Book Review of I Came a Stranger: The Story of a Hull-House Girl
History 106 Book Review Questions S2013 (Book Review of "I Came a Stranger: The Story of a Hull-House Girl" by Hilda Satt Polacheck) Please produce a book review of 3-4 pages (12 font, 1 inch margins, double spaced) addressing the following questions. You may respond to these questions in any way you like. In other words you can pick 2 or 3 questions and answer them in more detail or you can address all the questions if you need more range to respond to. The paper will be do by the last day of class or I will take it before if you are done. You are also required to turn in the paper to turnitin.com. I will send out the information for that. 1. Who was Hilda Satt Polacheck and why was her family forced to emigrate to the United States from their homeland? 2. What were some of the early challenges faced by Polacheck upon first arriving in America? What are some of her early impressions of life in America? Refer to specific instances from the book. 3. How does Polacheck discover Hull House, and how does the settlement house help in their adjustment to life in America? 4. How does Hull House influence Polacheck as she grows up? What does Hull House teach her about other immigrant groups in hr neighborhood? 5. How does Hull House and Polacheck’s experiences there influence her political ideology and activism? 6. What are Polacheck’s ideas concerning Chicago upon her return in the 1930s
History 106 Book Review Questions S2013
(Book Review of \"I Came a Stranger: The Story of a Hull-House Girl\" by Hilda Satt Polacheck) (http://tigger(dot)uic(dot)edu/depts/hist/hull-maxwell/vicinity/nws1/documents/hullhouse/polacheck/ICameAStranger/polacheck.stranger.TOC.htm)
Please produce a book review of 3-4 pages (12 font, 1 inch margins, double spaced) addressing the following questions. You may respond to these questions in any way you like. In other words you can pick 2 or 3 questions and answer them in more detail or you can address all the questions if you need more range to respond to. The paper will be do by the last day of class or I will take it before if you are done. You are also required to turn in the paper to turnitin.com. I will send out the information for that.
1.) Who was Hilda Satt Polacheck and why was her family forced to emigrate to the United States from their homeland?
2.) What were some of the early challenges faced by Polacheck upon first arriving in America? What are some of her early impressions of life in America? Refer to specific instances from the book.
3.) How does Polacheck discover Hull House, and how does the settlement house help in their adjustment to life in America?
4.) How does Hull House influence Polacheck as she grows up? What does Hull House teach her about other immigrant groups in hr neighborhood?
5.) How does Hull House and Polacheck’s experiences there influence her political ideology and activism?
6.) What are Polacheck’s ideas concerning Chicago upon her return in the 1930s
Introduction
“I came a stranger: the story of a hull –house girl” is a recount of Hilda Polacheki as an emigrant to American life and the community of the Hull-House. Apart from the introduction to American life and the Hull- House community, she also explains how she became friends with one Jane Adams, one of the influential teacher and proprietor at Hull House. She also reveals how she was betrothed and eventually married, her support for the Women’s International league for Freedom and Peace, women suffrage, civil rights and how she gained her writing experience in her new land.
The story is essentially her reflection on the dramatic change which she experienced upon her emigration to America both within her family life as well as herself. Although she had earlier anticipated the emigration experience to be rosy, it turned out not to be so. This was because in reality, there was no basic discipline in the country and it was depicted by a constant state of chaos. She also recounts on how she became mixed up with the habits and customs of America and how she was almost fed up had it not been the intervention of the Hull House community and her friend, Jane Addams. It was the Hull House and Jane Addams that changed her perspective concerning the American lifestyle as well as helping them adapt to that lifestyle.
Question 1
Who was Hilda Satt Polacheck and why her family was forced to immigrate to the United States from their homeland?
Hilda Satt Polachek was a young Jewish lady who migrated together with her family to America from Poland. While in America, she is helped to adapt to American life, customs and habits by her newly met friend, Jane Addams at the Hull House Community. The reason for this emigration from Poland was to flee the dreadful pogroms in Poland that made her and her family to abandon their well-healed lifestyle and become Jewish immigrants in America. In Poland, they were referred as Pogroms, to mean people who killed Christ. At Poland, there was a kind of intolerance that could be described in twofold: First, they were required to subject themselves to Russian prejudice and owing to their Jewish faith, they had encountered a severe religious intolerance in the country (ch 1, 8). This is drawn from her reflection
“As long as I can remember, the Poles were not in good terms with the Germans and Russians. The Germans also disregarded the Russians and the Poles. There existed a profound hatred among the people of three nations. This hatred was much higher among the people of the Jewish origin” (ch1, 24).
The ...