The identity of a person can be shown in many forms. For example, a person’s name reveals where the person is from. In addition, the physical features a person has and the clothing someone wears also reveals aspects of their identity. In Ellis Island, The Jazz Singer and Hester Street, these features of the characters give the viewers pieces as to who the character is.
As Foner stated, “the reasons why millions have left their homelands to come to America are complex and multi face.” Whatever those reasons may be, in the 1920s, people from Europe travelled great lengths in order to come to New York City. However, that trip came with a price, a price in which some happily paid and some who did not wish to pay it. Most people who came to New York at that time went through Ellis Island. There they had to prove their worth by getting rid of some aspects of the culture they grew up in. One of those aspects is their name; this is clearly shown in the movie Ellis Island. A man walked in with the name Elessen Rahmsauer and entered the United States with the name Eli Lamb. Whether that man was happy about losing his birth name, it is unclear for the shot showed his back-not allowing the viewers to see his facial expressions. The main characters in The Jazz Singer changes his name from Jackie Rabinowitz to Jake Robin in order to throw his old identity away. Being raised in a orthodox Jewish household, he was unable to pursue his passion of jazz singing. In order to separate himself from the traditions his family upheld, he changed his name. The same can be said about the main character in the movie Hester Street; he changed his name to Jake and transformed himself into a “Yankee”.
Besides changing their name, people also learned English. This is depicted in all three movies. In Ellis Island, there were scenes in which a group of people dressed in Eastern European clothing were sitting in a classroom repeating the words a teacher spoke. (What was interesting about that though was that the viewer does not hear the immigrants speak. The viewer merely sees their mouths form the words, leaving the viewer to choose the voices the students have.) In the movie Hester Street, Jake’s son and wife immigrate to the United States and soon begin to learn English. There is a scene in which Jake’s son is rewarded for being able to say the word “horse” and another scene in which his wife starts stating the names of kitchen appliances in English. As the movie progresses, these characters start to converse in mostly English. This shows how they are losing part of their identity. In The Jazz Singer, Jackie speaks in English everywhere except when he is in the synagogue. However, this can be seen as a preservation of identity, for instead of going through the performance, he took over his father’s place in singing the hymns.
People should learn the language of the country they live in, even if they live in self-sufficient neighborhoods consisting of people who speak the same native tongue as them. These self-sufficient neighborhoods are shown in The Jazz Singer and Hester Street. Whenever the characters stepped onto the streets, it would consist of people of the same religion, Jewish, conducting business, working and enjoying drinks together. These ethnic neighborhoods are a way that people wish to preserve this part of their identity, the traditions they uphold because of their religion. Woman would wear plain, dark clothing that covered them. Men wore black hats and grew out their beards. Most of the people in these movies had similar physical features. A person’s facial features give away their nationality. This is clearly shown in Ellis Island; there is a scene in which a woman writes “Serb” on the glass in front of a person looking at the camera. Also in that movie, there was a scene where the viewer saw the side profile of a woman and that a hand drew a circle on the glass in front of her. This circle brought the viewer’s attention to the woman’s nose. In Hester Street, Jake’s wife has certain unique characteristics that Jake’s lover did not have. This was apart in the scene where his lover came over his house to find out that Jake is married and with a little boy.
However, those that wished to remove themselves from their old identity-such as Jake-do not fit in. Jackie has shaved off his beard and cut his hair to look like a modern American. Jake also makes fun of the person who just came to America in the second scene where he, his lover, and two of his friends are sitting around a table in a restaurant. Jackie, however, took a somewhat extreme approach: he put on a mask. Being a “cultural schizophrenic,” Jackie wishes to hold onto his old self and his new self: a jazz singer. (Rogin, page 426) However, a Jewish man at the time could not be a jazz singer, thus in order to obtain fame and fortune, he put on a blackface. This mask allowed him to be free “from paternal, old-world constraints” and allows him to follow his dream of using his voice to sing jazz. (Rogin, 419) “Blackface is the instrument that transfers identities from immigrant Jew to American.” (Rogin, 434) Through this mask, Jackie is able to live the way he wants: that is, until his father falls ill. Then it becomes an internal conflict between his religion and what he sees himself doing with his life (which has become part of his identity). The scene that best reflects this internal struggle is when he is looking in the mirror (with his costume on) and in the reflection the viewer sees his father singing in the synagogue. In the end, he gets to keep both identities: a cantor of his synagogue and a jazz singer.
Jake did not have this choice. His wife and child represent his old identity and his lover represents his new identity. In the end, he decides to keep his new identity and get rid of his old one. Thus in the end of the movie, he divorced his wife and married his Polish lover. This signifies how Jackie decided to be an American and starts life anew.
