Clara’s Historic Journey
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference” - Robert Frost. In Audacity, by Melanie Crowder, the novel depicts a Russian Jewish immigrant, Clara, a submissive, acquiescent, and meek young girl who evolves into an assertive and strong-willed union leader with an aspiration to reform the horrifying conditions for women in the garment industry. Clara supposed to grow up and emulate her Mama, but she conceals her yearning to learn because she obeys her religious Papa. After being forced out of Russia because of the heinous attack on the Jewish people, she reaches the shores of America with her traditional family. Clara’s family includes her intransigent …show more content…
This obligates Clara, an adolescent girl and her conservative family to immigrate to America and arrive with nothing. Subsequently, Clara needs to work in a sweatshop, but along with that hardship, she additionally pursues night classes after ghastly work hours to fulfill her dream of an education. “The foreman/ pinches us/ touches us. Today he grabbed Nadia’s backside/ when both of her hands were full/ carrying her finished waists/ to the presser’s table. He laughed/ at her protests,/ her red hot face. I could not/ look way/ anymore.” (183) Clara fills with outrage as she discerns the conditions of her job. She cannot take the injustice. “I did not understand why/ the foreman came running/ scooped up the children/ dropped them behind/ a pile of crates in the back corner/ tossed a sack of fabric/ over their heads.” (206) Clara shows nothing but antipathy for the conditions in these sweatshops. She feels no authority or rights, and she believes life in America appears to not differ from Russia. However, Clara passes every exam and can become a doctor. Finally, she tells herself, she can escape these horrifying conditions and establish a whole new way of …show more content…
The young activists' resolution to take the “road not traveled by” changes the rest of her life. She ends up in places she could have never envisioned to be in while in Russia, like a musty jail cell or on the floor beat up by men three times her size. Originally, she yearns to read and learn just like her brothers, but because her father denies her those rights, she obeys despite her vehemence. Arriving in America her goal is to pursue her passion for an education and possibly furthermore become a doctor. Life isn’t that easy because poverty compels Clara to work interminable hours during the day for her family to persevere in a tenement house and offer even a scarce supply of nourishment. The labor she does at a sweatshop is long and dreadful, but the thing she takes away from work is the realization of how abysmally the treatment towards herself and the other working girls. This observation is horrifying to Clara, and this time she is not going to abide and watch. She decides to give up on her doctor dream for now and fight for garment working women's rights. This new advocate marches in picket lines and leads protests. Clara took “the road less traveled by” for the garment industry and she has made made all the difference for the industrial
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference” - Robert Frost. In Audacity, by Melanie Crowder, the novel depicts a Russian Jewish immigrant, Clara, a submissive, acquiescent, and meek young girl who evolves into an assertive and strong-willed union leader with an aspiration to reform the horrifying conditions for women in the garment industry. Clara supposed to grow up and emulate her Mama, but she conceals her yearning to learn because she obeys her religious Papa. After being forced out of Russia because of the heinous attack on the Jewish people, she reaches the shores of America with her traditional family. Clara’s family includes her intransigent …show more content…
This obligates Clara, an adolescent girl and her conservative family to immigrate to America and arrive with nothing. Subsequently, Clara needs to work in a sweatshop, but along with that hardship, she additionally pursues night classes after ghastly work hours to fulfill her dream of an education. “The foreman/ pinches us/ touches us. Today he grabbed Nadia’s backside/ when both of her hands were full/ carrying her finished waists/ to the presser’s table. He laughed/ at her protests,/ her red hot face. I could not/ look way/ anymore.” (183) Clara fills with outrage as she discerns the conditions of her job. She cannot take the injustice. “I did not understand why/ the foreman came running/ scooped up the children/ dropped them behind/ a pile of crates in the back corner/ tossed a sack of fabric/ over their heads.” (206) Clara shows nothing but antipathy for the conditions in these sweatshops. She feels no authority or rights, and she believes life in America appears to not differ from Russia. However, Clara passes every exam and can become a doctor. Finally, she tells herself, she can escape these horrifying conditions and establish a whole new way of …show more content…
The young activists' resolution to take the “road not traveled by” changes the rest of her life. She ends up in places she could have never envisioned to be in while in Russia, like a musty jail cell or on the floor beat up by men three times her size. Originally, she yearns to read and learn just like her brothers, but because her father denies her those rights, she obeys despite her vehemence. Arriving in America her goal is to pursue her passion for an education and possibly furthermore become a doctor. Life isn’t that easy because poverty compels Clara to work interminable hours during the day for her family to persevere in a tenement house and offer even a scarce supply of nourishment. The labor she does at a sweatshop is long and dreadful, but the thing she takes away from work is the realization of how abysmally the treatment towards herself and the other working girls. This observation is horrifying to Clara, and this time she is not going to abide and watch. She decides to give up on her doctor dream for now and fight for garment working women's rights. This new advocate marches in picket lines and leads protests. Clara took “the road less traveled by” for the garment industry and she has made made all the difference for the industrial