Draft Two
Sophia Ruan
May 22, 2007
Draft Two
With Love
With a great amount of description on dialogs and movement in The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen, Bruno Lessing narrated a story about the process of contradiction, conflict, and conciliatory in a newly Jewish immigrant family in New York. Shadrach Cohen, the hero, invited by his two sons, came to the US dreaming of the reunion of the family. However, contradiction arose soon after his arrival, in view of the discrepancy caused by the wide generation gap. Then one day, while Shadrach was fed with their rude and contempt manner, his temper finally erupted and it burst out to be a conflict, since when his sons were no longer allowed to run the business but assigned to be salesmen with no objection. Instead, Shadrach himself took over the business and by use of his rich experience and outstanding talent in business management, he made a tremendous success and won his sons’ admiration. In the end, with both great efforts, they reached the balance of their previous contrary attitudes towards becoming Americanized.
From my point of view, it is love between Shadrach and his sons that spans the wide generation gap, which arouses disharmony, and moreover, conflicts.
It can be reduced to two aspects to demonstrate my point: love from father and love from the sons.
Firstly, also the obvious one, Shadrach never concealed his affection to his sons, which is the main reason why he always accepted any financial demands raised by the sons and put up with their defiant manner to his living habits and beliefs.
To find out more details to demonstrate my viewpoint, let us refer to the original text.
When Abel and Gottlieb met Shadrach at the pier, their first reaction was not to take him home with them, but to ask him to “go to a barber to trim your beard and make you like more like an American”(Line 1, Paragraph 6). And their explanation was “no one wears a beard like yours except the newly landed Russian Jews” (L1-2, P9). What Shadrach did was just “shut his lips tightly for a moment” and “keep his beard as it is” (P11), though surprised, no irritation.
Shadrach “seemed to take no interest in their business affairs, but he responded, almost cheerfully, to all their requests for money. He began to feel that this, after all, was the only bond between him and his sons.”(L5-8, P23) As long as the sons raised a claim for money to run their business, Shadrach never asked too much but just gave support. From the latter quoted sentence we can conclude that disappointments inevitably arose in his heart. What he had been looking forward to in Russia, the peaceful life with sons, is broken. Isn’t it love that carried him through all these depressions and estrangement with sons?
When Gottlieb refused to take Shadrach to meet his girlfriend on account of Shadrach’s way of life and looking, Shadrach’s temper finally erupted, which burst out to be a dumbfounding tone, which “Gottlieb had not heard since he was a little boy”(P45). Feelings of disappointment, aggravation and depression, repressed since he arrived in this land, came flooding all at that moment. It is because of love that he felt disappointed when the sons asked him to abandon his ways. It is because of love that he was hurt when Gottlieb refused his sincere and fervent wish. It is because of love that he finally got mad and became stern and unyielding, taking over the business himself and demoted his sons. The purpose was to let them rediscover what is respect and personhood.
When it comes to the other line: love from the sons, I have to read between lines to find the clues. But it can still be inferred from the following plots.
“As the business of Shadrach Cohen increased, and even the sons saw vistas of prosperity beyond their wildest dreams, they began to look upon their father with increasing respect.” “They promptly yielded to the shrewdness of his brain.” “The sons of Shadrach Cohen became proud of their father.”
Obviously, Abel and Gottlieb’s attitudes towards Shadrach had a tremendous change after he took over the business.
Shadrach having shown his great talent in making money, Abel and Gottlieb’s attitudes changed from asking for money only to “learning the value of discipline, the beauty of filial reverence and the severe joy of the earnest life”, from urging him to become Americanized to picking up the praying habit themselves.
Let us return to the fundamental question of “what causes the generation gap”. In this case, I consider that 5 years of separation in two distant countries with extremely diverse culture and religion belief is largely responsible for the gap, the difference in thoughts and life styles, also the weakened relationship.
There are no children who have an aversion to their parents. So it was with Abel and Gottlieb. Maybe years of separation dilute their feelings of affection, and maybe in America, a so commercialized country, they lost their original guileless character and earnest life. Nevertheless, love shouldn’t be ignored. Having become Americanized, they felt that Shadrach was out-dated and old-fashioned. Misunderstanding brought about disrespect and impiety. But, Shadrach’s fantastic business skills conquered them and lit up the extinguished fire of love to Father. If there aren’t affection and identification with Shadrach implanted in both of their minds, they would not appreciate or be proud of what Shadrach did but just keep on asking for money all day and being two bad halfpennies. After all, in spite of the vast differences of their living habits and beliefs, they are still lying in one of the most intimacy relationship in the world ---- father and sons. Maybe years of separation dilutes their feelings of affection, as long as some stimulus appears, in this story, Shadrach’s extraordinary talent, love from deep into their hearts comes out. That’s why they behave so differently, when Gottlieb brought her girlfriend to Shadrach and they both picked up the praying habit.
Love between father and sons is human nature, which can never be expunged. Just as I always believe, only love can overcome all the crisis and change a person thoroughly. Like Shadrach and his sons in this story, they made changes to meet each other’s demands and finally found the balance.
Only love can do.