Racism In The Short Story Soap And Water By Anzia Azierska

Haifeng Yang

Instructor: Torsa Ghosal

English 1110.01: Secondary Source Integration

12th July 2016

Racism in the short story

The united states was a multicultural country combined with many ethics. At the same time the in-burst of various ethic groups of people brought the country cooperation, clash between races and racism became the serious problem. The short story Soap and water written by Anzia Yezierska expressed the angry about the unfair treatment to immigrants. The author Anzia was a Russia and Jewish immigrant to America herself. The protagonist as a Russia immigrant was depicted as unclean since her “skin looked oily, hair unkempt, and finger-nails sadly neglected”. She felt that her annoying appearance brought her so many difficulties.

The protagonist came to America as a Jewish refugee. “The chaos years of World War I, the February and October Revolution and the Russian Civil War had created social disruption that led to Anti-Semitism”(Wikipedia History of Jews in Russia). She wished that she could achieve the dreams of America which the Russian programs made it a faith to those immigrants. Originally, she believed in the America dream that she might find better life and achieve equality without regarding her Jewish identity. The truth was not like she imagined after she came and experienced the oppression. The period of time around 1920s was the time that “American antisemitism reached it peak during the interwar period. The Russia Revolution and anti-communist Red Scare of 1918-20 was a contributing factor, as many Americans associated Jews with the emergence of communism ”(alpha history). Even though Jews were not so involved into the communism, “Stereotypes can affect not only evaluations of members of a stereotyped group but also evaluations of aspects of the group’s culture”(Mary & Bernard 155). The natives were afraid of the communism being brought into their culture. Besides, “The rising popularity of Ku Klux Klan”(alpha history), which were secret group of white people who used violence to oppose the revolution to equal right, somewhat influenced many whites. Many factors at that period of time resulted in the prejudice in education and Employment to Jewish Americans. The difficult experience of the protagonist reflected the culture clash and racism in that period. The comparison between her hard-working and enthusiasm with the continuous dampening to her also strengthened the cruelty of racism to immigrants and