. In this sense, this paper aims to dig into the in-depth meaning of
assimilation among early Jewish immigrants with Mary Antin as an example.
This thesis uses textual analysis and cultural approach as its methodology. The
relevant literature works and other secondary sources concerning historical, social,
cultural and religious areas are studied carefully.
As this book is an autobiographical novel, it is essential to notice whether Mary
Antin the protagonist is the very Antin in real life. It can be tracked in the historical
context that Antin tells about the real life story of herself in The Promised Land.
However, as the author creates or fabricates the world in the book, it is inevitably that
she chooses some events in her lifetime and neglects some others. Thus, the life story
of Antin is depicted in the book through a screening process. Therefore, the
protagonist and Mary Antin herself have both common experiences and different
features as well. Given the fact that the real Mary Antin is very much like the
protagonist in the book to a large extent, the present author chooses to deem the
protagonist Mary Antin in the book as the true Mary Antin in real life, for the sake of
further discussion. Therefore, in this paper, Mary Antin refers to Antin herself both in
the book and in real life.
About the Dissertation Structure
The main body of the thesis is composed of three parts.
The first chapter traces the environmental change from the old world Russia to
the new world America. The different living conditions and social environments have
made first impression on Mary Antin’s mind and served as the driving force of later
assimilation process.
Then, the second chapter illustrates the changes of ideology of Mary Antin after
her family settled down in America. This time, her value system is being changed on
the way to Americanization. While casting off the old garment of Jewish heritage,
7 Antin and her family begin to adopt the American ideology with enthusiasm and
expectation.
The third chapter illustrates that the assimilation process is not always a rosy
picture. Antin also experienced pains and fears as well as her naive joyfulness. She
begins to reflect, to linger, and to take on a nostalgic journey back to her homeland
Russia. At the end of the paper, a more critical question is raised as to whether the
Promised Land really exists in America and what are the choices and choicelessness
on the road to assimilation. In this sense, after tracing the assimilation from the
beginning to the end, from outside world to inner world, this thesis aims to find the
true essence of Antin’s assimilation in America in the early 20th century.
8 Chapter One From the Old World to the New World
The Promised Land is the first autobiography in English limning the Russian
Jewish immigrant experience. Meanwhile, however, it has long been reckoned as a
work full of pro-America rhetoric and cannot escape disapproval of Antin’s
encomiums to life in America. Many scholars believe that Antin herself is an
assimilationist and negates her Jewish heritage. However, the foregoing opinions lack
a general view of the cultural and historical context of the time when Antin lives in.
Shmuel Ettinger once identifies two conflicting power in the study of
assimilation process of immigrants: one is the centripetal force, the other is the
centrifugal force. These two forces intertwine with each other and impact the
assimilation movement, with one attracting immigrants into the guest country and the
other pushing them out of the homeland. Undoubtedly, in her age, Antin knows
nothing about Ettinger’s theory. However, the cultural power, or the hegemonic
driving forces of each society that Antin lives in, permeates throughout the whole
autobiography. Although Antin herself, indulging in her naïve imagination and
expectation, may not notice these driving forces, yet these forces do exist and finally
play an important role in leading to Antin’s assimilation into American society.
1.1
The Old World Russia
The Jewish Haskalah or the Jewish Enlightenment, dating back from the late 18th
century to the early 19th century, has marked the beginning of the wider engagement
of Jewish people with the world outside their sheltered Jewish community, which
means Jews are more connected to the secular world. The movement has kindled the
interests of the Jews to learn more about the secular knowledge and change the way of
living. Working with the Russian government of the Pale of Settlement, Haskalah has
achieved the dissemination of a much wider range of knowledge to the Jewish people
there. Some young Jews began to break away from the shackles of their traditional
family, church, and Jewish religious practice. They, instead, devoted themselves to
9 learning secular knowledge, the values of Western European Enlightenment, and
disseminating the Western culture. In this way, some Jewish families were deviated
from the traditional community. Meanwhile, the anti-Semitism was rampant not only
in Russia but also all around Europe. The Czar’s officers spared no effort to
plundering wealth and slaughtering people in the Jewish community. In 1881, after
the Czar Alexander II of Russia was assassinated, the Russian government charged
the Jews as the murderer for an excuse, and ordered to kill innocent Jews. The
pogrom was most devastating in 1903 and 1906, when hundreds of thousands of Jews
were murdered in the catastrophe (乔国强，2008:47). It is in this social and historical
environment that Mary Antin lived and spent her childhood in the old world Russia.
The Russian society serves as an incubator for those people aiming to shake off
the bondage of their social and life restrictions. This social circumstances hatches the
new ideology of the people, giving them more opportunities to reflect on their religion
and their society. Among them are the members of Antin’s family. Antin spends half
of the whole book to depict and discuss the life in Russia, which indicates the
significance of the old word life experience. Antin lives in the Pale for more than a
decade and starts to shape her value of the world in this critical period of life. Even
after she has lived in America for a long time, some imprints of the homeland Russia
still cannot be eliminated despite her strong will to deviate from the old world.
Therefore, Russia, serving as the motherland for Mary Antin, though poor and full of
hardship, exerts on Antin great cultural power in her life. And the social trend that
propels the Jews to learn about the outside world and search for a new asylum has
greatly impacted the Jews at that period of time. Mary Antin is one of them, eager to
find about a new world and impoverished by the old world.
When she was a little girl, Mary Antin lived with her Jewish parents in the Pale
of Russia, named Polotzk. Her father, as one of the excellent students in the religious
studies since he entered heder (the Jewish school), was expected to thrive in the
Jewish academic circle and establish his fame in this pious community of the Jews.
Antin’s mother, born to a rich family in the Pale, had enjoyed a carefree childhood
and was introduced to her father’s business as a young lady. Although, in Polotzk,
10