Vincent Qian
June 12, 2007
Draft Three

At the turning of the twentieth century, many Jewish immigrants poured into America to escape religious prosecution. Imaginably, clash occurred between the American and Jewish culture. This kind of clash manifested itself in many ways. One of them is the conflicts between different generations of Jews, because of their respective ways of accepting this new culture and their different attitudes towards traditional Jewish religion, which was the case in the story of the Americanization of Shadrach Cohen.

In this story, Bruno Lessing tells us how Shadrach Cohen, an old Jewish, coming from the Russian ghetto, adapted himself into American life, centering a series of conflicts and divergences between him and his two sons, Abel and Gottlieb. To understand the story, the first thing is to understand the difference between the Americanization of Shadrach and his two sons.

Five years of departed time, the gap between the two generations of the Cohen was already quite evident, which surfaced as soon as they reunited. Abel and Gottlieb had changed so much that even their own father took some time to recognize them. According to their perception, these changes should be called Americanization. Wearing “a flaring necktie with a diamond on it”, the two “dapper-looking” (Pp46-3) young men thought modifications in appearance made them Americanized. It was because of this mentality that they emphasized their father’s image so much and expected the same extrinsic changes to happen to their father. They asked him to wear his beard shorter and trimmed differently and “learn to speak English”. (Pp47-14)
They skipped the after meal grace because they believed “it’s not quite American.” (Pp46-2)Factually, they had discarded everything about the Jewish traditions─everything that marks who they really are.

So it is easy to see that Abel and Gottlieb focused on the surface. They valued appearance more than the inner side and they believed clinging to the traditions was something out of date. Then what about their father?

At the beginning, by refusing to polish his appearance, Shadrach already showed us that his way of being Americanized was bound to be different from his sons. He felt nothing embarrassing about his looking like a “newly landed Russian Jew” (Pp46-9). He believes that the same Jehovah rules over him wherever he goes.

His Americanization omitted the skin-deep part and started right from the core, which was one’s spirit, value, character and above all, one’s view on the world. Through contact with his American business partners, Shadrach Cohen became “broader minded”,” more tolerant” and “more flexible in his tenets”. (Pp50-1) He learnt from them “the faculty of adaptability”. (Pp50-1) But these changes still had nothing to do with appearance, still had nothing to do with his firm belief in religion.

By saying “And yet, it was the same Shadrach Cohen” (Pp50-2), Lessing actually means, religiously, Shadrach Cohen never changed. He still demands from the two sons “implicit obedience and profound respect” (Pp50-3).He put strict observance of every tenet of religion in front of anything else. He knows religion is what makes him who he is, is what leads him to where he stands. He would never discard it.

Besides, unlike Abel and Gottlieb, Shadrach’s Americanization was natural and gradual. He never deliberately pursued to be Americanized. It just so happened through his contact with the outside world. Perhaps, in Shadrach’s dictionary, there was even no such word as Americanization because he just took in the good things this country offered to him, which however, made Shadrach’s Americanization more thorough and profound.

At the end of the story, Shadrach merged into American life in his own way. The two sons were no longer that fervent and passionate about being Americanized. Jewish traditions and religions didn’t seem that out of date to them. A new member came to the family, Miriam, Gottlieb’s girlfriend. Through her eyes we see the image of this old man again─“with a long, straggling beard, and ringlets of hair falling over the ears, and clad in the long gabardine of the Russian Ghettos”(Pp51-1). Just as what he looked like previously. But, if there was any difference, the eyes were shiner, moisturized by America’s liberty and democracy.

Coming along all these, we can see that Shadrach’s Americanization was more profound and closer to its essence. He skipped the superficial parts and precisely caught the core─democracy, liberty, adaptability. As to Abel and Gottlieb, their Americanization stayed on the surface and didn’t go deeper. Appearance and language were the only two things that could relate them to America. Inside them, there was nothing because they threw the Jewish part away and didn’t replace it with American one. The beautiful garment was all they got. But for their father’s salvation, one day they would wake up and find they don’t even know who they are.

All these differences mentioned above made it so easy for us to discriminate whose Americanization was better and closer to its real meaning.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants flock into the U.S. each year in pursuit of the American dreams, among which there are people like the sons as well as people like the father in this story. I believe the reason why Lessing wrote this story is to tell us that what really precious America provides for its people is a dreamland where everyone can enjoy its liberty and democracy while still be committed to his own traditions, just as Shadrach did in the story. Moreover, while these newcomers’ virtues and culture mingle into the American society, they all contribute to make this dreamland a better place.