Swathi – Page 2 – The Peopling of New York City

Apple and Tree

Sara and her father, Reb, on the surface may seem to have clashing personalities. Indeed they do disagree on many accounts. Reb values religion and going to Heaven while Sara and the rest of the Smolinsky family strives for a better life on earth. Their differences, however, are but in their values. In many instances throughout the book, we can tell that Sara has certain character traits that very much resemble her father’s.

Reb dedicates his entire life to learning about the Torah and leading a life that will grant him access to heaven. He lives on his daughters’ wages and spends all his time reading his books. Although Sara does not share his diligence for religious studies, Sara goes to similar extremes when knowledge– in a worldly sense– is concerned. She, like her father, leaves her family to fend for themselves and works only towards her own goal. She even tells her mother than she will not visit her parents again until after she finishes college because it is more important in her immediate future. When she finally finishes her studies and goes to visit her mother, Sara is devastated to find her on her deathbed. Likewise, Reb’s search for knowledge also destroys his family. He rejects all of his daughters’ lovers and forces them into unhealthy marriages. Bessie goes on to bear a greater burden in her husband’s home caring for her six step children. Mashah becomes dirt poor after discovering her husband was a fraud. Fania is expected to dress and act wealthy without spending money as though she were wealthy.

Sara and Reb are both stubborn and stuck on their own beliefs right to the end. Sara’s pursuit of education battles her father’s persistent quest for knowledge. Both of their beliefs are tested in the early 20th century American society that they live in. The established gender roles at the time discourage Sara from becoming a person. Women and young girls were expected to marry and be housemakers. Sara, however, continued to strive for a college degree and a profession that would make her self sufficient. Reb struggled to validate his old world values in the American new world. In once instance, the landlady accused him of being lazy for not working to pay the bills and knocked his holy book out of his hand and to the floor. Reb still held his beliefs close to him and looks for a job that will leave most of his time to dedicate towards his learning. Despite, their contrasting American dreams, Sara shares her strong willed character with her father.

Vallon’s Death Scene

Priest Vallon’s death scene was not only essential to the plot of the movie, but it was also very telling about the Irish struggle for emancipation. After Bill stabs Vallon, a horn is blown and and everyone gathers to watch Vallon tell his son Amsterdam, “Don’t ever look away.” I interpreted these last words to mean that Amsterdam should never let injustice happen to his people, that should never look the other way as the Irish immigrants in the Five Points are mistreated. Aside from Amsterdam running to his father’s side, the only other reaction to Vallon’s death was Monk taking money that Vallon owed him from his pocket. His death of the Irishman did not receive any sympathy from anyone other than his son. What amused me is that little Amsterdam grabs the knife on his dead father’s chest and uses it to threaten the crowd around him as he escapes the scene. I was not expecting that at all from the innocent boy. Amsterdam’s actions show us that Vallon, leader of the Dead Rabbits, passed down his vengeance and anger to his son, as it was part of the Irish immigrant culture, I suppose. This reminded me of Peter Quinn’s conclusion about how memories are passed down from generation to generation and heritage is something you can never truly escape or leave behind.
This scene was almost unbearably gory. Many of the people fighting had claw-like fingernails that you’d see in a werewolf movie. The brutality was notable and depicts the gang violence in 19th century New York to be unimaginably awful. I’m not sure whether Hollywood dramatized the violence to give viewers sympathy for the Irish characters, or the feuds were truly that gruesome. This scene gave me a vivid visual that brought life to the readings we have done in class.

The Spirit of the New Yorker: Reitano Ch 4 Summary

During the mid 19th century, New York City went through formative changes in population demographics, economic turmoil, and struggles for power against the state. Rival parties formed on the basis of race, religion, class and allegiance challenged the systems in place and made progress as not only a city, but as a country.

A major factor that furthered the progress of New York City was the activist spirit that emerged as a result of the gap between the rich and the poor. Nearing the end of the industrial revolution, some New Yorkers were able to make a hefty living from rising industries. While the wealthy lived on Broadway and Fifth Avenue, the poor were displaced to the Five Points slum area and exposed to high rates on crime and gang violence. The tension between the two classes was demonstrated in the Astor Place Riots. Two rival actors, William Macready and Edwin Forrest, were both due to perform Hamlet one the same night as different venues. While Macready resonated with the upper class, Forest was the common man’s actor. On opening night, Forrest supporters came to Macready’s show to throw rotten eggs and potatoes at him. Fueled by their last riot, Forrest supporters bought tickets to crash Macready’s second performance, but state militia fired at the rabble rousers costing several American lives. In response to the militia shooting, Forrest supporters held a protest rally on May 11th at City Hall Park. The Astor Place Riots set the scene for future activists.

The draft riots of the Civil War were another chief example of the social pressures between the wealthy and the poor in New York. When the republican party called for a draft across the board, the lower class were enraged to find out that the wealthy were excused from the draft after paying a replacement fee. Mob riots ensued in republican areas; african americans were lynched; wealthy people were attacked on the streets; expensive stores were robbed. In response to the riots, President Lincoln ordered a draft quota for NYS. Some whites formed unions and organizations to support the republican party and abolitionists. Despite the initial responses to the national draft, the two parties did make amends and spurred an era of growth in New York City and the United States as a whole.

Another major factor that moved the progress of New York City was the cultural conflict that resulted from the immigration of 1.6 million Irish catholics to the United States during the Irish famine. Americans took on a strong sense of nativism and outcasted the immigrants. On 4th of July 1853, when a riot surfaced in the midst of two patriotic parades, one protestant and the other catholic, police only arrested catholics. Similarly, protestant mobs prevented catholic children from attended the mission school set up by Reverend Louis and protestant street preaching became frequent in catholics neighborhoods. Despite, nativist attitudes and persistent attempts at conversion, the Irish catholics did not assimilate; instead they redefined the culture of NYC and by extension, the United States.

Another large conflict in NYC was the power struggle between the city and New York State. Fernando Wood, Mayor of New York, was known for employing Irish workers and improving the education, sanitation, and transportation systems. Although his self satisfying motives made him out to be quite a controversial politician, Wood formed a resistance of Irish locals as the State began to take away municipal authorities. State-appointed commissioners were put in place to oversee the development of Central Park. The revision of the City Charter removed the mayor from the Board of Supervisors so Wood forcefully relinquished control over city finances. The state increased the liquor license fee, attacking the culture of the already impoverished Irish and German immigrants. Lastly, the state implemented the Metropolitan Police Act which disbanded the city militia, leaving New York City to be defended by the metropolitan police force. Wood gave his policemen the option to join the state force or stay on his municipal force in spite of the police act. While the Irish immigrants remained loyal to him, the native born Americans joined the state, creating major conflict between the two groups. In response, the Irish formed the Dead Rabbits and fought the state police and their gang, the Bowery Boys. In the end, only the Dead Rabbits were blamed for the riot. Social conflicts like these have been prominent in New York City’s history, and each time, New Yorkers rise to challenge norms and fight for what they believe in. Confronting conflict headfirst has become custom as well as responsibility in order to form a more perfect union.

Sticks and Stones

Quinn makes a comparison between slave trade and the holocaust and famine emigration early in the essay on to reject it later. Why?

In his essay, “In Search of the Banished Children,” Peter Quinn explores his family’s history in hopes of recovering his the fine points of his lost Irish heritage. Early on, he notes historian James Scally’s comparison between the magnitude of the Irish immigration and “the slave trade or the boxcars of the Holocaust” (48). Here, he illustrates the widespread migration to America that occurred during all three events. In the remainder of his essay, he goes on to prove that, despite the extent of the calamity that the Irish had faced, with the passage of time, there are few traces of personal burden caused by the Irish famine today.

Quinn states that the Irish American struggle was muffled as slavery and the Holocaust eclipsed the anti-Irish movement (50). He writes, “[unlike] the turning of a natural catastrophe to the brutal purposes of social engineering, the Holocaust was a death sentence leveled against every Jewish man, woman, child under German rule” (53). Quinn does not aim to downplay the famine, but rather to demonstrate that although time may not heal, it does indeed mask. As other issues in America were brought to attention, the Irish slums and the were clouded. Today, we all openly recognize the tragedies that occurred during the slave trade and the Holocaust. They are a huge part of our nation’s history, while the famine is less emphasized in a general American history class. Perhaps this is because the Irish did not have a tattooed number on their bodies or a separate faith or darkly pigmented skin to be easily identified as a victim. Quinn recognizes that with the coming generations, the communal memories that he sought were blurred both intentionally and unintentionally. Intentionally, by the first immigrant groups in attempt to move on and create a better life for their families. Unintentionally by children who did not pass down the stories of their elders. By default, the hardships that Quinn’s Irish ancestors faced were no longer personally relevant to modern day Irish Americans. Now, “it is impossible to tell that [their] legs were ever broken at all (56).