American Dreams

5 Pages 1158 Words

American Dream
----Compare “Hester Street” and “Eat a Bowl of Tea”

Many years ago, people have immigrated to a new world where they can hope for a more beautiful existence, for the wealth, for the freedoms, for the better opportunities and most importantly, for the American Dreams.
As each new era of foreigners migrate to America, they face the obstacle of conforming to mainstream America. As “Hester Street” and “Eat a Bowl of Tea” portrayed, immigrants come to this land of opportunities with the hopes and dreams of a better life for themselves or their families. In “Hester Street”, Jake, a Russian Jewish immigrant who lived in New York's Lower East Side for five years, leaving his wife behind, and taking up with a new woman and earning enough money to support his dance hall ways. On the other hand, in “Eat a bowel of tea”, Wah Gay is a traditional Chinese immigrant who owns a club in Chinatown, and sends all his money to his wife back in China, who he has not seen in 20 years because of the inequitable immigration laws that had prevented Chinamen bringing their women into the country.
These immigrants fall within a lower social class, as a result they strive to conform to a more facilitating and suitable lifestyle. As they begin to build a new life in America, they face the process of assimilation. America holds an idea of a mainstream society; consequently those individuals not fitting this image are left with feelings of abandonment and insecurity. As a result, they feel pressured in achieving the American dream.
Let’s look at the examples the movies give us. In “Hester Street”, Jake, a self-made Yankee, has abandoned the traditions of his culture by cutting off his beard and earlocks, and he has adopted the mannerisms of his new country, including a new girlfriend who runs a dance hall. When his wife Gitl and son Yossele join him from the Old World, Jake was embarrassed. He ...