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Cover Letter
I am Liesl from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I have been studying Museology at Fudan University for three years. I chose the story "The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen" written by Bruno Lessing because it is a story which I think is easy for me to analyze and develop in my own way. The story itself attracted me, too. The main character, Shadrach Cohen, is a determined person who upheld his own beliefs regardless where he is. On the other hand, his two sons, Gotlieb and Abel, are too young to understand the significance of preserving their roots. They are easily deceived in alien culture. I like Shadrach Cohen's ways simply because I will also wear my traditional costume whenever I like. He would wear his gaberdine to look different from Americans. If I were he, I would also do the same. I personally admit my analysis of Cohen is not so good. The plot summary is not so clear here either. My essay draft one turned out to be a bad one as I received comments from peer saying that the theme is not clear. So, I worked it out and came up with my draft two. But I like my way of paraphrasing the evidence in the story rather than simply quoting them too much. I have to thank Ron's encouragement on this. But a little regrets that I have limited primary resources. Anyway, I like my essay as it is. And I thank Ron, our instructor, who seems to have the Big Bird's voice in Sesame Street to teach us in this class, telling us the essential parts to make an essay good in many ways. For example, he taught us how to write the plot summary, analyze a character, quoting, paraphrasing and editing. All these help to make a good essay. Do enjoy my writings here in my blog. I try to make everything simple and nice, you can see it from the way i write, and even the decoration of the blog is limited, yet everything is shown clearly here.
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Essay Draft Three
Tolerance and Adaptation of A Migrated Jew Family The main character, featured in Bruno Lessing's short story, “ The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen“, may have just set foot in the United States of America but he was not ready to be Americanized just yet.
Unlike his sons who had neglected many of their Russian Jewish traditions since their arrival few years ago, Cohen would love to see his sons preserve their heritage while adapting to the American culture. His sons wanted to lead an American life, while Cohen still held strong to his own customs. All these differences formed a wall between Cohen and his sons. Eventually, when compromise is reached, they have realized the true meaning of preserving original customs whilst being in an alien culture. Shadrach Cohen migrated to America following invitations by his sons. He was annoyed by the way his sons were Americanized, as his sons demanded him to have a change in appearance and not to be seen as the “perfect type of immigrant whose appearance they had so frequently ridiculed“. They had also left out the tenets, such as the prayers after meal. At the same time, his sons also denounced him. They were so proud to be Americanized and could not accept the fact that their father was still so Jewish. They “looked at each other in dismay” when they saw Cohen in gaberdine and wearing long grey beard. Conflicts between the father and sons started to arise. The unfavorable situation sustained until one day Cohen “entered upon the task of familiarizing himself with the details of the business“. He had taken over the business once managed by his sons. Gradually he taught them the key to success. The prosperity of the business has amazed his sons. This has helped to change his sons' impression on him. They were proud of him, and began to respect and look up to their father. As the business grew, the sons felt the pressure and increased responsibility. Soon they turned back to their tenets and religion for consolation. On the other hand, it was also a long process to make Cohen gradually realize the charm of American life, that of liberty and of democracy. After the raging moment he burst to express his dissatisfaction towards his sons, the takeover of business led him to make more interactions with American businessmen, and he learned many things, especially the faculty of adaptability. He changed to a more flexible man. He became a more broad-minded and tolerant person. He had found the balance between the present surroundings and his old life in Russia. It was seen that even until the end of the story, Cohen still remained his Russian Jewish ways, cladding the long gaberdine and ringlets of hair that fell over the ears. Prayers after meal were still continued but these old ways did not annoy the sons anymore. Gottlieb, one of his sons, even brought his wife to see him, which he had once rejected Cohen’s request to meet her. The family had learned the true meaning of preserving their own culture while adapting the good values of a new culture. The writer explored the conflict of thoughts and principles of the individuals in the Cohen family. Through the narration of the characters in the story, especially Shadrach Cohen, there is a lesson to learn – we shall control our feelings and shall not show our displeasure over things that annoy us. At the same time, the message the writer seems to put across through the characters of Abel and Gottlieb Cohen is that we shall always respect our parents and elderly no matter how indifferent we are. Abel and Gottlieb learned to look at things beyond the words of “being more American” and finally grew to be their ownselves.
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Essay Draft Two
The main character, featured in Bruno Lessing's short story, " The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen", may have just set foot in the United States of America but he was not ready to be Americanized just yet. Unlike his sons who had neglected many of their Russian Jewish traditions since their arrival few years ago, Cohen would love to see his sons preserve their heritage while adapting to the American culture. His sons wanted to lead an American life, while Cohen still held strong to his own customs. All these differences formed a wall between Cohen and his sons. Eventually, when compromise is reached, they have realized the true meaning of preserving original customs whilst being in an alien culture. Shadrach Cohen migrated to America following invitations by his sons. He was annoyed by the way his sons were Americanized. At the same time, his sons denounced him as they were so proud to be Americanized and could not accept the fact that their father was still so Jewish. It then led to conflicts between the father and sons. The unfavorable situation sustained until Cohen took over the business once managed by his sons. He taught them the key to success. The prosperity of the business helped changed his sons' impression on him. They began to respect and look up to their father. And as the business grew, the sons felt the pressure and increased responsibility. Soon they turned back to their tenets and religion for consolation. On the other hand, it was also a long process to make Cohen gradually realize the charm of American life, that of liberty and of democracy. After his interactions with more American businessmen, he learned many things, especially the faculty of adaptability. He changed to a more flexible man. He became a more broad-minded and tolerant person. It was seen that even until the end of the story, Cohen still remained his Russian Jewish ways, cladding the long gaberdine and ringlets of hair that fell over the ears. Prayers after meal were still continued but these old ways did not annoy the sons anymore. They had learned the true meaning of preserving their own culture while adapting the good values of a new culture.
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Essay Draft One
Liesl Cheng (0435026)
May 10, 2007
Draft One
Clinghui@hotmail.com
137-64924447
The main character, featured in Bruno Lessing's short story, "The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen", may have just set foot in the United States of America but he was not ready to be Americanized just yet.
Unlike his sons who had neglected many of their Russian Jewish traditions since their arrival few years ago, Cohen was persistent in preserving his original customs.
Shadrach Cohen migrated to America following invitations by his sons. He was annoyed by the way his sons were Americanized. He would love to see his sons preserve their heritage while adapting to the American culture. His persistence had eventually gained him the respect from his sons and drew their relationship closer at the end of the story.
Upon his arrival, Cohen's Americanized sons felt strange to see him "wearing a gaberdine - the loose, bag-like garment of the Russian Ghetto", and "straggling grey beard and ringlets that came down over his ears". He also refused to have his beard trimmed in order to "look more like an American" as requested by his sons.
All this reflect his identity as the perfect type of immigrant, the "newly-landed Russian Jew". His sons denounced him and wanted him to have a prompt change in his appearance as they were so proud to be Americanized and could not accept the fact that their father was still so Jewish.
Cohen's devotion to his religion also dismayed his sons. They were puzzled to see their father "donned his praying cap and recited the grace after meals". They had discarded this custom as they claimed that it was "not quite American".
All these differences caused the formation of a wall between Cohen and his sons. His sons wanted to lead an American life, while Cohen still held strong to his own customs.
As Cohen took over the business once managed by his sons, he taught them the key to success. The prosperity of the business helped changed his sons' impression on him. They began to respect and look up to their father. And as the business grew, the sons felt the pressure and increased responsibility. Soon they turned back to their tenets and religion for consolation.
On the other hand, it was also a long process to make Cohen gradually realize the charm of American life, that of liberty, of democracy. After his interactions with more American businessmen, he learned many things, especially the faculty of adaptability. He changed to a more flexible man. He became a more broad-minded and tolerant person.
It was seen that even until the end of the story, Cohen still remained his Russian Jewish ways, cladding the long gaberdine and ringlets of hair that fell over the ears. But these old ways did not annoy the sons anymore. The father and sons eventually reached a compromise as they had learned the true meaning of preserving their own culture while adapting the good values of an alien culture.
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Final Timed-Writing
Liesl June 21, 2007 Timed-writing Three Directions: In Dead Men’s Path the priest says “let the hawk perch and let the eagle perch.” Discuss what you think he means and what this saying reveals about him. (100%)
“Dead Men’s Path” by Chinua Achebe writes of a modern young headmaster who wanted to modernize the school and annoyed other villagers by closing a path of which the deceased were sent to be burnt. This path is regarded as a sacred one, but the young headmaster Michael Obi denounced it and decided to close it, as he thought the religious path will affect the modernism of his school, and affect his own reputation as a modern headmaster. The priest in the village came to approach him upon hearing the path is to be closed. He tried to persuade Obi to reserve the path in the school. He explained the importance of the path and why it should not be closed, but Obi just ignored him. Being so disappointed with Obi’s attitude, the priest said “let the hawk perch and let the eagle perch”, before he left. To me, the words seem to reflect the priest’s rage upon Obi, and hoped all the angry spirits to take place to set a revenge on Obi. Obi woke up one morning to find his beautiful garden in the school has been destroyed, following his rejection to reserve the path. The angry villagers who protest Obi’s decision had come to ruin his efforts. They did not only destroy the garden, but the pride and selfishness of Obi too. This saying somehow reveals the action of destroying Obi’s garden is the idea of the priest himself. He is the hawk, and the villagers the eagle. Though the religion disallows bad deeds, the priest and the villagers destroyed Obi’s garden out of the anger of Obi’s disrespect towards their religion. Instead of discourage the villagers, the priest permitted them to do so, and together they ruined the hard work of Obi, turned his dreams into ashes. Only if Obi was not so stubborn, not to ignore others just to get what he wants to be done, and be more tolerate, they could gain a situation where both sides were satisfied. Being idealistic like Obi is not wrong, he wanted to make progression in the school, and it is the good sake for the villagers. Perhaps it is his stubbornness and selfishness that shown killed his own dreams.
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Reading Log
After reading the "The Americanisation of Shadrach Cohen" by Bruno Lessing, I feel like I respect Shadrach Cohen so much. It is indeed very difficult today to hold strong to our original beliefs and not be influenced by new culture.
I empathise the sons of Shadrach Cohen. They were amazed by the new culture in America, thus began to move away from their traditional values bit by bit. Shadrach, on the other hand, was a father figure in his mid-years, so he was more committed to holding on to his original Jewish customs. My belief is that individuals have the rights to act in accordance with cultures that they think can reflect their individuality the best. Shadrach Cohen taught his sons by the way he managed the business and how he lived his life. Being true to his roots of and original Jewish ways, means he can respect himself as a person.
Actually this is a topic which can also be argued the other way round. For example, the Chinese culture had been spread cross the world, and those generations born overseas will not always adapt to the old Chinese traditions. The younger generations see value in a mix of the old and new cultures, but of course the elders will hope that they keep the tradition ways. Perhaps this is one of the effects of globalisation.
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