'At Ellis Island: World Of Our Fathers'

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Lourdes Buie Professor Whalen English 67 M TH 1:20 – 4:00 03 July 2013 Summary of “At Ellis Island” Irving Howe, an author, wrote a book in 1976 called World of Our Fathers. In World of Our Fathers, a section called “At Ellis Island “traces the story of Eastern Europe’s immigrants to America. This excerpt offers a rich portrayal of the European immigrants experience in New York, and shows how the immigrant generation tried to maintain their culture while becoming Americans. It has an understanding as to why these people made the decision to leave their homelands, the challenges these new European Americans faced, and how they experienced every aspect of immigrant life in the early part of the twentieth century. The section of the book we were given starts off with the immigrant’s arrival into New York sometime in the 1900’s. The initial “inspection” they had to endure just to get off the boat was intense. There were a few officials who shouted and herded those who occupied the boat into Customs Warf. Customs is a security check into the United States to check personal details, or unwanted items or people (criminals) into the country. After lines of immigrants were created, every individual, young or old, had to file past the first doctor. The first doctor had to check for men…show more content…
Fairchild said, “Immigrants were disoriented by the time they reached Ellis Island, but they remained human beings yet it was always better when inspectors offered a kind word of explanation. A commissioner did rebuttal towards Fairchild by saying “Immigrant officials have not always been as humane as they might have been. But it is true that many of the people who worked there were rather simple fellows who lacked the imagination to respect cultural styles radically different from their

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