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Attaining Beauty in an Ugly Life
The passage I chose to explicate is from Anzia Yezierskas, The Lost Beautifulness. The passage is located on pg. 1254 of the Norton Anthology of American Literature 1912-1945. I believe this passage represents the main characters and authors view of the Depression-era individual vs. society. It reads as follows:
“Im sick of living like a pig with my nose to the earth, all the time only pinching and scraping for bread and rent. So long my Aby is with America, I want to make myself for an American. I could tear the stars out from heaven for my Abys wish.”
Her sunken cheeks were flushed and her eyes glowed with light as she gazed about her.
“When I see myself around the house how I fixed it up with my own hands, I forget Im only a nobody. It makes me feel Im also a person like Mrs. Preston. It lifts me with high thoughts.”
“Why did nt you marry yourself to a millionaire? You always want to make yourself like Mrs. Preston who got millions laying in the bank.”
“But Mrs. Preston does make me feel that Im alike with her,” returned Hanneh Hayyeh, proudly. “Dont she talk herself out to me like I was her friend? Mrs. Preston says this war is to give everybody a chance to lift up his head like a person. It is to bring together the people on top who got everything and the people on the bottom who got nothing. Shes been telling me about a new word – democracy. It got me on fire. Democracy means that everybody in America is going to be with everybody alike.” (pg. 1254)
This short story was written in modernist from and seems to represent the hardships of daily life that seemed to overtake immigrants in the urban United States in the late 30s and 40s during the Great Depression and WWII. Her son is to arrive soon back home after two tours of duty in France with the Army.