AS THEY PLAY, SO ONE STUMBLES; THE AMERICAN MELTING POT

In studying American culture it is virtually impossible to escape the idea of American society as being a melting pot. Upon examining this notion, however, one may feel some sort of scepticism towards it. Not going into details, one can safely assume that people from every corner of the globe have moved to the USA for virtually every possible reason. Some disparities, of course, most be noted, such as the enormous amount of Negroes imported from Africa for slave labour and the fact that it was mostly for owners of European descent that they worked. In the light of such considerations it is easy to conceive that perhaps the melting pot is a set of pink sunglasses through which a number of Americans view their surroundings. When trying to defend the point of view that the American society resembles for instance a mosaic or a salad bowl more closely than it does a magical cauldron where all peoples are merged into one, literature can be turned to in order to measure the stance that certain minorities hold or have held towards the incorporation of their numbers in the American culture. One can find a prime example of such a minority in the Jews, with their long tradition of viewing themselves as well as their surroundings in a decidedly critical way their literature can be expected to, at the very least, contain subtle hints towards a variegated nature of the American people if such a state were present.

When viewed in a shallow manner it may appear that a novelette such as Yekl is an advocate for the melting pot.^[1] This can be illustrated by passages where Gitl is said to have “about her a suggestion of that peculiar air of self–confidence with which a few months’ life in America is sure to stamp the looks and bearing of every immigrant”, or when Mrs. Kavarsky tells Gitl; “As they play, so one dances”, when Gitl is having problems with the state of her marriage and her new surroundings.^[2] What these examples fail to address, however, is that a true assimilation exists, the characters in the story try their hardest to fit into a culture that isn’t exactly theirs and the simple fact that they have to try at all to fit in implies that there exists something that deviates from the standard and that this supposed standard is not gained by exposure alone, even after having lived in America for three years, as Jake has.

Even when not disassembling apparent pros, a number of examples can be found that point towards the American culture bearing more resemblance to a mosaic than a melting pot. Early on in the story the American society is described as “a human hodgepodge with its component parts changed but not yet fused into one homogeneous whole”, this can be seen as comparing American culture with a stew, in which many different ingredients can be readily recognised, yet they have not remained unaltered in the course of the preparation of the meal.^[3] Moreover, there is, throughout the story, an all–pervading sense of separation achieved by the setting of the story in the ghetto and referring to the ghetto as “a vast and compact city within a city”, this effectively turns the Jewish community into a separate element of a city which can therefore be supposed to contain more such elements.^[4] When it is mentioned that the New York ghetto has become “the metropolis of the Ghettos of the world” the following statement that immigration is “flowing from all the Yiddish–speaking centers of Europe” refers back to the importance of the New York ghetto, rather than to the merits of America as a whole, thus furthering the opposition between the readily assimilating newcomer and reality, where the Yiddish newcomers quickly turn to people who speak, think, and believe as they do.^[5]

Next, the self–consciousness that is attached to the use of language is an issue also widely addressed. Very early on in the story a passage indicates that the characters’ English is “mutilated”, and, that the language they use amongst themselves is Yiddish.^[6] This seemingly simple statement carries a heavy load when examined in the light of ethnic diversity, the Jews are not only labelling themselves as different by physically setting themselves apart in the city but also by walling themselves off mentally by using a language not known to outsiders, consequently impairing their proficiency in English. Another way of establishing the importance of language is the very explicit way it is mentioned that “English was the official language of the academy”, referring to the dancing school.^[7] Assuming that the dancing school is situated somewhere in the ghetto this message comes to convey a deeply ironic undertone, since, even though there is virtually no chance of purely English–speaking customers, the proprietor of the establishment insists on everybody speaking English so as not to create a barrier for those potential customers. Some characters in the story itself, are aware of the lacking quality of their English, as at one point a bystander notes “and ‘dodd’ll do’ [that’ll do] for a language”, taking a shot at the idleness of the Jews towards learning the language of the country they chose to move to.^[8]

The notion of America as the ‘melting pot of the world’ is an old one and is frequently used by the Americans themselves as one of the many merits of their nation. When this idea is placed under a microscope, so to speak, it appears to contain numerous flaws. Even from the limited perspective granted on the situation by a novelette this can be seen. The Jewish community presented in Yekl effectively pictures American society as a motley crew by focusing on one of its parts. The Jewish society segregates itself from its surroundings by concentrating themselves in certain parts of the city, by assimilating Jews new to America, and by continuing to speak their own language. Furthermore, it can be seen that becoming an American is not a process that takes place without making an effort, and that, even after that effort has been made, one can not, by default, be labelled an American. In short, the story “Yekl” does not give an affirmative view on the traditional view of America as a melting pot but shows an incline towards picturing the American society as a mosaic.

01 May. 01

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