An Outline of my thinking for the third paper.

Text: Eli the Fanatic and The Loudest Voice

Eli The Fanatic: 

Eli wants to embrace being Jewish while others In his community want to repress their jewish heritage and seem more americanized. He’s proud to show off his Jewish Heritage. He would hear traditional clothing that jewish people would typically wear.

“This is the twentieth century ELI. Now it’s the guy with the hat. Pretty soon all of the little Yeshivah Boys’ll be spilling down into town”

“It’s only since the war that Jews have been able to buy property here, and for Jews and Gentiles to live beside each other in amity”

The Loudest Voice:

Shirley wants to become Americanized so that her teachers can see her like she is an American and that would help her have a successful future. She wants to be a part of their society. Shirley uses her voice to her advantage by playing a role in a Christmas play.

“My! My! Shirley Abramowitz! They told me you had a particularly loud, clear voice and read with lots of expression. Could that be True? ”

“I’m surprised to see my neighbors making tra-la-la for christmas/Ach, Misha, your idealism is going away.”

“I carefully pronounced all the words about my lonesome childhood”.

For Both text tensions start to rise within their community about their faith. For Shirley it’s between her American classmates and her jewish parents which can also be interpreted as her being in between the christian and jewish faith. While for Eli it’s his jewish faith and the people in his community about American culture.

Eli wants to hide his Jewish identity so he can fit in with the Protestant community he lives in

Research Question: How did post World War II affect American Jews in America?

How did post European oppression affect American Jews?

Thesis: Through cultural assimilation, Jewish Americans in America face a cultural disparity between Jewish Culture and American Culture

Body Paragraph 1: Similarities that Eli and Shirley share, the struggle with assimilation 

Body Paragraph 2: Pressure from their community

Body Paragraph 3: Outside evidence of how American jews lived after WWII. Do they still practice their jewish heritage and traditions, adapted into american culture or a little bit of both

Through cultural assimilation, Jewish Americans in America face a cultural disparity between Jewish Culture and American Culture

For my paper the texts that I will be using are Eli the Fanatic and The Loudest Voice. I wanted to compare and contrast their Immigrant experience. For context Eli wants to embrace being Jewish while others In his community want to repress their jewish heritage and seem more americanized. Shirley wants to become Americanized so that her teachers can see her like she is an American and that would help her have a successful future. She wants to be a part of their society. Shirley uses her voice to her advantage by playing a role in a Christmas play. My research question is How did post World War II affect American Jews in America?

Body Paragraph 1: Similarities that Eli and Shirley share, the struggle with assimilation 

Body Paragraph 2: Pressure from their community

Body Paragraph 3: Outside evidence of how American jews lived after WWII. Do they still practice their jewish heritage and traditions, adapted into american culture or a little bit of both

Revised Notes:

When Shirley went to her parents for advice about the play it was like she was torn between loyalty towards her jewish heritage and participation in christian holiday. Because she decides to join the play it shows Americans forced assimilation on American jews.

We notice this same trend happening in Eli the Fanatic. 

Because Shirley is second generation, conflicts of religion arise between the two generations.

New Research Question: How much influence does the community have vs individual temperament?

In both “Eli The Fanatic” by Philip Roth and “ The Loudest Voice” by Grace Paley we explore the themes of assimilation and navigating through cultural identity. In “The Loudest Voice” Shirley participates in a Christmas play which causes a conflict with her parents’ biases of the traditions of Judaism. In “Eli The Fanatic”, Eli has an identity crisis where he is conflicted with his Jewish culture and his assimilated neighborhood. He is torn between his neighborhood and being “a lawyer in a black suit”, Being a jew. The influence of one’s community begs to question their religious identity and faith through the pressures of assimilation.

Her parents feel like if she participates in the Christmas play she would start to lose traces of her jewish culture and become more “Americanized” and they worry about the future generations to come in their family. They want to preserve their jewish culture through Shirley and implant their jewish heritage in Shirley.