Ethnicity and American Identity

The basic conception of American identity in the years between Cahan's Yekl, Yezierska's The Bread Givers, and Morrison's The Bluest Eye, is essentially unchanged. Each of the characters in these novels face a conception of American identity that is drawn along racial lines, and the arc of each novel's plot is centered on each character's attempt to transcend their racial otherness to be accepted by American society. In the following analysis, we will first look at the ways racial identity operates in these three novels. Secondly, we will look at Randolph Bourne's essay "Trans-national America" to see how Morrison's desire to avoid racial hierarchy fits into his basic scheme, and how the protagonists of the novels do not.

The crisis at the center of Abraham Cahan's story is presented as a conflict between Jake's ethnic past, his racial otherness in America and his ambition to be,...
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