Just as adolescents embark on an intellectual journey to discover their true identity, so do the characters portrayed in the films The Jazz Singer and Hester Street. For instance, in Hester Street Yekl undergoes a dramatic change in both his personality and beliefs when he arrives in America. While in America, Yekl switches his name to Jake and abandons his religion. Furthermore, Jake becomes involved in an extramarital affair despite being married to his wife Gitle. However, when Gitle immigrates to America she upheld her Jewish faith and remained loyal to her husband. Unfortunately, Jake fails to show any appreciation for his wife when she tried to change herself for him. In fact, Jake illustrated no remorse for his actions and was blindly in love with Mamie the dancer. Through Hester Street we can see the dramatic transformation Yekl has undergone and visualize that Jake now considers himself to be a true American at heart and not Jewish. I am surprised that Jake even brought back Gitl at all if all he was going to do was just abandon her and betray her with his deceit. I feel that the movie resolved the conflict between Gitl and Yekl well because Jake got what he desired and Gitl remarried to Bernstein and was still able to adhere to her religion without a problem. I actually was hoping that Yekl would go back to Gitl after she reluctantly went against her own will to make him happy. Sadly, this was not the case. I wouldn’t be surprised even if Jake becomes “Daddy Yankee” after witnessing how much he changed.
Also, in The Jazz Singer we witness the identity conflict depicted by Jakie Rabinowitz. For example, Jakie (who later refers to himself as Jack) has to decide whether to premiere in his first show or to sing at the Kol Nidre to fulfill his father’s last wish. Here, Jakie experiences a cultural conflict because he has ponder over who he actually is: A devout Jewish cantor or a Jazz singing individual? Luckily for Jakie, he gets the best of both worlds and is able to both fulfill his father’s wish and sing jazz later on in the film. Even though Jakie ultimately becomes the Jazz Singer, somewhere inside of him his religion is still important to him and this caused him to sing for his father at the Kol Nidre that day. Jakie may now be Jazz Singer and an American, but in actuality he is of Jewish descent and will always be. I believe that since American culture emphasizes on individuality and places no restrictions upon a person it was no surprise why both Jakie and Yekl assimilated so quickly. Knowing the strict doctrines of their Jewish culture, both of them decided to give rise to newer identities as Americans to be able to better express themselves.
Nancy Foner’s writings showed insight to why immigrants like Jakie and Jake actually came to America. The fact that most immigrants suffered economic hardships and persecution in their native countries explain why they came to America. For example, Foner states that the amount of money a person makes within a month in Brazil isn’t enough to buy a new television. However, the amount of person an individual makes in a week in America is enough to buy a brand new television set. Factors like these are reasons why immigrants want to travel to America to commence a new life and escape financial burdens in their native countries. Thus, it’s not surprising why Jake and Jakie had a passion to reside in America. They both wanted to earn a decent living and start life afresh without any religious restrictions or financial issues. While the movies Hester Street and The Jazz Singer focused the identity crisis’ its characters confronted, Foner’s writings gave us the literal sense of what immigration was like. For instance, many immigrants perished on their journey coming to America due to starvation, lack of sanitary conditions on the ship, and harsh conditions and treatment. The expedition to America wasn’t an easy one for all immigrants.
Overall, the movies Hester Street and The Jazz Singer and the writings by Nancy Foner gave me a better idea of the strife immigrants had to endure to settle in an entirely new country. It also exposed to me the religious conflicts Jewish immigrants and other cultures faced, such as whether to stick to their religion or to abandon it and begin a newer life as a different person.
