The Promised Land Mary Antin Quotes

The Sweeter Things In Life This passage about sensory memory in “The Promised Land”, by Mary Antin, is one that can be examined critically to determine concealed ideas and hidden character traits that the author puts in their literature. This passage occurs in the stage of the novel where the protagonist and author Mary is starting to settle into the first few years in her new home in the United States of America after emigrated from Polotsk, near communist Russia. Mary stumbles upon a fruit that brings back a specific memory from her childhood that is connected by a sensory memory. Mary lived in Polotsk in a time that was dangerous if the individual was of Jewish heritage. The other people not of Jewish faith, called the Gentiles, would be cruel and completely oppressive to any Jewish man, woman, or child that would happen to cross their path. Everyday things were tough enough on the average Jewish individual, but during times of high Christian holidays, the Gentiles would escalate into riots called pogroms. Although Mary had experienced pogroms by hiding in closets during the raids. Her family knew that they needed to escape for the safety of their children, so they gathered enough money and emigrated to America. Mary was fairly

Through this passage, we learn about Mary’s character attributes of competitiveness and not willing to be a passive housewife. We learn that Mary desperately misses her home of Polotzk but is mature enough to realize that she is best fit in the United States, and that the fantasy of the cherry is better than the actual cherry because it brings upon a sense of home and patriotism. Looking critically at this passage has revealed things about the protagonist/author that would be severely missed if the reader just read the words on the page on the