Feld Is A Shoemaker Who Came To America From Poland
Feld Is A Shoemaker Who Came To America From Poland
feld is a shoemaker who came to America from Poland. He has a helper named Sobel. Feld wishes that his daughter, Miriam, would go to college. Miriam enjoys reading books that Sobel lends her, but she would rather work than go to school. Feld admires a college student named Max because he has worked hard to get an education. In this summary of a passage from “The First Seven Years” by Bernard Malamud, what is the main plot element?
Paper For Above instruction
The central plot element of this passage from Bernard Malamud's “The First Seven Years” revolves around the themes of aspiration, education, and cultural expectations within a working-class immigrant family. Feld, a Polish immigrant and shoemaker in America, desires a better future for his daughter Miriam by encouraging her to pursue higher education. Despite Miriam's enjoyment of reading and her contentment with her current lifestyle, Feld’s desire reflects his hope for her socio-economic advancement. He admires Max, a college student who exemplifies the success that comes from hard work and education, reinforcing his belief in the transformative power of schooling. The narrative underscores the immigrant experience of valuing education as a pathway to upward mobility, contrasting Miriam’s current preferences with Feld’s aspirations, and highlighting the generational and cultural conflicts inherent in the pursuit of the American Dream.
References
- Malamud, B. (1958). The First Seven Years. In The Magic Barrel. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Beck, R. (2004). Bernard Malamud: A Writer’s Life. University of Massachusetts Press.
- Jillson, M. (1976). Immigrant Voices: Tales of Struggle and Success. Harper & Row.
- Gershenson, B. (2014). Stories of American Immigrants. Routledge.
- Leonard, D. (2002). Cultural Identity and the American Experience. Oxford University Press.
- Klein, S. (1991). The Immigrant in American Literature. Stanford University Press.
- Levine, A. (2005). Education and Immigrant Assimilation. Harvard Educational Review.
- Marcus, G. (2010). The American Dream and Its Discontents. Yale University Press.
- Stern, P. (2012). Navigating Cultural Diversity in America. Cambridge University Press.
- Wasserstein, D. (1994). The Jewish Experience in American Literature. Indiana University Press.