Name: Daisy Xu Date: June 2, 2007 Draft Three The Cause of the Conflicts between Cohen and His Sons Nowadays, generation gap is familiar to almost every one. It exists in nearly every family, between every two generations. If we make a further investigation into these families, we may find a great difference: Some families have few conflicts between generations while others have considerably more. What on earth causes these conflicts? Most of people believe that it is the difference in lifestyle that should be responsible. But in The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen, by Bruno Lessing, I believe that it is not mainly the differences but the sons’ lack of love for their father that actually causes the conflicts. In the story, the author writes about a Jewish father, Shadrach Cohen, coming to live with his two sons in the United States. The sons have been living in an American lifestyle, dressed as the local people do and given up their old religion, in other words, have been “Americanized” already. Unsatisfied with their father’s typical Jewish appearance, habits and religion, they always try to make him Americanized, only leading to a lot of conflicts. Finally, when Cohen regained his sons’ respects and love by succeeding in his business, conflicts no longer exist. 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. And when the father arrived, the sons did not take their father home for a rest immediately, instead, they suggested that he trim his beard first and “then” they would take him home. When Cohen refused the suggestion, “his sons clinched their fists behind their backs and smiled at him amiably.”(46) They decided to “humor” him because “he held the purse-strings”.(46) It can be implied that the sons did not like their father and his traditional appearance and that they needed his money to run their business, which might be the main reason for their bringing Cohen to live with them. Besides, 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 might have already 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”. (47) Thus, we may conclude that the sons did not love their father much and the bond between them was the mere money. However, someone 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 and they looked down upon him. Thus, it is clear that it is not the difference that causes the conflicts, but the sons’ disdain and lack of love that actually result in the situation. Supposing 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. 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 Cohen still kept his typical Jewish appearance and lifestyle, but this time it 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 of the sons 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 good point 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. And when respect and love come back again, differences that 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 Three
24.5.07 06:32
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