Immigration Lit Circles Post 3

Quote: " 'How do you know she's Jewish?'
'I can tell a Jew anywhere!'
'Can you? Would you take me for a Jew?'
'You? Oh no. Certainly not! You must be German'
I pull up my sleeve. 'Do you know what this is?'
She looks at the tatoo on my arm. 'What is this?'
Blood rushes to my face. I'm shaking. I'm lose my cool. 'This number was put on me in Aushwitz by people like you!' I scream" (Ellie yelling at an American being racist towards Jewish people on a train.) Page 146, Paragraph 8

Significance: This gave me a new opinion on question 7, "How do Americans treat the characters?" This is because this American woman is completely disrespectful toward Jewish people. Because of the Holocaust, this makes her very defensive to her people. She yells at the woman for showing such hateful views towards Jews.

Character Judgement: Just like with the question, this quote has given me new views on Ellie as well. At first, I didn't see her as a person who would do that kind of thing towards another person, but I completely understand her reaction based on what the racist woman said about the "Jewish" woman before my quote, which I couldn't add because it would be really wrong.

Question 1: What would you do if someone was talking trash about people of your religion, or your friends and family behind their backs?


Quote 2: "I don't ask what standard means. All I know is, I have the job! The thrill vibrates through me as I skip along Jamaica Avenue toward the elevated train. I am a teacher again!" (Thought to herself by Ellie on page 129, paragraph 2.)

Significance: This relates to the 3rd question, "What was the role / job of the characters in their home country?" The reason I picked this up was because in a different part in the book she expained how she taught while in Czechoslovakia for 8 months before the Holocaust. Before this though, she was turned down by another school, when she didn't have a certain membership to a society called the J.E.C. (That stands for Jewish Education Commitee). When she went to get a lisence from them, they turned her down because she only had an 8 month crash course of teaching. She did her research, and found a school that would let her teach first grade Hebrew, without a licence.

Personal Relation: This relates to me every time I play a water polo game. You always want to start on the team (Be one of the first players to go out in the game). When you don't, you feel sort of defeated, like you didn't make the cut, which happens to me alot, because I'm certainly not up that high on the team.

Question: Have you ever strived to do something that you have always (or not always) wanted, but get shot down by someone else?