Monthly Archives: February 2012

These three films involve characters that work to morph themselves into the person they feel they should be. But family and their cultural and traditional values hold back their dreams of transformation. These characters all have problems with identify. Traditional … Continue reading →

Many times, immigrants feel the need to completely disregard their background, culture, and religion in the name of assimilating to a new country, new customs, and new traditions. Hester Street and The Jazz Singer are examples of two movies that … Continue reading →

Hi guys! Happy Groundhog Day! Hopefully winter is gone forever. Anyway… Out of all the papers and movies we had to watch/read, Hester Street caught my attention the most. Besides the fact that the sound track was completely off, I … Continue reading →

The issues of Immigrants and immigration are always controversial and it seems like that they are going to be permanent hot issues in the United States. As for the issue of the racial and religious identity of immigrants, should immigrants … Continue reading →

Rogin makes many interesting points that I missed in The Jazz Singer. When we were watching it in class, I thought the story was simply about a boy who wanted to sing jazz music. But Rogin brings up all these religious … Continue reading →

In both The Jazz Singer and Hester Street the protagonists clearly deal with similar crises of identity. Both Jakie and Jake face inner tension as they deal with trying to figure out who they “really” are. Both men are Jewish … Continue reading →

Immigration has founded a large part of history of New York City. Yet, it would be more accurate to say that New York City has influenced immigrants greatly rather than immigrants have influenced New York City. From the films “The … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

Jakie’s refusal to become a Cantor evidently points to the concept of identity. As seen within the movie, The Jazz Singer, Cantor Rabinowitz’s strict ruling tries to disintegrate the identity of Jakie. However, Jakie fights against the tradition of his … Continue reading →

In From Ellis Island to JFK, Nancy Foner goes about discussing two of the largest waves of immigration in United States history. Her discussion – at least in the first chapter – seems to focus on analyzing the qualities of … Continue reading →