r lower East Siders, from poverty, financial insecurity, and the struggle to become someone in the new country. Poor Bessie served to his father until she was thirty, suffered humiliation of his preaches and at the end could not find courage to run away. She simply went from one servitude to another, even more harsh. Instead of an old master, her father, she received a new one, Zalmond.Mashah has made a similar choice only was a little more lucky. She did have to put up with bad treatment from her swindler husband but at least he was young and she did not have to raise stepchildren. Fania faired even better. She went away to California. Though feeling very lonely with her businessman-gambler husband, she at least broke out of poverty.Sarah makes a radically new choice. She realizes that she can rebel and succeed, and she has strong will to do it. The choice to rebel and to get education was a completely new choice offered by the New World. The choice was far from easy. She suffered from hunger, poverty, alienation, and humiliation of the ghetto but her dreams kept her spirit alive and kept her going. College experience was also not easy. She was different from other students because she was poor, plain looking, and probably because she was Jewish. So she struggled to fit in. She never did and suffered a great deal from loneliness. Sarah's experience, I think, is somewhat typical for a determined emigrant who chooses not to give up, to be strong, and to succeed. Her experience and represents the struggle and ambition of the young Jews from the lower East Side, who in the twenties received education and became successful members of American society. Her experience represents the ambition of the Jews who went Hollywood and established a whole new industry, the Jews who came from poor uneducated families and became lawyers, doctors, and businessmen.Not every Young Jew became successful through an education. Many became ec...
