Singer plays a unique role in Jewish American literature. He immigrated to the United States from Poland in 1935, when he was in his early thirties, and continued to write in Yiddish, his native tongue. Although he would become an American citizen and live in the United States for the remainder of his long life,…
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The Son From America – Historical Setting
East European Jewry During the nineteenth century, the number of Jews relative to the non-Jewish population in Poland rose steadily, from 8.7 percent in 1816 to 13.5 percent in 1865 and 14 percent in 1897. This growth was in spite of extensive Jewish emigration and was due to a lower death rate among Jews compared…
The Son From America – Literary Devices
Nature Symbolism Berl and Berlcha live simply, guided by their religious faith. They also live close to nature and in harmony with it. Human and natural worlds interpenetrate, almost like paradise described in the book of Genesis in the Bible, before the fall of man. In the winter, the chickens and the goat live inside…
The Son From America – Themes
Materialism From a modern perspective, Berl and Berlcha do not possess much. They have enough to eat, and they have a roof over their heads, but that is about all. They are poor. They have no luxuries. The only extras they make sure they have are the candles needed for the Sabbath, but they regard…
The Son From America – Characters
Berl Berl is a man in his eighties, married to Berlcha. Berl is Jewish, and he used to live in Russia but was driven from that country by persecution. He settled with his wife in a small village in Poland, where they keep a goat, a cow, and chickens and a small field. Berl walks…
The Son From America – Summary
‘‘The Son from America’’ is set in Lentshin, a small Jewish village in Poland in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. In Lentshin live old Berl, a man in his eighties, and his wife, Berlcha. Berl was driven from Russia by the persecution of Jews there, and he and his wife settled in Poland….
The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses – Analysis
Set in a prison in South Africa during the time of apartheid, ‘‘The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses’’ presents many of the elements one might expect from a ‘‘typical’’ political story about oppression, or about prison. The prisoners are black, occupying the lowest rung on the racial and racist ladder established by the state-sponsored system of…
The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses – Setting
When Head published ‘‘The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses’’ in 1973, South Africa was about halfway through the era of apartheid, which lasted from 1948 to 1994. Although Head herself was living in Botswana when she wrote this story, many of her friends and acquaintances were, like the men of Span One, in prison as a…
The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses – Literary Devices
Antihero Many stories from cultures the world over feature a hero, typically a large, handsome, physically strong man who defeats his enemies and gains wealth and glory through a combination of physical combat, virtue, and shrewdness. In ‘‘The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses,’’ on the other hand, the protagonist, Brille, might be better labeled an ‘‘antihero.’’…
The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses – Themes
Apartheid ‘‘The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses’’ is set in South Africa during the years of apartheid, the statesponsored system of laws that officially divided all residents into four racial classifications and reserved power and wealth for the white minority. The ten black men in Span One are all political prisoners, arrested for being part of…