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History 10 arrogant beggar essay

History 10 arrogant beggar essay

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Anzia Yezierska's book The Arrogant Beggar illustrates the realities of Jewish working

females as well as the Jewish population of New York during the Progressive Movement (1900-

1920). The white American civilization they labored for and resided in viewed the entire Eastern

European Jews as "others”. Several of the challenges that respectively these Jews as well as

the other populations of "others" encountered throughout the Progressive Movement are

portrayed in the novel. The conduct of working females in the novel mirrors how prominent

white people and their civilization thought about and regarded "others" in their community.

These "others" living circumstances were terrible because many labored lengthy hours

doing very harsh tasks. "Circumstances in the migrant work camps were miserable and

demeaning” (Takaki 298) for Mexican immigrants working and residing abroad in the

Southwest. During 1908, research of 250 Russian Jewish households revealed that "Nearly half

among many households held 3 - 4 individuals to a room, and almost a quarter had 5-6

individuals" (Takaki 269) This demonstrated the extremely confined and unsafe living

environments these people had. The housing circumstances of Adele, an eighteen-year-old

Jewish laboring girl, is portrayed at the opening of the Arrogant Beggar. Among the several

residents in her cramped house, Adele's intimate privacy is a "hole in the surface of her

bedroom" with "loose springs and bumpy cushion all along her mattress." (Yezierska 7 & 8) Due

to the confined apartment located just well above the shop, "the scents from the seafood

market downstairs" (Yezierska 7) were evident in her bedroom. When Adele decides to locate

a different home to reside, she discovers "filthy apartments row after row," which are much

terrible than the circumstances she had already been staying in. Boredom has settled in. The

atmosphere is saturated with darkness. The author states she is "Exhausted, like the grey

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brown faces of workmen coming just after a full day's work. I observed the homes crammed

together through disrepair, like an impoverished, congested household." (Yezierska 91)

“Garbage cans on opposing sides of the porch are falling apart at the sides." (Yezierska 12 & 13)

Due to the fumes from the nearby industrial sites and the congesting of the houses and

apartments in her area it inevitably led Adele to question "How could anyone stay healthy in

this environment, where every piece of air has been wiped out and penetrated with toxic

smoke, drowned in sounds, for which perhaps the atmosphere was an inmate, and the stars

were trapped?" (Yezierska 16) throughout the inner city in which the Russian Jews resided in.

The white leaders among these "others," regardless of whether they were Mexican American

crop growers in the southwest or Russian Jewish manufacturing laborers, "they had no

obligation for such living environment or wellbeing of their people." (Takaki 299)

Since "agriculture employment was temporary and migrating, with workmen trailing the

harvests," (Takaki 298) migrant Americans in the southwest would then have to travel to find

employment. There was also a need to search for employment in New York, because

companies stop production, employees were cut, and many individuals arrived in the nation

looking for work. Obtaining work in New York became difficult for such "other," according to

Adele, who "woke up with in early in the morning and searched among various advertising,"

thereafter "Rushing around aimlessly, asking to be accepted" (Yezierska 34 & 37) at

manufacturing companies and small businesses. This wasn't just Adele, though: "I was asked to

arrive at 8:00am, we would stand around until midday with a crowd of additional females, just

to get the news from a guy to send us back home."(Yezierska 37) The early part of the day had

passed us by and our chances of finding faith has vanished. Recruitment companies would pull

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Anzia Yezierska's book The Arrogant Beggar illustrates the realities of Jewish working females as well as the Jewish population of New York during the Progressive Movement (19001920). The white American civilization they labored for and resided in viewed the entire Eastern European Jews as "others”. Several of the challenges that respectively these Jews as well as the other populations of "others" encountered throughout the Progressive Movement are portrayed in the novel. The conduct of working females in the novel mirrors how prominent white people and their civilization thought about and regarded "others" in their community. These "others" living circumstances were terrible because many labored lengthy hours doing very harsh tasks. "Circumstances in the migrant work camps were miserable and demeaning” (Takaki 298) for Mexican immigrants working and residing abroad in the Southwest. During 1908, research of 250 Russian Jewish households revealed that "Nearly half among many households held 3 - 4 individuals to a room, and almost a quarter had 5-6 individuals" (Takaki 269) This demonstrated the extremely confined and unsafe living environments these people had. The housing circumstances of Adele, an eighteen-year-old Jewish laboring girl, is portrayed at the opening of the Arrogant Beggar. Among the several residents in her cramped house, Adele's intimate privacy is a "hole in the surface of her bedroom" with "loose springs and bumpy cushion all along her mattress." (Yezi ...
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