Mashah Harrison Character Analysis

575 Words3 Pages

I definitely concur with your response. I believe all of the characters have this longing desire to become their own person but when it comes to taking steps towards personhood they become apprehensive of what others may think. Sara is the character who is closest to personhood. In the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to the Sara 's sisters, Mashah, Fania, and Bessie. We also meet her parents. As the novel progresses, we see the sisters ' desire to become married before they are too old for a man 's liking. The father definitely has an influence on his family and uses the Torah to his advantage. When the father becomes a "matchmaker" he chooses Moe Mirsky who is made to believe he is a diamond dealer but eventually Mirsky gets fired …show more content…

In regards to what should be deleted from one 's life and what should be added, I think being passive should be deleted and being more aggressive and taking charge of your own life should be added because at the end of the day, you have to live with the consequences and no one wants to live with something they did not take control of.Sara definitely shows these characteristics throughout the novel. Towards the end of the novel Sarah has reached her limit of staying with her family as she says "Blindly, I grabbed my things together in a bundle. I didn 't care where I was going or what would become of me. Only to break away from my black life" (Yezierska, 136). Having freedom is determined from within it does not matter where you are located, you have the chance of going with the flow, or taking a stand on your personal belief 's. Mashah, Fania and Bessie may be fictional characters, but they represent a mass. People are timid of controlling their own destiny because they are afraid of the potential consequences, thus leaving them hopeless and depressed. As Sara 's father is preaching about what 's in the torah and how she will not be successful without a man, Sarah respond 's "I 'm smart enough to look out for myself. It 's a new life now. In America, women don 't need men to boss them. (Yezierska, 137). It is very commendable that Sara has this mentality and is aware that women are people too seeing that she has grown into an environment where men are considered superior as opposed to women. Sara is aware that she does not want to live a life where she serves a man and has to obide by his rules. In the book, the men are portrayed more as persons while the women are like accessories to a man. The father always tells the daughter to hurry and get married before they are too old and ugly for a man to like them, so basically everything is on a man 's