Mother Language In Sholem Alequal The Cantor's Son

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Known as the mother language, Yiddish was common and a symbol of traditional life in the household. Speakers considered it to be rather feminine due to its prevalence in usage of non-scholarly individuals. But because most people were not scholarly, the language connected most Jews together and kept them from assimilating to the new world. Language is a basis for culture and culture creates connections in societies. Yiddish helped Jews keep their traditional culture by giving them a way to communicate and spread traditions orally without having to be educated. It is not until Jewish citizens have been forced to listen and interact with non-Yiddish speakers do they lose a sense of community and culture. Paralleled in the stories of Sholem Aleichem, …show more content…
Even though her husband was a cantor, she is never shown being outwardly faithful to her religion. She is frequently seen crying or watching what her sons will do. Very unlike Sheyne-Shendl, she hardly complains about what Elyahu is doing and tends to help him with his crazy ideas. By not having a loud voice, she fades into the background many times throughout the stories. Unlike the traditional Jewish woman, she has lost her backbone and has lost her ability to share her opinions to the family. For example, when she first learned that she was going to America, she began crying again when Motl notes, “If someone had told her a year ago she’d be going to America, she’d have spit in his eye” (Shevrin 214). The huge change in her actions follows her recent behavior of subservience. It almost seems like she has decided to follow along with what her son is saying because she truly does not know what else to do. She silences herself because she trusts her son to make the right choices. Elyahu is the one who took charge and educated himself to make better decisions. The mother no longer leaves the house as often to speak in Yiddish with her neighbors, which begins her gradual loss in having community relationships. Her son is also away learning as much as he can, which included speaking more than just Yiddish to other people. Because of the loss in …show more content…
Sheyne-Shendl never faced the temptation of the new world personally so she held onto her traditional ways of life much longer than Motl’s mother. Motl’s mother faced constant change and was never able to adapt to everything that happened in her life. She stumbled upon so many new languages and ways of life in such little time that she lost her ability to keep a firm grip on the household. But, eventually, both women must deal with the loss of a traditional family as their families forget the Yiddish language and build new cultural values based upon the new languages they hear. Sholem Aleichem shows a nice parallel between language, culture, and its effects on family dynamics. He shows how difficult it is to maintain tradition when the environment is consistently

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