Name: Daisy Xu Date: May 10, 2007 Draft Two Title Nowadays, generation gap is not something new. It exists in almost every family, between every two generations. But if we make a further investigation into these families, we may find a great difference: Some generations have few conflicts while others have considerably more. As more and more people have become aware of the significance of generation gap, they become concerned of what actually causes the conflicts. Most of people believe that it is the difference in lifestyle that should be responsible. Conflicts are also believed to be easily solved when there exist communications between generations, who thus both wish to avoid conflicts. But what if there is a lack of love and very week bonds between parents and their children? Such things happened in The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen, by Bruno Lessing. In the story, the author writes about a Jewish father, Shadrach Cohen, coming to live with his two sons in the United States, who have been living in an American lifestyle, dressed as the local people do and given up their old religion, that is to say, who have been “Americanized” already. Unsatisfied with their father’s typical Jewish appearance, habits and religion, they always try to make him Americanized, only to cause a lot of conflicts. Finally, Cohen regained his sons’ respects and love by succeeding in his business. At the beginning of the story, we are told that the sons decided to bring their father to live with him when their business was going to expand. It might occur to us immediately that the sons were so kind that they wanted their father to live a better life with them as soon as they succeeded a little in their business. But later on, the sons did not take their father home for a rest as soon as they met him, instead, they suggested that he trim his beard first and “then” they would take him home. And when Cohen refused the suggestion, “his sons clinched their fists behind their backs and smiled at him amiably.” They decided to “humor” him because “he held the purse-strings”. As is written in the story, the two sons left their father and their motherland five years ago, so it is possible that they had changed a lot in their attitudes and their love towards their father. The strong bond which used to exist between them had now disappeared. When Cohen intended to talk with his sons about how important their old religion was, one of his sons “promptly changed the subject by explaining to him how badly they needed more money in their business”. Thus, we may conclude that the sons brought their father to live with them not because of love, but mainly for the sake of his money. However, we may still think that although the sons brought their father to live with them mainly for his money to expand their business, they still cared about their father, for they wanted him to be Americanized so that he could live an easier life in this new environment. But actually, as the story goes on, one of the sons wanted to merry an American girl. He did not let his father to see her unless he changed his old habits, for the son thought that the girl would be uncomfortable about his father, which might spoil everything. That is to say, clearly, it is not simply because of the differences in lifestyles and ideology that caused the fierce conflicts, neither is it because they love their father so much that they want to suggest a better life style to him. The sons are ashamed of their father. Thus, this time we may not simply due the generation gap to the differences in ideas about life between the father and the sons, but it is actually the sons’ lack of love that causes the fierce conflicts. Suppose that the sons really loved their father very much, they might not have simply disagreed with all their father’s old habits, trying to change him all the time, but have given him some suggestions to adapt to the new environment while still letting him make his own choice whether to change or not, so that they would have more bonds than the mere money. And when more communications were possible, there would not be so many conflicts. On the contrary, at the end of the story, when Cohen took over the business and succeeded, bringing back religion to his two sons, he also regained his sons’ respects. At that time, we may find that there were still differences in lifestyles between the father and the sons, but this time the differences no longer caused conflicts because they could understand each other and began to love each other again. Therefore, we may conclude that it is not mainly the differences of lifestyles that cause conflicts between Cohen and his sons, but is the lack of love and mutual understanding that is responsible. When the sons do not love their father much and are ashamed of him, they are unsatisfied with anything that their father does. They can see no advantages of their father except for his money. Thus, they want to change him eagerly, resulting in a lot of conflicts. But when they see the success their father has made, they come to respect him again. They find that there are still a lot to learn from their father. Therefore, they no longer want to change their father, but try to learn from him, and everything used to be dissatisfactory now seem acceptable. In short, differences in lifestyles and ideas may not necessarily cause conflicts between generations as long as there exists love. But when there is a lack of love, it is still possible to cause conflicts even both generations live in the same lifestyle.
Essay Draft Two
24.5.07 06:31
|
write an essay / Website (20.9.11 07:58) College writing is a challenging course for many new college students. In my experience teaching college writing, I have found a number of key tips very useful for my students. Although every essay writing situation is different, some general principles apply to most every writing problem. Read on to find out how you can write an essay for any college class to get the 'A' you want. _____________ best essay provider |
powered by
20six.co.uk
