Mary Antin Ideas Summary

Mary Antin’s writings help to form the “Idea” that a person could come to America, and belong to a nation and culture that would accept them based on the moral and spiritual premises that the forefathers of America had intended it to be. At the turn of the twentieth century, America was experiencing tidal wave magnitudes of immigration from people all around the world. People from many places that were suffering from all kinds of prejudices such as her and her Jewish family earlier. In her writings, which were also conveyed in her speeches was that America, with its hardships, could be endured and changed. She gave hope to millions of immigrants that just wanted to exist and live. For many, that “idea” was the pursuit of the American dream,