Reading Log of “The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen”
This story is written by Bruno Lessing. After reading several passages, I just wondered whether it would be an O'Henry's stylish story, at the end of which owing to his sons' discontent, the father had no other choice but to accept the Americanization and abnegate his original Jewish living style. But I was really confused when I finished reading it. Seemingly, not that Shadrach was Americanized, but that Shadrach's sons were taught a lesson. So I thought maybe the Americanization of Shadrach Cohen was a failure.
The author tried to illustrate the contrary of civilization by the depict of a discord between father and sons on several aspects. They argued about the common appearance, the traditional custom and the most crucial point, to Jewish, the business concept. The conflict between Shadrach and his sons aggregated, and Shadrach let it explode, then solves it in a Jewish way, to take over his sons' charge of the business and teach them how to deal with it. So what does the author want to tell us? Does he want to tell us that father at last influenced his sons and led them into his way of life, which indicated that the Americanization of Shadrach failed, and Shadrach took control over his sons? Otherwise, as America that time was a business society, business was of great importance, the Americanization actually meant not the living style but the manners in which Shadrach taught his sons, in a “ all business is business” way?
I dislike the way the author organized the plot, the dialogue, and the end. He seemed to accelerate the process of the story by adding a series of boredom plots, thus the story went to a sudden end which really made me feel it somewhat illogical.