Week 20 Monday Febuary 2nd - 7th 2009

This week , once the background information was completed and Ellis Island made known to you we studied a text entitled On the Threshold of a New World in which we learnt about the experiences of an immigrant who must have been a Russian Jew who could have belonged to a rather wealthy family and was obviosly extremely cultivated and well educated .
He however was treated like an animal in the same way as the other immigrants , humiliated by the ' big fat man ' and passed on from to room to be checked over for contagious diseases as well as to be checked out intellectually !

His confident attitude and lack of awareness as to the seriousness of his situation ended by disgusting ' the pretty young lady with cold eyes ' . She looked at him as if he were a madman when he said he was a writer and scoffed at him when he seemed to think he could make a living of such an activity in the States !

Our young hero however was very ambitious and wished he could become a wealthy man , married to a Norwegian lady . He wished he could fulfil the American dream and even if he had to start from scratch saw himself climbing up the social ladder .

Little did he know then , as he learnt later , that being a writer in the USA was not as easy as he had thought .

You must know this text fairly well along with the background information for your test on Immigration next Wednesday , February 11 th .

Have a nice weekend !