America and I

America and I Summary | Detailed Summary

"America and I" is Anzia Yezierska's short essay about her struggles with assimilation into her new country and the activation of her emerging talent as a writer.

The author notes that she is one of millions of people who have entered America with the hopes and dreams of a fresh, new life. From the perspective of her homeland, Russia, America represents the Promised Land and "wings for my stifled spirit." Anzia hopes to be able to create a life much different from the one experienced by her parents. She wants to create and love her work instead of being driven only by hunger and basic needs.

Anzia quickly realizes that although she is in America, she is not of America, separated by her heritage and language barriers. Anzia finds work at the home of a Russian family who has been in America for a while and has become quite successful. Anzia works as a domestic for the family, who will not define Anzia's wages but provide a home and food for the girl.

Anzia is happy to learn American ways and language in the household, but at the end of her first month, she begins to anticipate the clothes that she will be able to purchase with the wages she knows are imminent. Buying new clothes will allow Anzia to literally divest herself of her Russian persona and speed up her Americanization process.

Anzia is crushed when the family reveals that it does not intend to pay her a wage and that she should be paying them in gratitude for the opportunity they have provided her. Anzia leaves the household immediately, vowing to never again trust any American family.

Anzia ends up in the Jewish Ghetto in New York City, where she works sewing on buttons in a sweatshop. The wages are meager, and Anzia can barely buy food and pay for a mattress to sleep on. At least she knows that the evenings belong to her, and she can go to the roof of the tenement building at night and dream about a better life.

The workload in the factory increases significantly, and Anzia resents the extra hours she is expected to work for payment of only a glass of tea and a herring sandwich. One day, Anzia makes the mistake of declaring that she prefers her evenings alone to the tea and sandwich and is fired from her job.

Anzia is alone and hungry once more, but she resolutely pushes on to her dream of a better life and to one day being treated fairly as if she were an American. Before long, Anzia secures a job in a better factory, where she works only eight hours each day with evenings and Sundays off to spend as she pleases.

Anzia is also able to buy better food and live in a nicer place. She can even buy some American clothes, but she is still unsatisfied. Anzia realizes that her lack of English language capabilities will continue to prevent her from becoming Americanized, and she attends an English class for foreigners held at the factory.

Anzia shares her frustrations of not being able to communicate her thoughts and feelings to her instructor, who advises Anzia to stay the course and learn English, which will be the solution to the problem. Meanwhile the tedious work is breaking Anzia's spirit, and she once again approaches her English instructor for advice.

Anzia's instructor suggests that Anzia join the Women's Association for some social and personal growth, but Anzia is disappointed at the first meeting, which is a lecture about workers being happy with their work. Anzia does not understand how anyone can be happy with the tedious factory work available to the immigrants and yearns to find work where she can utilize her creativity and urges to communicate.

The next night, Anzia meets with another counselor at a vocational guidance center, who advises Anzia to employ her creativity in her current work of making shirtwaists by becoming a clothing designer. Anzia's frustration grows as the woman can only see methods for Anzia to make more money in her current work area, not explore the options that will provide fulfillment for Anzia's soul too.

Anzia faces the disillusionment that perhaps America is not about working your dreams but merely working to make more money. Anzia has become proficient in the English language, but she feels that there are still no words to communicate the depths of longing in her Russian soul.

In Anzia's attempt to understand the chasm between herself and natural born Americans, she studies American history and is encouraged by the stories of the Pilgrims who also came to America from another land. Anzia realizes that the main difference between the Pilgrims and herself is that the Pilgrims came to this land with the expectation that they would have to build their own world, while Anzia expected that her new life would be ready made and waiting for her.

Anzia also determines that the Pilgrims forged their new life armed only with fortitude and perseverance and that she needs to adopt the same attitude. Anzia understands now that the hope of America is that it is still unfinished and that she can become a pilgrim of sorts and forge the life that she wants instead of relying on others to show her how to do it.

Fueled by this revelation, Anzia decides to write about the Jewish people in the Ghetto in an attempt to share her world, which will open up more opportunities for herself and others like her. Anzia's new pleasure is tinged with guilt and sadness as she despairs for the people who must toil in tedious work while she now delights in her writing.