In the story America and I, written by Anzia Yezierska, the main character is Anzia. The main setting is in America. In the beginning of the story, Anzia immigrated to America from Russia. She comes to America with high hopes of searching for success and a better life. She believes that America is a place with huge opportunities and everything comes to you easily, but little does she know that she has it all wrong. Throughout the story Anzia used the phrases “darkness” and “light” to explain her negative and positive experiences in America. She used darkness to explain her negative emotions which were disappointment, confusion,and disillusionment. She used light to explain her bright hopes and dreams. First off, Anzia finds a small job working…show more content… Anzia would have never been fully happy. She would have a deep sadness inside her. She wouldn’t be able to live her life to the fullest like she dreamt about. The feeling Anzia had towards the American family would perpetuate and nothing would change for her. She would be stuck doing something that brought no joy into her life instead of doing something that she loved and made her happy. Even though nothing really changed for Anzia after she stopped working for the family she got to realize the reality of the real America.
A connection that this story has in my life is with my mom. My mom can relate to Anzia in some ways because at first my mom immigrated to America too. My mom tells me about how hard it was for her to be an immigrant in America and all the challenges she went through to be happy. She worked for an American family also. My mom didn’t speak English or anything, but she had to learn somehow so she would be able to fit in. My mom wasn’t happy until she was able to stand on her own feet without the help of anyone. Overall, I believe the message that the author would like us to take away is disillusionment and dreams. Anzia had high expectations for America, but at the end it didn’t match up with reality. The author is trying to teach us that not everything comes to you easy you have to work for it, and go through a couple of challenges before becoming
