When I was younger and learning history, I had always been taught that people had immigrated to America for freedom. My teachers painted the "old countries" as hostile places lacking religious and social freedom. Granted, judging by the stories, many of them did, especially the Lituanian and Greek storytellers. But it seems like the rest came over for the sake of money. These people had heard that America was a land of gold, and they wanted in, or their families pushed them to come. But most of them described their old lives as happy and simple. Once they arrived in America, they had to work long hours for low wages, especially their first few months.
In their writings, most of them took great pains to outline their financial situations, even going so far as to list receipts for food. The last line of the Swedish farmer's story struck me: "The Swedes who live in America like the old country girls because they know how to save money." They based their marriage choices on frugality, it seems.
Do you think the immigrant's fixation on money was a good thing? Or did they lose some of their original values in pursuit of the American dream?
This is such an interesting question! I think that maybe it does seem kind of strange to us that so much of their focus should be monetary. I guess, when I think about it, though, I don't think they lost their original values at all. Their fixation on money was understandable because when you're poor and you're used to living in a society where you need money to buy food and supplies, it's not a matter of greed, it's a matter of survival. Plus, at least in the first half of the stories, they weren't fixating solely on money because they weren't willing to become criminals to get it -they were really just interested doing hard, good work, being as frugal as possible (well, some of them anyway) and in return receiving enough money to make a better life for themselves. In the end I think the pursuit of freedom/happiness is so intricately tied in our society, and their societies, with financial stability as to almost be the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Nicole. As the old saying goes, "When in Rome..." etcetera, etcetera. When the immigrants finally made it into America, many saw first hand how money gifted access, whether it was for work or for clothing or any other necessities. Many came for a better, more rewarding life, and yes that includes increased finances, but most were willing to work extremely hard to earn their wages. It wasn't greed that drove their work ethic, merely a desire to be able to sustain themselves. If they seemed a bit fixated on money, well frankly that just proves how good they were at becoming American.
ReplyDeleteI also noted that the authors discussed money often in their stories. This seems to be mostly utilitarian. They didn't have a lot of resources, so they had to conserve what they had. If they didn't work hard and save money, they would have starved to death. It also seems, as was noted above, that the immigrants were influenced by American consumerism. They learned that if you have money, you are important, so the authors strove to earn what they could. The woman learned that in order to be respected and noticed by men, they had to dress fashionably, so they felt the need to allocate money to nice clothing. Some immigrants came for freedom, but most came for financial reasons. Even since early colonization, this was the primary motivation. The American Dream is a financial one.
ReplyDelete