Journal for Cahan (E.C.)

Francesca Cricchio
Journal for Cahan
English 48B
March, 2011

“Flora pictured a clean-shaven, high-hatted, spectacled gentleman jumping out of a buggy, and the image became a fixture in her mind” (765).

“As a journalist and fiction writer, Abraham Cahan explored the social, cultural, and spiritual tensions of the Eastern European Jewish immigrant experience in New York. His sensitive treatment of the dual identities of Jewishness and Americanism, and of issues of accommodation and acculturation, made him an influential spokesperson for his community.” (Bio of Cahan from American passages).

The Imported Bridegroom is a story of a Jewish family living in New York city. Flora, is a dreamer who stands out from the rest of society because of her fixation on sophistication and hopefulness that she will marry a doctor and become a member of upper-class society. Flora’s father, Asriel, values religion and tradition. He travels to his homeland to find a husband for Flora, and comes back with Shaya. Flora is still adamant on marrying a doctor and rejects Shaya. Shaya then engulfs himself in American intellect, and that is when Flora becomes interested. By this point Asriel has developed a disdain for Shaya because of his rejection of native tradition, and constant reading of controversial books. This is enough to make Asriel ban Flora from marrying Shaya, but the two elope anyway. Afterwards, Flora realizes that Shaya’s new Americanized intellect is far beyond her own, and she feels left behind.

I found this story to be very funny because it seems that neither of the main characters can get what they want! Flora spent her days dreaming of a perfect man who could provide for her a lifestyle of the pristine. She is unsatisfied with Shaya in the beginning because he is not sophisticated enough. When she finally does have an attraction towards him, she is quickly disappointed when she realizes that her new husband is intellectually advanced in comparison to her. Asriel is also unsatisfied when his daughter first shoots down his very expensive bridegroom, and only marries him after Asriel tells her not to! (lol) It seemed to be a lose, lose situation that was full of irony from chapter to chapter. This un-satisfaction can be a symbol for a larger theme, which is, Americanization and its negative consequences.